1. From Newsletters to Blogs
Increasing Parent and Student
Engagement
A conversation for #ECOO12
October 25, 2012
by Erin Paynter

2. About Me
Teacher and VP at Elizabeth Park PS in Ottawa
@erinpaynter
www.erinpaynter.org (ErHead)
adriander1326@gmail.com
Wife, mother
Chris, Adrienne and Alex

3. I'm a lot of things but...
Photo Caption

4. Let's create the agenda together!
What do you want to talk about?
What questions do you have?
Paper airplane activity
Modification: snowballs

5. Why blog?
● reflective of current times
● interactive
● time and resources (green)
● easily accessible for most
● backpack black holes
● dynamic and flexible

6. Why do you blog, or why
do you want to?
Use the hashtags
#n2blogs and #ecoo12
to share your thoughts

7. Out of the mouths of babes...

8. Determine your purpose
● information sharing
● spark discussion
● digital citizenship
● engagement
● connect and network
● transparency (school, classroom)
● audience

9. Blogging Sites

10. Blogging Sites that are
Teacher Moderated

11. The Falcon's Nest

12. Glen Cairn Public School

13. A few of the many teachers who
blog with their students...
Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca)
Michelle Horst (@Michelle_Horst)
Joelle Ruddick (@joelleruddick)
Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp)
Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher)
And the list goes on and on... and
probably includes many of you!

14. Paynter ETFI

15. Using and citing images

16. Do's and Don't's
Let's build this together in
Google Docs here
or go to #n2blogs on
Twitter for link

17. Safety for Students
● media release
● teacher moderation
● search engines -
visible?

18. Safety for Students
● Internet safety
● digital citizenship
● student blogging
resources

19. Increasing Engagement
● student engagement
○ teacher feedback vs "out
there"
○ global citizen/audience
○ multiple modalities
○ student as lead learner

20. Increasing Engagement
● parent engagement
○ transparency
○ "What did you learn at school today?"
○ interactive
○ parent as co-learner/co-leader
○ parent as client, or parent as partner?

21. Parent Engagement at EPPS
● anecdotal feedback from parents
● nature of our conversations have
changed
● parent council - 6 to 30
● attendance at events has increased
● added challenge unique to our site
- new school

22. Things I'm still working on...
● interacting vs transmitting
● the techie stuff
● teacher engagement

23. What about you?
Let's open the floor:
● your successes and
challenges
● anything you would do
differently?
● ______________

24. Make and Take Time
● for those that haven't started one and
would like to explore with the support
of others
● for those that would like to tweak
existing site(s) with the support of
others

25. Many thanks to:
Shannon Smith (@shannoninottawa) for inspiring me to submit
a proposal for #ECOO12.
Everyone at #ECOO12 - Brenda Sherry, Peter Skillen, Doug
Peterson, Andrew Forgrave, Cal Armstrong, and more for the
support.
Joelle Ruddick (@joelleruddick), Cathy Beach (@beachcat11),
Lino De Gasperis (@LinoDeGasperis), and Lisa Donohue
(@Lisa_Donohue) for the feedback.
And last but not least YOU for participating and sharing.