Russel Street School Impressions

I was impressed how blogging was used as a means of communication for the school. As I was looking around on the sites, I noticed that they have switched to a different system. I could not tell if it was still technically a blog, but really it functioned the same way. I was impressed by how organized they appear to be. There is really no excuse for parents to not be in the loop when it comes to events at the school or in their child's classroom. The teachers all have their own feed where they post pictures and updates that should help the parents feel included in what is going on in the classroom. I loved that. 
I felt like I could feel a sense of community at this school even though I am thousands of miles away from them and have never met a soul who works there. They have truly created an online community with their blogging. Everyone knows what is going on and can be involved .
My own school has been trying to figure out a way to help the parents stay more connected with everything that goes on in our school. Generally teachers are the ones who take that on for their individual classrooms. If there's something big going on, our secretary sends out an email, but very few parents actually check their email. I think something like the school stream that Russel Street School uses would be something my school could incorporate and see more parents getting involved. None of the posts are very long. Just enough to get the message out. And by sending frequent updates, everyone stays on the same page without having to scan huge emails.
I'm going to say again that I am impressed. I will bring this up at one of our back to school staff meetings. I think that blogging could be something my elementary school has been searching for.

Comments

  1. Ben MarkhamJuly 29, 2018 at 10:28 AM

    I agree with your thoughts on community, it was easy to get a sense of what the kids were doing and what activities were taking place. This school has put a lot of thought into communicating with parents and keeping them in the loop with their children. I also think it takes a lot of commitment on the part of the person writing out the blog/updates. In the past, my school has tried to keep the website updated throughout the year and it always starts out strong, but by the end of the year it really falls off. I think a blog with short bursts (like you mentioned) would be a better way to go, so it isn't super time consuming or difficult to get it done.

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    Replies
    1. Avery SchwendimanJuly 29, 2018 at 10:55 PM

      My school struggles with keeping our website up to date. We give our secretary a hard time about it because she once realized it had been too long since the last comolete update when she found pictures of students who were kindergarteners in the picture but now 4th graders at the school. 😂
      I think that Russel Street School's committment to posting is pretty cool .

      Delete
  2. PhilomenaJuly 29, 2018 at 11:02 AM

    I agree with Ben. I was really thinking about the feeling of community as I looked through the school blogs. There was a sense of ownership that was clearly presented by all of these blogs. It takes a great deal of work, and now I understand that since we have been learning about blogging in this class. Maintaining blogging will take commitment and consistent writing prompts, but I can see from this sense of community that comes across that it would be so worth it!
    Philomena :)

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    Replies
    1. Avery SchwendimanJuly 29, 2018 at 10:58 PM

      Keeping up with a blog is a great deal of work! You are right! I think that with a school blog, if you got the parental involvement you wanted, the work would be so worth it. It would be hard for me to want to put in the time if nobody ever paid attention to my class blog, though.

      Delete
  3. UnknownJuly 29, 2018 at 8:51 PM

    My thought, as I read your blog, was surprise that your parents don't check their email! I know that many parents only access the Internet on a mobile device- if your school decides to share using School Stream or blogs, a mobile-friendly interface would probably be more accessible.

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    Replies
    1. Avery SchwendimanJuly 29, 2018 at 11:10 PM

      In my short experience, I've found that a lot of the parents at my school just can't be bothered to check their email. I found out from some parents that they used their junk email address to sign their student up for school not realizing *gasp* that we would want to actually send them emails. I agree that a mobile friendly platform is going to be the key for any parental involvement/ blogging that could happen at my school.

      Delete

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