Helping Parents Navigate Technology with Their Kids

I have two kids.  I know it can be very difficult to navigate the many issues related to the use of technology.  There is cyber-stalking, social networking drama, pornography, and other dangers related to technology.  It seems very difficult to keep kids from finding ways to get to inappropriate sites and using social technology irresponsibly.  My wife is the Media Specialist at Shepherd High School.  Consequently, she seeks information about media/technology resources.  She offers support to teachers, students, and parents.  She came across the article .xxx won’t make porn more accessible IF… .  I thought it might be a good one for parents to review.  I hope there is something in this article that you find helpful! Click the article to hyperlink to it.

New Single Parent Access For Power School

New Power School Parent Access Setup

Power school has had an upgrade that allows parents to have a single personal log-in for all of their students.  In the past, parents had to have a separate log-in and password for each student.  The link below is a tutorial on how to set up the new parent access.  The tutorial walks you through the entire process and is very good.  It is under five minutes, but will give you all that you need to set up this access.

You will need your old parent log-in and password.  This is now considered the “access key”.  This is what you will use to link your new account to your student.  If you have difficulty, please contact the office for assistance. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk9UBBJ4BP8

MACUL 2011

I am at the 2011 MACUL (Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning) conference.  This is always a good conference.  Shepherd Public Schools has always placed a priority on the use of technology.  This conference helps provide ideas, tools, and connections that help promote the use the technology to enhance instruction.  SPS has high school teachers, elementary teachers, and building administrators here.  Thankfully, we are able to use federal Title IIa funds to send people to this conference.  It is very big.  There are over 4,000 participates at this conference!  It will be interesting to see what is brought back from this year's conference that will improve instruction back in the buildings.

Parental Involvement with Homework

A friend of mine recently sent me an article on the importance of parental support when it comes to the academic success of the students.  The article contain many good points, but what I want to share is a simple list of "10 Ways to Help Your Kids With Their Homework."  I don't want to steal from the author of these suggestions so I will provide the link rather than copying them in this blog, but I would encourage you to look at the 10 suggestions.  They may not all be practical for your situation, but how can you use this information to maximize your student's success?  I hope you find this link helpful!


Click here to check out - 10 Ways to Help Your Kids With Their Homework.

Happy New Year

When I was a student at Shepherd High School, one of my teachers told me about the "relativity of time."  I listened intently.  It seemed to make sense at the time, but it makes even more sense now.  Let me try to explain and show why saying "hello" to 2011 already seems crazy.

The idea of the relativity of time is that your years pass relative to your overall years of life.  In other words, when you are two years old and you live two more to be four, you have double your years of life.  It has doubled in two years.  Now, when you live four more years and are eight years old, you have double your live again.  It has taken four years.  Since it is a doubling of your years of life again, the time seems "relatively" the same as the first two.  The four years seem to pass as fast as the two.  If you carry that our further, you would have the same effect from eight to sixteen, sixteen to thirty-two, thirty-two to sixty-four, etc.  That is a little scary!

But, the older I get, the more it makes sense.  It is hard to believe how far away the year 2000 seemed when I was a high school student in the 1980s.  Now, we are not only passed the year 2000, but we are already in 2011.  I know that people always say, "It goes fast."  The older you get the faster it seems to go.  I guess the lesson on the relativity of time is true.  As the years roll by, it makes more and more sense.

Happy New Year, everyone!  Enjoy the year and don't waste a moment of it.  It really does goes, too fast!   

Good Bye, Mustache!

Written on December 20, 2010.

Well, I am sitting in my office contemplating what tomorrow will look like.  Or, should I say what I will look like.  Over the years, SHS has generated thousands of dollars for the Shepherd Tri-Township's Christmas Outreach Program.  This outreach helps provide gifts to families in need.  SHS has done a fund-raiser called "Penny-Pile-Up" for about 10 years.  In recent years, the Student Improvement Team, who initiated Penny-Pile-Up, included the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of Kara Spindler and Darren Wiles.  During this time, there have been many class competitions and incentives that usually involved a staff member doing something that would motivate the students, like shaving a head, doing a skit, or in my case shaving a mustache.  I am not sure how I feel about it.  I started this mustache when I went to Florida for spring break my Junior year of high school.  That would be the spring of 1986.  Let's see, that is 24 years.  My kids are wondering what is under there.  They are afraid I will look like the people in the "Got Milk" commercials.  I guess if that is the case I will have to take advantage of a tanning package to even things out a little.  My wife, Kristi, and I have talked several times about the incentives, hoping that the students actually understand the importance and value of giving and sharing with others.  We don't want students to donate just to see a crazy antic.  We also want to provide an incentive that makes it fun.  It was under that thinking that I offered up the mustache.  It looks like it has provided some motivation.  The students raised over $1,500.  I don't know how much over the $1,500, but that was the important number to me since that was the goal the students needed to reach to see me get my mustache shaved off.  They even auctioned off the "right" to do the clipping/shaving.  So I don't know what I will look like tomorrow, but if it helped provide an incentive for students to donate to others so they can have a brighter Christmas, it was worth it!

P.S.  The students did raise the $1,500.  So I did have to shave.  I started growing it out again, though!