Fife schools adds blog to website

By Matt Nagle

Fife Free Press
mattnagle@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: August 28, 2008

Just in time for the start of the new school year, the Fife School District has instituted a blog on its website open to staff, teachers, students, parents/guardians and everyone in the community that has an interest in what’s happening in Fife schools.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, a blog is an online communication tool, a sort of public forum, whereby people can publicly comment on particular subjects. In this case, visitors to Fife’s blog will learn about new things going on in Fife schools and be able to respond. The blog’s purpose is to both disseminate information and to invite readers to “post” their comments about various topics.

Elaine Smith, Working on the Work (WOW) Coordinator for Fife schools, volunteered to get the blog up and running and she’s very excited about helping it grow throughout the coming school year.

“It’s such a popular way of communicating today,” she said, and the perfect way to enhance communication with the world both inside and outside of the school campus. “We’re hopeful that it will be a way for the community to talk back to us.”

Smith said her past use of blogs in the classroom was a wonderful experience for everyone involved, especially the students. “When I was in the classroom as a third-grade teacher, I did a blog with my students,” she said. She posted news of things her students were working on, for example, and visitors to the blog would post feedback like, “Great work! Keep it up!”

“It was a great experience for [the students]. The responses we got back from parents and grandparents literally from across the country were so affirming to them.”

She said that right now Fife’s new blog is in a somewhat skel-etal stage as it gets established, but once school starts it will pick up considerably as new entries will be added frequently. “It’s a way to post things instantan-eously, from cute little stories by the elementary kiddos about their first day at school, to major accomplishments students and teachers do,” Smith noted. She said Fife School Board mem-bers are looking forward to posting information about things they’re working on so that the community can provide input.

Right now the blog features two categories: “District News” for matters concerning the school board and other topics pertinent to the workings of the district, and “Student Stories,” which will feature student accomplishments such as the stellar performance by Fife High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) team at the FLBA national conference in Atlanta a few months ago.

As moderator, Smith will oversee all submitted postings by the public in order to protect the students and maintain a high level of propriety while at the same time respecting the honest feedback the district will receive from the public about issues that come up during the school year.

There are two ways to access the blog. Visit www.fifeschools.com and click on the “Check Out Our New Blog” link on the right side of the home page, or go to the blog directly at http://fife.edublogs.org.

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