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What do Practicing Educators say about Curriculum Mapper®?
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- Feedback from Curriculum Mapper® User
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October 2006
Germantown Wisconsin’s Kennedy Middle School: Recipe for Success
Print PDF article (PDF, 88 KB)
The Featured Collaborator Award was presented to the Kennedy Middle on behalf of the entire staff, October 9, 2006.
KMS journey with WebGrader began more than three years ago. Kennedy Middle School leadership put together a school improvement plan and identified two goals in the plan they believe
could be achieved with a new gradebook. They wanted to grade online and they wanted to increase parent communication.
Three years ago, after extensive research, the pilot group started the school year using WebGrader. They haven't looked back since.
Brian Sprinkman, VP, Collaborative Learning, Inc. was pleased to present to the pilot committee on behalf of the entire school, the Featured Collaborator award at a district meeting
on Monday, October 9, 2006.
Sprinkman cited the groups exemplary use of the tools available in WebGrader, most especially WebNotes, the communication tool built into the product. Sharing their child’s login, parents can access real-time progress reports. Using WebGrader it is simple to verify that yesterday’s homework was submitted and to clarify any confusion about tonight’s homework.
Kennedy Middle School has been very methodical is its roll out of the product and, therefore, has been very successful.
Beginning with the first half of the pilot year, only the pilot team was using the product. This gave the teachers time to get comfortable before opening up this window on the classroom world to the students and parents in those classes, who also became involved in the pilot over the next few months.
Because information is shared over the internet, KMS was very proactive about providing suggestions for those who did not have easy access to a computer. In the introduction letter,
parents were reminded that work, neighbors or even the local library were all places
they could gain access to the Internet. KMS was also very willing to physically mail progress reports which are simply and easily exported through WG.
Any meeting held at the school featured a WebGrader area where parents could go, login and learn a little more about what information was now available to them, real time. For
this year, the third year of using WebGrader and the second of full school implementation, principal, Steve Bold, offered several different training sessions. By scheduling sessions before, during, and after school and as well as a few evening sessions, Bold hoped that any interested parent would have any easy time attending the training.
The goal for this year is to have each family log in a minimum of 35 times or once a week
during the school year. As seen last year, this involvement can really help curtail late and
missing assignments.
As Dave Wegener, a KMS parent and member of the implementation team, remarked, “Each child’s performance affects every other child in that class; the learning that goes on in a classroom depends upon each child being prepared for the lesson. When one isn’t ready, everyone is held back.”
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