Moving From Newsletters to Blogs: Increasing Parent and Student Engagement
1. From Newsletters to Blogs
Increasing Parent and Student
Engagement
A conversation for #ECOO12
October 25, 2012
by Erin Paynter
2. About Me
Teacher and VP at Elizabeth Park PS in Ottawa
@erinpaynter
www.erinpaynter.org (ErHead)
adriander1326@gmail.com
Wife, mother
Chris, Adrienne and Alex
4. Let's create the agenda together!
What do you want to talk about?
What questions do you have?
Paper airplane activity
Modification: snowballs
5. Why blog?
● reflective of current times
● interactive
● time and resources (green)
● easily accessible for most
● backpack black holes
● dynamic and flexible
6. Why do you blog, or why
do you want to?
Use the hashtags
#n2blogs and #ecoo12
to share your thoughts
13. A few of the many teachers who
blog with their students...
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!
16. Do's and Don't's
Let's build this together in
Google Docs here
or go to #n2blogs on
Twitter for link
17. Safety for Students
● media release
● teacher moderation
● search engines -
visible?
18. Safety for Students
● Internet safety
● digital citizenship
● student blogging
resources
19. Increasing Engagement
● student engagement
○ teacher feedback vs "out
there"
○ global citizen/audience
○ multiple modalities
○ student as lead learner
20. 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?
21. Parent Engagement at EPPS
● 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
22. Things I'm still working on...
● interacting vs transmitting
● the techie stuff
● teacher engagement
23. What about you?
Let's open the floor:
● your successes and
challenges
● anything you would do
differently?
● ______________
24. Make and Take Time
● 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
25. Many thanks to:
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.