Parent+Letter

Dear Parent or Guardian: Greenville Middle School is pleased to offer your child an exciting online learning tool that will improve his/her educational experience, provide valuable experience in preparation for post secondary education and introduce him/her to the world of virtual learning. Wikispaces allows students to post information online to their own pages for teachers and students to view, giving students the opportunity to access class information and workspaces at school or at home. As students post current event summaries and various activities, it will become an electronic portfolio for social studies. Wikispaces also acts as a teaching resource; teachers can post information and links for student instruction. Students have been given generic usernames so protect identities, and their sites are protected by passwords that only the student and teachers have access to. The site is blocked from any contact from anyone besides the teacher. We are thrilled to be able to prepare your child, in a real world environment, for what he/she may be encountering in the near future. Wikispaces offers a wide variety of exciting educational tools. Teachers are able to create class calendars and post lecture notes, assignments, syllabi and more. The calendar also reflects due dates for all assignments created within the site. Absences due to illness or family vacation will now be addressed through this online resource as students can stay in the loop of class activities. Teachers may also create discussion boards that allow for students to engage in online debate regarding in-class readings and topics. This sort of discussion, again, is becoming a preferred method in the post secondary arena. Such discussion allows students who may be hesitant to speak in the classroom an opportunity to get their voice heard in a meaningful way. Later in the year, teachers may also create peer review assignments that allow students to assist and edit one another’s papers online. Additionally, instructors can also create revision assignments that are directly connected to the original prompt. As an example, a student could post an assignment to the site. A teacher could then, online, assign other students to peer critique and provide feedback. Following revision work, this student could then submit a final draft. Teachers now have the ability to assess this work electronically and save to the site, providing the author feedback as well as a clear and detailed assessment rubric. With this feedback in hand, the student can revise the paper to both increase learning and improve the grade. As you may no doubt notice from this brief description, we are truly excited about this new tool. As with any online resource, however, we need to be careful to create a safe and secure environment. With that in mind, we would like to remind students and parents about simple Internet safety procedures. Do not share account information or passwords with fellow students. Do not share private information (such as social security numbers) online. Be sure to back up all work on a secondary storage device. Please visit [|www.wikispaces.com] for more info and http://www.wikispaces.com/terms for the terms of use. Again, the school is excited to be able to offer this opportunity. Your signature below indicates your consent for your child to make use of this resource. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your time and consideration. Mrs. Metzler and Mrs. Bakula Social Studies Teachers heathermetzler@hasd.org  bonniebakula@hasd.org Student name (please print):_________________________________________________ Your name (please print):___________________________________________________ Your signature_____________________________________ Date__________________