by Dennis Harter
This week, we continue with specific questions from parents not covered in last month’s Principal’s Forum.
Use of Haiku
Haiku is an online learning platform that works in conjunction with Google Docs. For the most part, Haiku is used by teachers to communicate class information, provide resources, and support the learning happening in the classroom. In the rare event of the school needing to support online learning for a short time, Haiku would be the format students would continue to use.
Middle School is a transition time for students as they develop independence in organizing their time, learning, and work completion. We know that the adolescent brain is not fully wired for students to be great at this and teachers and parents alike look for ways that we can support them in their executive functioning. At the same time, we look for structured ways in which to engage students in being independent and developing those skills before they leave middle school. Using Haiku helps students know where to look for assignments, find resources that may have been shared in class, and organize their short-term and long-term expectations.
Parents and students have asked why isn’t every class required to use Haiku – thus allowing parents and students a one-stop shop to know what their child is doing. The simple answer to this is that in some courses a different online tool may be better set up for the learning in that subject. Science is a good example of this – with their program developed and organized on a different platform. In order to still provide students and parents with that one-stop location, this year, we developed expectations for all teachers on posting home learning assignments.
All teachers are expected to use the Haiku calendar to post home learning assignments according to the due dates. Even if the class doesn’t use Haiku as it’s main online tool, the teacher still posts assignments there. At this time, we are trialing a required 1:20 pm posting deadline and we will review this at the start of the semester to see if it needs adjustment. Parents and students on any given evening should be able to see all home learning expectations simply by logging into Haiku and seeing what’s posted on the calendar.
Parent-Teacher Conferences
I received some concerning accounts of long waiting times and poor organization after our last Parent-Teacher Conferences in October. There were some conferences that went over time, or some parents did not attend their scheduled session and that put everyone behind. After seeing the conferences in action, this is an area for us to do better and we will have a tighter adherence to scheduling at the Spring conferences.
Parents have wondered “why don’t we have individual private conferences in the classrooms?” The main reasons we don’t are simply time and parent convenience. Many of our teachers teach 70-90 students. If we allocated 10 minutes per conference, for example, we would need up to 15 hours of conference time, completely filled up. The booking of appointments would not guarantee that parents would have teachers they wanted to see in consecutive appointments, so a parent could have a 10 minute conference with the math teacher and then wait for 40 minutes before their appointment with the science teacher and then wait again for a Humanities or PE or Language teacher.
We place the Core teachers in a single room in bookable 30 minute blocks in order to allow parents to book one 30 minute session (maximum 4 parents per block) and see the three Core teachers without long gaps between appointments. Obviously, this relies on the time in the room being well monitored so that conversations don’t stretch too long (which we need teachers and parents to be mindful of). We are looking at ways to help with this, like timers and chimes in the locations.
Finally, a key component is ensuring that the only parents in the rooms are the ones for that scheduled block. If parents are late, they may not join another session without there being available room. This is something we can do a better job of monitoring to ensure the rooms aren’t too full and privacy is better maintained.
We hope with some better management in place, we will have a much better conference experience in the Spring.
Student Laptops
A few parents have asked why the student laptops are so heavy when there are lighter models on the market. It is important to remember the logistical constraints of a 1:1 laptop program. When purchased, laptop need to serve us for several years before being replaced in order for them to be cost effective. In fact, ISB maintains a relatively short replacement cycle, keeping our technology up to date. Lighter smaller computers are always being considered, but when purchasing was made, many of the current models and their specifications were not available. Additionally, the robustness of a machine is also important and the lighter they are, sometimes the more fragile they are. If you’ve ever seen a middle school student handle their laptop, you know the machines better be pretty durable.
Ultimately, ISB strives to have the best quality machines considering cost, durability, size and weight, impact on learning, and timing. The laptop choice always goes through a thorough vetting process to choose the best-fit machine for over 1000 students. Technology changes rapidly and there will always be something better, newer, lighter, smaller, faster, etc within a few months. Our Educational Technology department continues to keep in mind the health and well being, along with the technology learning needs of our students as they select the best machines to put in their hands for several years.