Parents and Guardians of K-5
Students:
Last week you should have received an email from the district about our new learning management system called Schoology. Schoology is a digital
extension of the classroom that has replaced traditional teacher web pages. Users will immediately notice an
interactive “Facebook-like” feel, which is great for collaboration and
communication, but Schoology also allows teachers to make resources available
to students and parents in a format that acts like a digital extension of the
classroom. Unlike Facebook, Schoology is
not based on “friends” but on “educational colleagues.” Everything about it
serves an academic purpose that is delivered in a safe and secure manner.
There are many benefits for parents using Schoology:
COMMUNICATION
- Schoology allows parents to get
information from all teachers working with their children, get updates about
their classroom, assignment notebook and calendar. Schoology will not replace
other district tools for communication with parents and families. Personal information
such as student's grades, attendance, bus stop, and address/email information
will still be housed in Skyward Family/Student Access using existing login
information. There will still be list serve emails sent out to parents for
time-sensitive communications and educators will still use email and phone
calls for personal conversations.
LEARNING - Teachers are slowly integrating Schoology into
classroom instruction in an age-appropriate way. As students progress through
elementary school, they will be asked to use more of Schoology’s functions to
complete classroom assignments and projects.
SAFETY - Schoology is designed for educational purposes and
contains safety features to protect student information. Interactions on Schoology cannot be viewed
from outside of our district community of staff, students and parents. The
collaboration will also be managed by the teacher, and individual contributions
will appear as anonymous to other students and parents. For students to
interact with Schoology outside of the school day, they must enter their
personal username and password that each has received through media specialists. Instructions for student access from home are
attached.
How do parents start using Schoology?
For parents to use Schoology,
they too must create their own unique username and password. Parent accounts will be automatically linked
to each of their students through a parent access code found in Skyward
Family/Student Access (one per child).
By using the parent access codes, parents will be able to view all of
their children’s activity in Schoology. Parents can also manage daily or weekly
notifications of student work and connect with instructors privately. Parents
will not have the ability to comment or post in a way that others can view. Directions
for Parent Schoology login are attached.
Schoology will be a great tool for learning in PLSAS, but it
is still a work in progress. Teachers are becoming familiar with this
platform and are making plans for how it will best serve the students in their
classroom. Our goal is to have all Schoology courses populated and active by
October 16.
FYI...Accessing Schoology from home is not part of the district’s requirement for students to be successful in school. During the day, students will have access to Schoology when appropriate and necessary. For parents who do not have access to a home computer or mobile device, teachers will continue to communicate via the phone, hard copies of resources/assignments, and by appointment.
Thank you for your time and attention as we launch this
exciting new learning tool.
If you have questions or need support with Schoology, please
contact us at ithelpdesk@plsas.org.
