Monroe Road Elementary Principal's Message

“To love what you do and feel that it matters-
how could anything be more fun?”

- Katherine Graham

“Feel free to email me with any questions or comments. We welcome your input.”

Thea Kirkwood, Principal of Monroe Road Elementary

Survey Comments

2011-2012 Comments will be posted when the survey has been completed.

We are committed to a strong relationship with parents to achieve our vision:
“Every Child…A Success Story”. We utilize a variety of ways to communicate
your child’s progress: assignment books in the upper grades, reading logs,
emails, phone calls and meetings to discuss any concerns or celebrate their
progress. Our parent-teacher conferences are one of the most important times to
share your thoughts, ask questions and learn about classroom expectations.
Teachers schedule conferences late in October and throughout the month of
November with times both before and after school. Your teacher will contact
you to schedule your conference. We will make every effort to meet with each
of you during this time period — our goal: 100% participation! A conference is similar to a visit to the doctor's office: a lot to talk about, and a limited amount of time. The
better prepared you are going in, the more beneficial the meeting will be for everyone. Talk with your child beforehand about questions they might have or subjects in which they may be having trouble. Below are a few examples of questions that may help you
make the most of his valuable time:

What do you see as my child's strengths and weaknesses?
Could you tell me about my child's work ethic, relations with other children, behavior in class, and attitude toward learning?
Can you tell me what academic topics and skills will be emphasized this year in your classroom?
How can I help my child do better in school?

Everyone is focused on helping your child have the most successful year possible. You are welcome to contact us with any concerns or with your positive comments about your MRE experience!

Comment: “Have all teachers use the website for classroom pages.”

Response: At this time, the use of a teacher website is optional for teachers. As many of you know, it is not the creation of a website that is difficult now that we have the technology, it is the maintenance that concerns many of us. At the high school level where the classes and lessons are more structured and text-driven, it is easier to post and follow specific assignments. In an elementary environment, where teachers teach multiple subjects they often combine content or change the lesson to adjust for more instruction, etc. Changes occur daily to the lesson plans for both the group and for individual students. We believe that putting up a website and not keeping it current is worse than not having one at all. We have had instances where teachers who do have websites have been criticized because an assignment was not listed and the parent’s inability to read about it was justification for the child not completing it. The website is just one way that teachers communicate with parents and students. So we are cautiously moving forward in this area.

The good news is that more of our teachers are willing to try. This week we offered a technology training to build a classroom website and 7 of our teachers signed up. We are working on the content now and my suggestion to them was to keep it simple so that it will be manageable. Perhaps items like the classroom rules, spelling lists, reading goals etc. are informative yet don’t need daily updating. It will take a little time to get them up and running but I am encouraged by their efforts. Remember many of our staff members are ‘digital immigrants’ while most of our students are ‘digital natives’. We are moving in the right direction!

P.S. This same parent commented under the topic: One thing MRE does really well - “Communication with parents.”

We are certainly glad that our communication (even without all the webpages) still meets your needs. Thank you.

Posted 10/15/08

“Thank you for taking the time to explore our website and check out my very first ‘blog experience’. My goal is to use this forum to speak with you about current activities at MRE and issues that are important to our school community. I will try to provide updates weekly and more often if time permits. Parents are often surprised to hear about some of the amazing learning experiences in our classrooms. I often hear “I didn’t know that!” Hopefully, this blog and website will bring you further into our classrooms to share in the excitement. While the blog does not allow readers to respond directly, you are welcome to email me with a comment or question. Some I may answer in the blog for the benefit of everyone. If you wish your comment or question to be “for my eyes only” please make sure you indicate that. This is just one more way that I hope to keep the lines of communication open to you. When you see me smiling at school, know that it is because I love being part of an awesome team of educators and parents working to make MRE an outstanding school for your children. “