August 12, 2014
Dear Parents and Students:
Welcome to a brand new year at Righetti High School! I am very excited to begin and hope you are excited as well! RHS continues to transition from the California State Content Standards to the national Common Core State Standards. This shift does not mean a radical change in our course content. Our English 2 classes will continue to focus on improving students' reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills through literature, expository text, and other media. It does indicate a new focus on career and college readiness. This new focus includes an emphasis on technology as well.
In my class, students will be using a broad range of technology in order to meet the learning targets and better prepare students for the world that exists beyond high school. Students will all start a Google account that will be used in this course and will include GMail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and other Google tools. We will also use a broad range of educational social networking tools. These may include Edmodo, Collaborize Classroom, TodaysMeet, or others. Students will be encouraged to use online resources, such as the class website, to keep informed, monitor, and participate in various class activities. One of my goals is to have students complete a self-directed project, which would be semester and/or year-long, and include outside technology use.
This will also be a classroom that welcomes the technology students carry with them, their cell phones. However, my classroom should be viewed, at times, as an exception to the school-wide electronics policy and students must follow the school policies in all other RHS classrooms. The use of technology in a classroom, particularly an English classroom, can have many advantages as well as some pitfalls. Students will be learning about how to use the technology available to them appropriately, cautiously, and most effectively in this process.
I am looking forward to a fantastic year with new challenges, learning and growth. My hope is that this short note has introduced and opened the conversation about use of technology in the classroom. If you have any questions now, or as the semester goes on, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Go Warriors!!
Cathleen M. Petty
RHS English Instructor