At least one of them. Today is a very special day for me. Let me tell you why. Over the past 10 odd years I have been working with parents encouraging, prodding and down right pushing at times. Using technology for many parents is a challenge and parents often fear that they will touch the wrong button and crash the computer.
As most of you know, I have had a consistent message. Technology will remove barriers of time and energy to help engage parents in their child’s learning. Remember I said 10 years.

Today, Laurel Allsion, one of my incredible friends (technology challenged – not any more) told me she has started a blog. I am so moved. Really, she took my breath away. I was astounded. She has come such a long way and with considerable courage she is embracing technology in spite of her fear of breaking the computer. It took us a few minutes to find the url for her blog ( lots to learn still). Here is the link to her blog. http://lifeislikechinesecheckers.wordpress.com
I can guarantee you will want to read every word. Her perspective as a parent is outstanding. She is currently the Chair of the Niagara Catholic Regional School Council. Laurel is extremely articulate and diligent in speaking out for parents without alienating teachers. She brings to the conversation an amazing capacity to describe how parents feel. Now she will be able to take her wisdom to the world for all to see and learn.

I have been really fortunate because she has been on my my cheerleaders through out the years. Laurel is one of the Parent “stars” in the Niagara Catholic Parent Reaching Out Project.

Her daughter – ( I will leave it to Laurel to tell you about her) is tech savvy and has helped her get started. An excellent example of letting child teach.
Try this post as a starter.
http://lifeislikechinesecheckers.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/parent-involvement-how-much-can-one-parent-give/

Penny Lindballe has been working on using web 2.0 tools to help support her child’s classroom teacher. The post explain how she is doing it. You will also enjoy listening to Penny on the June show at Parent as Partners.

I have also started a category “Featured Parent” to demonstrate how parents can use web 2.0 tools to connect parents to the classroom. I will be starting with Penny Lindballe – her face must be getting red because I keep on talking about her work – but she is actively challenging herself to find out how to use tools like social networking to help support her child’s classroom teacher. But parents like Penny are hard to find. At least for me. So my challenge to parents is to 1. have you point me to those parents so I can recognize them and 2. create your own online space – learn about the ways you can help support your child’s teacher – school and put it into practice. Share your ideas. Comment here to show me information about a parent you know – include yourself – or connect with me at lornacos at gmail.com.