Permission+Letter

Permission Letter To: Parents of students in 4th grade From: Miss Hudak, Classroom Technology Coordinator Re: Student Blogging Project

Dear Parents, The students in 4th grade have been participating in various different technology projects throughout the school year. All of these projects have been developed to integrate into the current curriculum that the students have in their classrooms. Their 4th grade teacher and I have been collaborating on a daily basis to provide your child with technology projects that will prepare them for the middle school next year and for the technology world. The next project we will be starting is developing and maintaining a classroom blog. According to Wikipedia, "a blog is a type of website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other materials such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order." Your son/daughter will be working on-line to maintain their own blog. They will have to make daily posts to their blogs and comments to their classmates blogs. Both the classroom teacher and myself will have access to their site and will be monitoring it on a daily basis. Once the students feel comfortable with the concept of blogging the site will be open to guests who have log-ins (and these guests will only be parents).

**How it will work:** Students will log into the website KidBlog each morning, as morning work, and log into their individual blog page. Once they are logged in the students will read the posting created by their teacher. They will then answer the post by their teacher in their own individual blog. Students will be required to comment on a classmates blog at different times throughout the week. **Security:** Students logged into this site will only use their first name to identify who they are. According to the Kidblog website: "Kidblog meets the need for a **safe** and **simple** blogging platform suitable for elementary and middle school students. Most importantly, Kidblog allows teachers to monitor and control all publishing activity within the classroom blogging community."

**Assessment :** Students will be graded on their blogging excerpts, posts, and comments. Students need to log in on a daily basis and complete the assignment that is posted. KidBlog Wikipedia
 * Resources:**

In order to participate in this new projects parents and students need to read the following rules and sign and complete the attached form.
 * Permission:**


 * Blogging Terms and Conditions:**

1. Students need to re-read the district's Acceptable Use Policy. All students need to have permission to use the computer and the resources that we will be accessing. 2. Students using the Kidblog site need to respects the site, the technology, themselves, and their classmates. Students need to comment only in positive tones. 3. Students need to follow all the rules of the school and the classroom at all times while working on the blogging project. 4. All students need to demonstrate Paxinosa Chief behavior as established by the PBIS- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. 5. Students who do not follow the above terms, the classroom and school rules, and the district Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) will no longer have the ability to participate in the blogging project. All access will be denied to the kidblog site. 6. I understand that this project is a privilege and if the rules are broken my child will be given an alternate assignment.

I have read the above letter and reviewed the district Acceptable Use Policy with my child.

Parent's Name: __Parent's Signature:__ _

__Student's Name:__ _ __student's Signature:_____

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