Chapter 9: Technology to Support Learning (a)

Connecting Classrooms to Community

As stated in Chapter 9, “the Internet can also help link parents with their children’s schools.” I agree. Ever since I began using www.teacherease.com, I have noticed that my communication with parents is stronger than before. Many of my parents are informed of their child’s test scores even before their child receives the corrected test. My students’ parents appreciate the immediate feedback. More so, they are most appreciative of the immediate replies via email. I feel that I am more connected with my parents because it seemed as if I could never reach them via telephone communication. Most of the time, my scheduled prep time which is used to contact parents about their child’s progress (if necessary) did not coincide with the parents’ schedules; they were either out of the office or out to lunch. And maybe some of you will agree with me that it is at times, impossible to contact parents in the evening because of all our family and household responsibilities that need our attention after working hours. And I forgot to mention that the stacks of papers which need to be corrected scream for our attention as well.

Technology has made my life easier in regards to keeping parents and students abreast of grades, activities, or lessons. Last semester, I created my first website. Creating the site was very time consuming but I received positive feedback from my students and parents, and thus realized my classroom website was helpful. Many parents were informed of tests and deadlines from my classroom website because I included a simple outline of my test schedules and assignments.

Their feedback is what keeps me updated. At times I felt that no one was logging into my online gradebook or that no one was viewing my classroom website until a student approached me about having blank grades in his student account. I knew that I had to be on top of my grading and inputting students’ grades on a timely fashion.