PART ONE: GETTING STARTED

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Start here!

Start by identifying a Project Team. You need a group of people who will lead this initiative and represent the different needs of those who will use the Portal. Part of the Project Team needs to be someone who can make decisions, find and allocate resources, and help to make things happen. You need to determine for your school and district how this will best work. The membership of the Project Team will vary over the course of the whole initiative for lots of reasons. People will move in and out of roles as they naturally do outside of this initiative. Find a champion or core of champions that will keep the initiative alive.

These are some key skills and expertise to look for as you enlist folk for your Project Team:

• project management skills
• community dynamics
• change management
• communications
• training
• technical skills

You will see there are some inherent principles evident in this Guide. You will find the advice offered is premised on these principles, so best you know before you begin. These principles derive from the research, documented in the Research Says section of the Guide.

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED will provide you with some background (Introduction) and then guide you through the information collection you need to do in your district as you prepare for your Parent Portal.

• Introduction
  • Purpose of this Guide
  • Audience
  • Research Says
• Understanding School Community
  • Building Community
  • How Technology can Help Build Community
• Parent Engagement Today in Your District
  • About Your District
    • District Parent Groups
    • Role of Parent in Your District
    • District Innovation Index
    • District Size
  • About Your School
    • Your School Community
    • School Parent Groups
• Technology Today in Your District
  • Technology Tools at Your School
  • Technology Tools at Your District
  • Technology Tools at Your Home
  • What Technologies Other Schools are Using
  • Your District’s Approach to Technology
• Putting Your Information Together

Sally's Good Ideas

Throughout the Guide you will see references to “school” and “district”. The terms are used to differentiate between the place called school and the governance of a district. If however you are in an independent school, then your perspective will be that of school and district.