Last week I expressed my gratitude that school has finally started. My son has settled nicely into his routine of school, homework and sports quite nicely.

One thing different for us this year is that his teacher is utilizing Social Media as a way to communicate with parents.

Gone, for the most part, is the backpack bursting with notes and pieces of paper! Yeah! Gone is the excuse “I lost my spelling words” This teacher uses the MUSD website and has set up a classroom blog to post information like spelling words, reading lists and to communicate with parents. You can even comment and communicate with her using this tool. I am sure she is not the only teacher doing this and I applaud all teachers who use blogs and websites to get information to parents as well as students.

It is my opinion that classroom websites can be great tools of communication between parents, teachers and students and can even help students with reading and fine tuning their computer skills. While they should not replace face to face conversations they can provide invaluable amounts of information that can be accessed anytime day or night.

So parents, if your child’s teacher has set up a website and a blog I encourage you to use it and if they have not I would encourage you to see if you can help them set something up.