Message to Parents

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Miss Molenda's Butterfly blog! This Spring, we will be recieving catterpilars that we will hatch into butterflies for our science unit. The learning model used will be Discovery learning which can be looked over more here. A graphic can be found here. The discovery learning model will be used for this unit because it enables your student to observe and reflect on the concepts they discover throughout the unit. More examples and information on discovery learning can be found here. I hope you and your child enjoy discussing this science unit these next few months, and please feel free to call or email with questions! Let's get hatching!

Please fill out the Permission to Blog Letter with your child. Here is an extra copy:

Permission to Blog Letter
Dear Families,
From now to the end of the year, Miss Molenda’s class will be learning about caterpillars and how they become butterflies. Students will be using personal Weblogs to post their discoveries and reflections on the internet.
A Weblog, or blog, is a special type of Web page that can be created and easily updated using a Web browser. Each new entry has its own date stamp Each entry has a comments section where visitors to the blog may leave comments for the author.
How it works
Each week, Miss Molenda will post a lesson on her own blog. She will discuss this lesson with the students and they will work on it. They will then create a post at the end of the week discussing their lesson outcome and reflecting on what they learned. The students will be graded on their lesson outcome as well as their post.
Security
This blogging project is designed to minimize risk to your child. The only personally identifying information included in the blog will be their first name. There will be no mention of our school name or our location.
Permission
Before your child may start posting to their blog, we are asking for you and your child to discuss and sign the following form. Please return to Miss Molenda.
Blogging Terms and Conditions:
Students using blogs are expected ot act safely by keeping personal information out of their posts. You agree to not post or give out your family name, password, username, email address, home address, school name, or other information that could help someone locate or contact you in person.
Students using blogs agree to not share their username or password with anyone besides their teachers and guardians. You agree never to log on as another student.
Students using blogs are expect to treat blog spaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate is unacceptable.
If you receive a comment that is not respectful or makes you uncomfortable, tell a teacher or a guardian right away. Do not respond to the comment.
Students who are using blogs my not download any software or click adds on their space. They are to visit only the websites Miss Molenda approves.
Students who do not abide by these terms and conditions may lose their opportunity to take part on this project.

I have read and understood these blogging terms and conditions. I agree to uphold them.

Student Signature: __________________________________Date:____________
Guardian Signature:__________________________________Date:____________
Source: Will Richardson, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts