Comments on: Parent Coffee Morning a Success!

By: Parent Technology Coffee Mornings: Year 2 Recap | always learning

Parent Technology Coffee Mornings: Year 2 Recap | always learning — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:54:01 +0000

[...] hard to believe we’ve already finished another year of thought-provoking discussions with elementary parents during our monthly Parent Technology [...]

By: Moving a Community Forward | always learning

Moving a Community Forward | always learning — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:40:06 +0000

[...] started with our Parent Technology Coffee Mornings early last school year. These are monthly meetings open to all elementary school parents, [...]

By: Growing Digital Citizens « Learning Mosaic

Growing Digital Citizens « Learning Mosaic — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:00:25 +0000

[...] evidence of this approach on Kim Cofino’s blog, Always Learning, describing the plan for their parent coffee mornings. When visiting a school’s blog I always look for ways the school reaches out to the community in [...]

By: Kim Cofino

Kim Cofino — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:09:59 +0000

@Josh,

Thanks! It’s probably time for an update on this blog about how these Coffee Mornings have been going… We’re on year 2 already and regularly have at least 20 – 30 parents in attendance. We get lots of positive feedback and it seems like this is a good way to keep parents informed in a positive and constructive manner. Personally, I don’t think you need to have a tech-savvy staff to run these kinds of mornings, it’s just an opportunity to learn together and to discuss what types of experiences our children need to be having in school. Give it a go! I’m sure it will be great!

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:02:19 +0000

I love this idea of the Parent Tech Coffee. I’m trying to craft and wrap my brain around how this would look in our district. We are not nearly as tech-savvy as your staff, but I can see the necessity of bringing parents in. What a great idea and thanks for sharing!

By: U Tech Tips » A Meeting of Minds

U Tech Tips » A Meeting of Minds — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:16:09 +0000

[...] starter that video can be – for teachers and parents alike (we showed it at last month’s Parent Tech Coffee Morning and had a 45 minute discussion!) After watching the video, we asked the teachers to share their [...]

By: Defining the Role of a 21st Century Literacy Specialist | always learning

Defining the Role of a 21st Century Literacy Specialist | always learning — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:55:25 +0000

[...] and 21st century literacy is no different. My focus is always on making students, teachers and parents comfortable with new tools that can support and enhance student learning. Collaborating with our [...]

By: Teaching Generation Z » Blog Archive » Grassroots Global Collaboration

Teaching Generation Z » Blog Archive » Grassroots Global Collaboration — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:52:39 +0000

[...] to activate and it basically bombed. I did find out from Chrissy Hellyer (during a chatcast for Kim Cofino’s parent Web 2.0 presentation in my lunch hour) that she had similar issues at her school but they were solvable by unblocking a [...]

By: mscofino

mscofino — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:02:48 +0000

Alecia,

We do lots of one-on-one training for the teachers, as well as grade-level and team-based training, but we also run the more general sessions after school.

The after school sessions can be anything from best practices in managing e-mail to introducing RSS to podcasting your professional development. The sessions are announced via e-mail every week and can be repeated based on demand. The topics are usually issues that the tech team thinks are important, but we also encourage people to submit ideas that would be helpful so we can adapt our sessions based on participant need.

We usually have about 30 teachers attending every day. We don’t offer any formal incentives – most teachers are aware that they need these skills to effectively facilitate technology in the classroom and the expectations for teachers at ISB is that they will continue to develop professionally throughout the year.

By: Alecia Berman-Dry

Alecia Berman-Dry — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:36:50 +0000

Our PD program is a one-on-one, on-demand model but we’re looking to revise and perhaps completely change that model. I’m interested in your comment that you offer DAILY PD afterschool and that you have offered parents the opportunity to come in. That’s a fantastic idea. Do you have topics prearranged? And are there any incentives offered for teachers to attend (other than being a better teacher? We have issues with teachers not attending “general” tech talks.