From Newsletters to Blogs
Increasing Parent and Student Engagement
A conversation for #ECOO12October 25, 2012
by Erin Paynter
About Me
Teacher and VP at Elizabeth Park PS in Ottawa
@erinpaynterwww.erinpaynter.org (ErHead)[email protected]
Wife, motherChris, Adrienne and Alex
I'm a lot of things but...
Photo Caption
Let's create the agenda together!
What do you want to talk about?
What questions do you have?
Paper airplane activity
Modification: snowballs
● reflective of current times
● interactive
● time and resources (green)
● easily accessible for most
● backpack black holes
● dynamic and flexible
Why blog?
Use the hashtags
#n2blogs and #ecoo12
to share your thoughts
Why do you blog, or why do you want to?
Out of the mouths of babes...
● information sharing
● spark discussion
● digital citizenship
● engagement
● connect and network
● transparency (school, classroom)
● audience
Determine your purpose
Blogging Sites
Blogging Sites that are
Teacher Moderated
The Falcon's Nest
Glen Cairn Public School
Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca)Michelle Horst (@Michelle_Horst)Joelle Ruddick (@joelleruddick)Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp)Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher)And the list goes on and on... and probably includes many of you!
A few of the many teachers who blog with their students...
Paynter ETFI
Using and citing images
Let's build this together in
Google Docs here
or go to #n2blogs on
Twitter for link
Do's and Don't's
● media release● teacher moderation● search engines -
visible?
Safety for Students
● Internet safety● digital citizenship● student blogging
resources
Safety for Students
● student engagement○ teacher feedback vs "out
there"○ global citizen/audience○ multiple modalities○ student as lead learner
Increasing Engagement
● parent engagement○ transparency○ "What did you learn at school today?"○ interactive○ parent as co-learner/co-leader○ parent as client, or parent as partner?
Increasing Engagement
● anecdotal feedback from parents● nature of our conversations have
changed● parent council - 6 to 30● attendance at events has increased● added challenge unique to our site
- new school
Parent Engagement at EPPS
● interacting vs transmitting
● the techie stuff
● teacher engagement
Things I'm still working on...
Let's open the floor:
● your successes and challenges
● anything you would do differently?
● ______________
What about you?
● for those that haven't started one and would like to explore with the support of others
● for those that would like to tweak existing site(s) with the support of others
Make and Take Time
Shannon Smith (@shannoninottawa) for inspiring me to submit a proposal for #ECOO12.
Everyone at #ECOO12 - Brenda Sherry, Peter Skillen, Doug Peterson, Andrew Forgrave, Cal Armstrong, and more for the support.
Joelle Ruddick (@joelleruddick), Cathy Beach (@beachcat11), Lino De Gasperis (@LinoDeGasperis), and Lisa Donohue (@Lisa_Donohue) for the feedback.
And last but not least YOU for participating and sharing.
Many thanks to: