We launched our student blogs today – below is a copy of the email sent to parents.

We are very excited to share with you our new educational technology initiative that is taking place at Avoca!  We are calling this initiative, Blog Wild! In a continuing effort to go green, as well as to integrate 21st century technology skills into our curriculum, we have created a blog page for each child at Avoca West and for grade 7 students at Marie Murphy. This forum will allow students to post their work to a greater audience while using far less, if any, paper to do so.

This program, developed by a district-wide team of teachers, takes a number of precautions in regards to Internet safety. Through our system there is no direct contact with students, as each post that the student makes and each comment that is received is reviewed by a teacher before it becomes public. A positive learning environment that encourages student connectedness is our goal.

Students will be posting projects that they have completed in their various classes, facts and reflections about current topics of study, and so much more! Instruction about how to blog safely, ethically, and effectively will be provided to all students in Encore Technology and Encore Literature classes at Avoca West and Core classes at Marie Murphy.  Students will also be taught how to appropriately comment on blogs that have been written by their peers.  Students should always be logged into their blog before making comments.  This commenting is a feature that we hope parents, grandparents, etc… will take advantage of as well.   Parents, grandparents, etc. do not need to log in to make comments.

To find the student blogs:
1. Go to the district webpage http://avoca37.org
2. Under District Links, click on the school link of your choice.
3. Under Team Pages, click on the grade level of your choice.
4. Under Navigation, click on the “Student Blogs” link.
5. Find the name of the student you are looking for, and click on their blog link.

By providing students with an authentic audience, we are motivating them to truly invest themselves in publishing their highest quality work. Over time, students will have created a digital footprint of how their skills and knowledge have developed, and how each child has grown as a learner.  We hope they will learn how to create a positive professional presence on the worldwide web, one that they and their families can be proud of for many years to come.

Very excited to see the long term growth and possibilities through this project!