I am in awe with Russell Street School (RSS) and how they use blogs (Here is their Google Sites Page).
The first page is dedicated to all of the stakeholders for the school...parents/guardians and the community as a whole. I love how they included a Community Newsletter. It's not a jumble load of information and it is easy to follow. I know this is an important aspect especially for those that are less computer literate.
The specialty of this blog is how it showcases the different classes and students individually. As a teacher, I love how each class can showcase what is being done in the class and what the students are able to create. I have never used (or heard of till now) SeeSaw. I would like to learn more about and maybe find a way to utilize it myself! But I find it inspiring how all of the students have "a voice" in the digital realm and are learning how to use it at an early age.
My only concern, as others have mentioned, is the privacy issues. I guess because it has been ingrained in me since undergrad, "do not share private information with others, including student's names without permission,, And even then do it sparingly." I was little uncomfortable about the actual names with pictures in several of the posts. If I were to do something like this I would like for use a system that was less identifiable of my students to the outside community.
Overall, I am highly impressed and have actually bookmarked the site so I can look at it more in depth and see what I could do for my future classrooms!
I echo your thoughts Jaclyn. I prefer sharing student pictures, videos, and names on a secure site. It is, however, frustrating to me that a very small percentage of the population (predators, etc.) can dictate the behavior of the majority due to their actions. I thoroughly enjoyed the RSS site and like you I saved it for future reference.
ReplyDeleteI saved the site, too. It is a great model for school communication. Any necessary information is there and waiting for folks to access it, AND like you mentioned, it is done also by class, so truly everybody is in the know.
ReplyDeleteThe privacy issues struck me as well, especially since I have small kids. I know that Rebecca mentioned that predators are a small population, but my paranoia asks is it really that small? Or is the population we are aware of that small? Just a thought. I do like the photos, but I'd prefer the seesaw grouping and labeling to be shared only within the class or have a specific code to access.