Matt, Cindy and Lorna traced their steps over the past school year. Highlights of the year were discussed and plans for next falls series were suggested by participants in the chat room.

Chat Log

John Pederson joined Cindy Seibel and Lorna Costantini to finally do a follow up to his presentation at Edcuon 2.1. John had presented his Network Learning Manifesto and had included a parent voice as part of his presentation. The backchannel during that workshop and the show chat room from Monday night hosted the same exciting folks. It was a great discussion about how parents can fit in the learning process. 

Chat Log

Laurie King, technology coordinator at Dysart Unified School District tells her story about supporting the Dysart community using technology. Principals receive ongoing training sessions timed to coordinate with their Governing board meetings. Teachers have instructions on how to use Google docs and iPod touch or smart phone to access their content online using wireless connection in the School District. Parents have access to Daily News TV put on by Secondary School Students and on... Please listen to how she and grade 3 teacher Lidia Goodman communicate with her students and parents.The list of exciting ways Lidia connects with parents is long but a particularly interesting practice is using a powerpoint presentation to keep parents and student in the loop with homework. Scroll down to daily powerpoint http://schoolweb.dysart.org/TeacherSites/tSite.aspx?sasi=112210&page=9266

Chat Log

Parents as Partners welcomed Debbie Graper from Dade County in Florida  for an excellent discussion about the development of their parent portal. Listen to the Q &A that included these questions: What challenges did you face before you started?How were parents involved in the design of the Portal?Have you faced any resistance to the Portal? Are parents comfortable about the privacy of their children's information; What do you do about families that don't have computers in

  The Parents as Partners show  took a different twist. A special session was held using Elluminate. Here is the link https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2009-02-23.1727.M.92601C0C1C61A2842F6ECDBA6B5123.vcr

Inspired by Doug Symington on Edtechbrainstorm, the Parents as Partners hosted a speakers corner. Angela Maires, Penny Lindballe and Sarah H, joined us on the conference call.

Chat Log

On Monday February 2,2009 at 9:00 PM EST (GMT-5) show hosts Matt Montagne, Lorna Costantini, Cindy Seibel and Cindy Zautcke welcomed 3 experienced parent leaders from across Canada. Heidi Hass Gable, Vancouver B.C., Connie Howe-Buckler Windsor, Ontario and Jeannine St. Amand Fredericton, New Brunswick. All three of the guests brought their own experiences and opinions to the conversation. We discussed the different ways the parent organizations are organized. Tips and best practices for working with parents were shared.

Show hosts Lorna Costantini, Matt Montagne, Cindy Seibel, Cindy Zautcke welcomed Kathy Cassidy from Westmount School in Moose Jaw, SK Canada. Kathy is well known for her work with her Grade 1 class and their classroom blog. When parents asked Kathy about how she protected her students identity she shared her advice and best practices. You will really enjoy the practical hands on solutions used by Kathy.

Chat Log