Jared's Module Three Discussion

These readings come at an appropriate time for me.  I just spent an entire weekend working with parents on learning to “fly” students using some special effects equipment we rented for a school production of Peter Pan.  Flying students takes about a day of installation and about three days of training for me, the Technical Director, and for a group of parent volunteers who were willing to accept this unique challenge.  When the parents were feeling exhausted from the physically demanding work, I sometimes remarked that this would bring us all closer to our children.  Well, even though I was half-kidding, I turned out to be right.  Working with their children in this way has given them an opportunity to learn to listen, trust, and cooperate as families. I also found that this challenge was forcing me to connect with my students and with their parents like never before. 

Between rehearsals I found myself reading our text, Digital Leadership, and connecting Sheningers chapters about “communication” and “public relations” to my experiences.  Here I was spending more time with parents than I usually would, all for the purpose of accomplishing a common goal shared by their children and me.  It wasn’t hard to see the metaphor of parents, students, and teachers working together in education.  And since I was reading the text, I could help but think about the importance of communication.  Was there some way to use technology to link us all together so that we could work this closely on learning to be better writers, or to do research?  My time in working to earn this degree in Digital Media has made me feel the answer is probably “yes.”

Looking at Chapter 5, I think teachers who avoid using ALL of the free digital tools are in denial.  Social media is really the new, preferred form of communication for students and for many parents.  With that in mind, I like to use Schoology.  As far a I know, it is free unless you want certain features.  It really seems modeled around current social media.  I think websites like this are just thing we need right now: A place where students and parents can see assignments, turn in papers, receive announcements, ask questions, and track their own progress. I think it makes my classroom more efficient because it allows me to return papers to students immediately, which gives them time to create revisions before deadlines.  It’s much faster and more open than working with traditional methods.

The ideas in Chapter 6 are something that my school is currently working to address.  Apparently, all teachers will soon be required to maintain a website that the community will use to gain information about our courses.  In the past, such activity was optional.  I look forward to this change, but one teacher today commented that this level of transparency may be used against her when overbearing parents try to follow the progress of the class.  I, however, would like to see this website linked to our other services such as Livegrades and Office 365 e-mail.  Anything that helps me communicate quickly with students and parents makes life easier, and builds relationships.