Parent+Letter+September+2008

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFTDRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT September 2008 Dear Families of Mansfield Grade 8, Grade 7, and Grade 4 Students: Last spring the Mansfield Public Schools were awarded a grant from the Connecticut State Department of Education’s Enhancing Education Through Technology grant. The grant asks us to develop technology-based curriculum that features 21st Century Skills for all students in a grade level. Through Mansfield’s grant we will be working with students in Grade 8, Grade 7, and Grade 4. Staff involved in the grant began work over the summer to learn about new technologies and to plan some initial activities. We have a planning Web site that you can visit for more information: http://mansfield20.wikispaces.com. It is a collaborative workspace, so please expect our plans to change as the staff works throughout the year on the project and finds out what works best. We expect to try out a few small projects during the fall and winter, leading up to larger units at each grade in the spring. We are focusing on three themes to build our curriculum experiences. They are: When we use the Internet to collaborate, post projects and comment on student work, we engage some of the social aspects of the Internet. Parents and families have legitimate concerns about this type of activity. We are taking care to choose tools that allow collaboration and communication while also providing teacher guidance and control. For example we will use a “private label” Wiki, the education subscription to Voice Threads, and a school-based blogging tool called Classblogmeister which are not open to the general public on the Internet without proper security access. We will be teaching Internet Safety and best practices of Digital Citzenship as part of our instruction. We are also planning to offer an Internet Safety Course for Parents that will be held later in the year and will be open to all Mansfield parents. We are very excited about this grant project and expect that your child will learn a combination of academic, collaboration and problem-solving skills while participating in these projects. To share their work with you, all you will need is an Internet connection at home or you can visit the Mansfield Public Library or Mansfield Community Center for free Internet access. If you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teachers, your building principal or any of the grant coordinators directly. Thank you Steve Sokoloski Jim Griffith Jane Cook PK-4 Technology Coordinator 5-8 Technology Coordinator EASTCONN Technology Specialist steve.sokoloski@mansfieldct.org jim.griffth@mansfieldct.org jcook@eastconn.org
 * We must teach students how to navigate a sea of available information.
 * We must teach students to use the tools of the information age to become collaborative problem solvers.
 * We must teach students to use the tools of the information age to create new knowledge and share it with audiences beyond their walls.

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