'09 Back to School Greetings & Invitations
Back-to-School Greetings and Invitations,
Summer has slipped away and we're all busy making new schedules for the school year. Just as you're attempting to balance work, home, school and extra new activities, we're inviting and asking you to support your child's online learning by telling your own online story, online.
Elected officials, who decide the future of online public school programs, rarely have talked with a family actually engaged in an online education. They need to hear your story. It could be a word. A sentence. A paragraph ... or an essay. You're an online educational pioneer with a story that needs to be told. Please email your story to gigi@talcott.org . Short and sweet or long and wordy. We'd love to have families volunteer to host legislators in their homes, but since that doesn't work for everyone and legislators can easily go to http://www.waonlinefamilies.org/ and click on "Stories", emailing your story could be a compelling way to let them know why online public school programs need to be preserved.
You're an educational pioneer who can help keep the doors to online learning open. Research has always "discovered" that parent involvement in their child's education is the most significant factor in their success in life. You've made that commitment. You're the expert. Now I ask you to email your story so others can learn from you.
Having signed up last spring as a member of WA Families for Online Learning, you'll receive updates throughout the year on emerging online education issues like the one I'm attaching today. The WA State Capitol has already reserved a date for us to come together to honor our champions next year. Please mark March 11, 2010 on your calendar. It's our 4th annual "Cap Day". Start talking with your family and friends about making the trip. Hopefully, your own legislator will already have read your family's story online.
All of us, both students and adults, are increasingly communicating electronically, working remotely and meeting virtually - like we're doing now. I'm sure hoping this message reaches you and is compelling enough for you to make the time to email your own online experience about how online learning works for you. You might write about your child's favorite activity (Elluminate session, science experiment, integrated art/history project...) or special need (medically fragile, highly capable, other...) or the individual relationship with your teacher and then email it to me. If you'd like to attach a photo with your story, we'll gladly post them together. Your word, sentence, paragraph or story could be the one that helps introduce a legislator's heart and mind to the innovative, impressive, individualized world of online learning that you've already discovered and want protected.
Thanks in advance for helping out! Best wishes as you get "Back to School" for ‘09-‘10.
Gigi Talcott Coordinator, WA Families for Online Learning gigi@talcott.org
