New School Web Site!!!!

The staff at our great school have been working hard this summer to get everything ready for the new year.  As all the parents and students know Wascher has a new principle, Brian Crain.  One of the many projects that Mr. Crain has been working on is improving the school web site.  I am happy to announce that the new version is now live and is looking great!!  Like all great works this is still a work in progress but knowing the staff at Wascher I know that it will only get better.  

At the moment the old links and web address are still pointing at the old web site.  Hopefully this will be resolved in the next few days.  In the meantime you can visit the new web site at the following address:

http://www.schools.msd.k12.or.us/wascher/Default.html

Place for Information

One of the advantages of being online is the ability to get information out quickly and to provide a place where people can access information when the need or want to.  This blog is one way that we are attempting to do just that.  Another site that we are starting to put together is an actual web site where we can keep more static information.  This information will contain documents, photos, reference information, etc. 

Currently there is an archive for newsletters and a section for PTA information.  We know that right now there is not much but it is a starting place.  If you have any ideas for what you would want to see or there is information you are looking for and cannot find then let us know.  We will do our best to track it down and post it.  If you are looking for something chance are that someone else is too.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Now that the blog is up and running, the calendar has some events on it and a few people have visited the site it is now time to fill it up. The question is "With what?"

I have my own ideas:

• Get more events on the calendar (PTA events, field trip information, school board and budget meetings, etc)


• Highlight more details on current and potential fundraisers


• Announce student/teacher/community members who receive awards or special recognition.


• Add pictures and details of events as they happen at the school

These are just a few of the ideas that I have but what ideas do you have? Leave comments on this post and let me know. Or if you would rather the idea not be announce publicly in the comments then you can always e-mail me at chadjriddle@gmail.com.

As a final note, if you are reading this then you already know where to find us, but there are a lot of people that do not yet know that we exists. Tell everyone that you know about us. The best way to expand the content, collaboration and effectiveness it to get more people involved.

Translations

Thanks to the magic of Google we now have automagic translations of this blog into many languages. You will see on the right hand side a "Translate To:" gadget. It currently has the default languages. If you know of any other languages that would be useful for readers or if there are languages that are not needed please let me know.

New Place for Information

I am the parent of a student at Wascher Elementary and over the past year I have realized that I am not involved in the school as much as I could or should be. I also noticed that as I did attend PTA meetings or events aimed at parent involvement I would always see the same handful parents. At a school with, most likely, more than 400 parents I found this odd.

As I thought about the reasons why I was not getting involved I kept coming back to one reason, information. The weekly newsletter is good but in a digital age it becomes outdated quickly. I spend the majority of the day behind the computer for my job and if the information I need does not come in my e-mail, through a news feed or automagically appear on my calendar I will most likely not keep tabs on it. Also, when the place I can look online for information is not up to date I find myself not checking it very often.

With that said the faculty at the school does a Great Job at what they need to do, educating our children, but I feel they need a little help in getting the news about what they are doing out to the digital world. That is what I hope that this blog will be able to do. Get the information out to those who need it, when they need it. Parent, grandparents, relative, friends, anyone who has an interst in the students at Wascher should be able to look in one place an get all the real-time information that they need.

If anyone has comments or suggestions on what information you want to see or if you would like to help by sending content for the blog, events for the calendar, or ideas to start a forum for discussion please let me know.