l Page 2 November 20, 2003
Minford High School
491 Bond Rd.
Minford, OH 45653
November 20, 2003
Dear Sir and/or Madam:
To better communicate with you regarding your child’s grade and progress in my class, as well as supplement my teaching, I have been active in developing the courses I am currently teaching on our Blackboard site on the Internet.
If you have Internet access, either at home or at work, you can login on the web site, and with a few clicks, know both your child’s grade and the current assignment. Right now, I am only going to post final six week’s grades and Interim grades; and currently, the first and second six week’s grades are posted for you to view. You can see this under the “Tools” link on the left side of the page.
Your child has received instruction on how to access the site and should be able to show you how to do so, and provide you with the user name and password. Your child’s grade can only be accessed with the password, and I have stressed to the students the importance of not sharing that password with anyone else, unless it is with you. Security is a priority.
That said, there are several benefits to your child’s active participation on the site. There is a Discussion Board, where students will discuss one question per week concerning the topics we are currently examining, and there are many links I have posted for them to access concerning current projects/assignments/essays. The course syllabus is posted as well as assessment rubrics, so students will know exactly what is expected and how they will be graded. I hope to increase student involvement in the creation of rubrics to enhance their participation in the learning process.
Future additions to the site include the Ohio Academic Content Standards for the 11th Grade English classes and future lesson plans in the “Assignments” link, in addition to group work. As you navigate the site, you will begin to see the potential of Blackboard to augment class instruction by increasing student participation, knowledge, and responsibility for learning, not to mention the fact that they enjoy using the computer in constructive ways. I should emphasize, however, that this is intended as a enrichment to classroom learning and is only one of the many activities in which the students engage. A caveat to that statement is that we are a global society and Blackboard is the primary platform for online learning today, as many of you have already learned. Online degrees are becoming the norm and familiarization with the many tools at the site is beneficial to all students.
You can access the site from the Minford Schools webpage under the heading of “Teachers” or you can visit http://blackboard.scoesc.k12.oh.us. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at school M-F between 2:30pm and 3:00pm. I look forward to the improvements in communication with you and want to invite you to stop in and discuss your child’s progress with me anytime.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Michelle McCleese
11th Grade English Instructor