Working with parents

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dawn Crawford, M. Ed. on February 3, 2009 at 10:27am

Stevie -
We here at netTrekker have been doing a few Parent related workshops with our school and district subscribers. Most of the parent focus is on the safe resources in netTrekker and the ease of finding homework help at home.

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Permalink Reply by Kirsty Wertz on February 3, 2009 at 9:25pm

Hi Stevie. I know I'm biased because I work at THINKronize where netTrekker was born, but I'm also a parent who is encouraging my kids to use netTrekker for study. My eight year old has a project to do on bluegill fish. We'll be working on it this weekend.

I have to wonder, what's the best way to make parents aware of the fact that their kids can use netTrekker at home (and all the hugely important reasons why that's important, like safety, relevance etc.)? Do you think there's anything the netTrekker team could do, or provide the schools (or districts) to help them make parents aware of the availability of netTrekker?

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Permalink Reply by Stevie Kline on February 4, 2009 at 8:22am

Kirsty,

Perhaps a flyer tailored to Parent Nights. In speaking with represetatives from school districts I think it just does not occur to them to have a demonstration at this kind of event. I have done 2 parent events, one was county wide (going to do another in April) and parents are hungry for safe, reliable and relevent resources and seemed very grateful when it is presented.

I am also the president of our local library's Board of Trustees and am thinking about offering a NetTrekker workshop for parents there. I have not looked at all your materials but something to encourage collaboration between public libraries, IUs and schools in using NetTrekker may be helpful too.

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Permalink Reply by Dawn Crawford, M. Ed. on February 4, 2009 at 3:00pm

Stevie -
I will send you a flyer that I developed for PA Parent Nights with other Intermediate Units.

Thats a great idea to encourage collaboration between the public libraries, schools and IUs.....how can we encourage the public libraries to join us here in the Village to share and collaborate? Is there a library listserv across the state you can share the invite with?
Dawn

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Permalink Reply by Stevie Kline on February 4, 2009 at 3:12pm

Thanks Dawn,

I will check with our librarian about a PA Public Library Listserve. Stevie

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Permalink Reply by Kirsty Wertz on April 30, 2009 at 4:00pm

Dawn--would you mind posting that file here on the Village? Should be able to Upload File when replying to this comment. It might be handy for everyone to see. If enough folks love it, we could create a generic flyer (non PA specific) for everyone to use.

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Permalink Reply by Dawn Crawford, M. Ed. on May 1, 2009 at 3:37pm

Sure - yep, I love posting files on the Village - super easy - I recommend it to everyone :)

This is actually a non PA specific version for everyone to use......

Attachments:

• nTdi_internet_safety-standard.pdf, 1.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by Holly Adams on February 8, 2009 at 1:12am

We are having trouble even getting word out to our teachers about Nettrekker. We have a Nettrekker link on all of our webpages. I was working with it in the office and my clerk who has two adopted Russian children in middle school got very excited. Her children have some learning challenges and she couldn't wait to go home and explore the site with them and bring back feedback. I found her excitement energizing Holly Adams

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Permalink Reply by Danielle on April 28, 2009 at 4:23pm

Another possibility, instead of just a link, is to include the netTrekker log-in box or search box (great if you're IP Authenticated). The directions were created by CRM Rep Marci and shared in November's newsletter. You can get the information in the archives of the newsletters.

One of my schools in Polk County did this. It's at the bottom of his school's homepage.

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Permalink Reply by Kirsty Wertz on April 30, 2009 at 4:02pm

Holly--do you have email addresses of teachers? Ever do mailings (postal) to them? Would a webinar work? Would love to crack the code on how best to reach teachers too!

On another note, what did your clerk's kids think of netTrekker?

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Permalink Reply by Alice Sather on February 9, 2009 at 11:21am

I have been trying to work with parents. They express interest but I see no follow up, and really not the excitement I would like to see. Reasons appear to be: lack of time at home in the evenings, too busy on weekends, don't see that it is important to their student learners. Does anyone have ideas to get parents "hooked" successfully? In spite of many of them being employed in a technology-related industry and the importance of that industry in our community, they aren't understanding that education, and educational tools and foci, are changing and have to change as we progress into the 21st century.

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Permalink Reply by Stevie Kline on February 13, 2009 at 2:50pm

Alice,
I do know how sometimes it seems like everything is proceeding so slowly, but you never know when what you have shared with them will finally click. It may be a year from now. I think using how easy NetTrekker is to search may help. Most use Goggle which can be quite overwhelming and really not that easy to use.
I also use some of the information from Alan November's website (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resource...)and show them how very innocent looking sites can be bogus and hateful.

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