When looking over the Russell Street School’s website I am
really impressed by the amount of detail. Not only do they have a very
professional looking homepage, but they also have multiple ways teachers and students
can contribute online. They have a school stream where teachers can post updates
and announcements about their classroom. This is an excellent idea because it’s
one place where parents and students can go to find this information, rather
than having to search through their emails. It’s also nice that there is an app
that goes along with this so you could get announcements on your phone or
tablet.
Each class also has a blog. On these blogs there are posts
from the teachers, many with photos, showing what students have been working on
in class. One class called the Little Einstein’s has pictures of when students
helped each other or when students showed resilience during a challenge.
Parents obviously loved seeing posts about their kids. Too often as teachers, we
only talk to parents when their student has done something bad. I think it was
great that the teacher was sharing positive things about the students online.
In some of the classrooms with older kids, the students got to post on the blog
as well. In the class 78or’s Got Talent, students shared videos of themselves playing
songs on instruments, explaining what they learned from an activity, or how
they did during a sporting event. I love that students can comment on each
other’s work and parents can also leave positive feedback.
It is interesting to me that all of these photos on their blogs
are visible to the general public. I know the district I work in has pretty strict
rules about posting photos on our websites. We have to get permission from all
parents. Every year, I have at least one student whose parents do not give me
permission. I wonder if the Russell Street School has this problem. I think it could
lead to that student feeling left out if there were no pictures of them on the
blog and if they weren’t allowed to make their own posts on the blog.
I love what you said about parents interacting with positive things in the classroom. Too often, parents only hear when something bad happens. There are so many happy times and moments of growth, and parents need to hear this too. I wonder how schools would be different if we were constantly sharing the positives with parents and the community?
ReplyDeleteYes, as a teacher I have to remind myself sometimes to reach out to the parents about positive things their child has done too. It is an easy thing to forget, but I think if we did it more often we could really change the atmosphere of a school.
DeleteOne point you have identified regarding image posting of students caught my attention. I wonder how the culture in New Zealand views this issue. Would they think we are behaving in a quasi-hysterical manner with respect to permissions? I can imagine a discussion taking place between parents considering enrolling their children at RSS, and administrators/teachers whereby parents are informed of the interactive and technological nature of the pedagogy in the classroom – where enrollment is contingent on these posting and image permissions before parents commit to enrollment.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely possible that New Zealand has different views on the privacy issue. It's hard to say. I think you could be right too that it might just be part of the enrollment process to that school.
DeleteHi Hannah, I had the same privacy concern regarding the photos being public as well. At my previous district we also had strict policies regarding student photos and names. I can recall that policy even applied to our yearbook and without a signed media release form we couldn't even include their photo in the class section.
ReplyDeleteMy mom teachers Pre-K and they have a same policy. She uses Remind to share class photos since she can restrict access to just her parents.
I really like things like Remind that allow you to share the photos with just the parents. I think more families feel comfortable with that. I have had a student though whose family wouldn't let me take any pictures of them at all. Not even just to keep myself to remember students in the class. It was difficult because this student felt left out a lot, particularly at the end of the year when we had a lot of photo slideshows.
DeleteI agree that it's good to show the parents when their child is doing good. Also, I think sharing might show when the student needs assistance. After all, the teacher might not see it because of all the students, but the parents might.
ReplyDelete