Parent+Email+Comments

On 9/14/2007, AP, a parent, said:
I would really like to see the kids **homework posted on the web**. It would be great if after school the kids could come home and log into their personal account and there would be posted all their homework for the night. This would also contain a listing of upcoming quizzes and tests and ongoing long-range projects. Most of the problems we have run into over the years involve poor communication between teachers, kids and parents over upcoming assignments. My daughter, is a Freshman at and this is how it is done. I also have a sister in and this is how homework has always been handled. I believe this would be an easy add on to the powerschool concept.

On 9/14/2007, AM, a parent, said:
I like the idea of having the school **advise heavily against IMing, Face Book, etc.** in middle school. I think it is developmentally inappropriate and I also think that experience has shown that it leads to trouble at this age group. My older kids use it in high school and it doesn't seem to create the same problems (sending messages from other people, on-line nastiness, etc.) but I don't think middle schoolers, in general, can handle it well. I think lots of education about the pros and cons is certainly in order too. There are great programs out there with police who pose as predators and then tell their stories....

I'm interested in the conventional wisdom on **laptops in the classrooms**. What are the results of the Tiburon program? Positive or Negative or mixed? Do the laptop carts provide most of the benefits with less expense? What is our position going forward....is it something we'd want to raise money for? If not, I think we should understand why? I really **appreciate that our kids learn to type early**....when went to she missed that step and never really learned "touch typing" and it has made it harder for her to feel comfortable writing "on line." Provision of **group email lists** for the various classes in K - 5 would be really helpful for room parents. Also having grade group lists would make some announcements really efficient.

On 9/14/2007, JL, a parent, said:
First thanks for all you do to make it easier for parents like ourselves to **receive notices, forms, etc via email** - it makes life so much easier to be able to get things done electronically! (And it's good for the environment too!) Many thanks. Our only preference regarding technology useage is that it be **advertising free**. We much prefer the .org sites to the .com sites and would prefer our daughter is not exposed to any kind of commercial advertising while using the school computers.

On 9/25/2007, VS, a parent, said:
I cannot say enough times how important it is for all teachers to **post homework assignments** on websites. Obviously not all but definitely longer term assignments with the accompanying details and expectations.

We have found this tool to be invaluable to both of [our children] when teachers make use of it... [redacted teacher name] did a great job of having all the ... homework pages listed. ( she wanted them doing their homework, learning the material, not stressing about over teaching organization yet again).

It seems that some educators sometimes need to be reminded that the web is just another tool and not the "crutch" they like to paint it as. (It's like refusing to use the telephone way back when it first came out.) And there are a lot of life skills that need attention, not just organization to the exclusion of all else.

Certainly a student needs to be responsible for tracking things the old fashioned way. It makes them begin to be more responsible themselves, however, at a certain point they need to focus on the doing and the learning. Additionally, a student ... cannot afford to get behind in our face paced curriculum. And they really are struggling in school so much just to learn the concepts.

The "homework buddy" system is simply a set-up for humiliation. A [stuggling] kid ... is not going to call a highly organized kid, and can only call their 3 (probably pretty disorganized like them) friends only so many times before they are too embarrassed. And parents cannot remind a child they have an assignment, if they don't know about it and have no way of finding out.