Wednesday, March 31, 2010
week 5 game plan
This last week was a rough one but I have worked on creating assessments that would be valuable and have turned them in for my instructional coach to look at. Other than that I am still creating the blogs and webpages that I will use to communicate with my students and parents. One thing I am going to do is Text the students and parents messages once a week. I will remind parents of homeworks and project or just give updates on what is going on in the classroom. Right now I am seeing if there are any legal issues for this and getting permission slips to parents to sign. The slips explain why I am texting their children and that the parents are getting the exact same text as their children.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have also had to go through the procedure of getting permission slips signed from my students' parents to do pod casting. I have most all of them back now and fortunately most have agreed to let their children participate in Internet-based work. It sounds like many of your students have cell phones as well as their parents, and hopefully they will welcome your technological approach of communication. I think it's a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI had never though of text messaging students and parents. While in school I am amazed at the amount of students who have cell phones. You might be on to something. I think it’s a great idea to check with administration before going ahead with this. Hopefully the parents will see the real reasoning and support you. I would love to hear how this works for you.
ReplyDeleteCreating websites and blogs is a great way to stay in contact with your students and parents. As far as you plan for text messages, that might be a lot of work. Simply typing the messages on your phone will prove to be rather tedious. I found a few websites that explain how to send text messages through email, for free (http://www.emrupdate.com/blogs/ducknet/archive/2008/11/30/how-to-send-email-text-messages-to-any-cell-phone-for-free-from-your-computer.aspx). These directions explain that it is free, so you would not have to have an expensive phone plan to send all of the messages.
ReplyDeleteAnother option, which might not be as ‘questionable’ as sending text messages to your students, is to create class-email accounts for your students. There are many servers that offer free accounts, such as GMX, which might be a little more efficient than text messages (http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm). Whatever you decide, the permission slips are a very wise decision. Good luck with everything.
- Scott Kaminski
Is the instructional coach there to help you make your assessments better, or are they there to make sure you do the right thing. I hate it when districts make you work with "experts" that tell you what to do and what not to do. However, if you have a true coach that can guide you to making better assessments then that is great. If your coach shows you something great please share with me because it would be good to know others opinions about assessment. As for texting and any other thing you need parent permission for, what do you do about the students that don't get permission? Will you have to write out the text and send it home? I personally think it is a great idea, but I am always worried about the parent who does not want their child participating in things like this making a fuss over it. Good luck to you with everything you are working on.
ReplyDeletePaul
What a great idea!! How are you texting the students and parents? Are you doing it from your personal phone or some other way? I think it's brilliant especially when your students all have cell phones! Does everyone speak English where you teach? Whenever I try to blast a message to my class the language barrier gets in the way because more parents speak Spanish than English at my school.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your coach, I agree with Paul, and I hope that they are more of a help than a hinderance and take some ownership of your finished product.
Sara
Actually I am doing it from my computer. I learned the trick of sending texts from my pc from texting to my wife from school. As for our instructional coach. She is very helpful, she was a science teacher and has some great ideas and she will listen to my ideas when she has time
ReplyDeleteI too have had a few rough weeks, but there is always light and little glimmer of home that remains. I am glad to see that you continue to create assessments that are valuable and that you are seeking the advice of your instructional coach. Keep working hard.
ReplyDelete