Russell Street School Impressions

The Russell Street School administrative team has an innovative vision for their school and are supporting that vision with written and visual evidence from each of the classrooms. The summary of their recent professional development seminar on play-based learning which is posted on their blog reflects a desire to stay current with trends and issues in education to ensure their students are receiving a holistic education. The faculty profiles reflect teachers who not only love their students but also their school which makes for a positive perception of a kind, caring, and professional environment. Each of the class SeeSaw live feeds provide examples of students making their thinking visible through words and images. I appreciated that parents had the option to respond to their child’s posts to comment on progress throughout the day which in turn would carry the learning home in the evening. The theme I gathered from their blog was that at Russell Street School, learning is joyful and holistic.

The major issues that I had while viewing the various class blogs concerned privacy for these elementary students. While the SeeSaw Live Feed is a great window into each classroom, I think those live feeds should be only for RSS parents with a password. Several classroom blogs contained photographs with students holding up their work with either their first names showing or first and last. Even if parents signed a consent form to have their child’s image published on the school blog, the choice to publish student names along with their photographs was troubling due to any number of potential safety issues. Additionally, I think parent comments to their children should only be seen by the parents of that class or at most, the school community, versus the public at large. While student work and images are strong marketing tools for the school, more care should be taken to ensure the protection of their young learners while also highlighting the great work which is happening in each classroom.