Note Home to Grade 8 parents for Permission to BLOG

To: Grade 8 IST parents
From: Mr. Pastore, Director/Grade 8 Language Arts teacher
Re: Language Arts Class, Grade 8
Date: Monday, September 25th, 2006
Dear parents of grade 8,
It is a pleasure to be teaching Language Arts 8 this year to your children. As a part of this course, the students in grade 8 will read
17 books this year. After each book, they will write a journal entry that I would like them to publish on the internet. We will use a special website that has been recommended to me by several educational specialists from the United States. This site is www.blogger.com.
In order to do permit your child to design and use a “blog” (web + log = “blog”) of this type on the internet, I ask that you sign the permission form below. Your child does not have to have internet access at home in order to do this, as I have scheduled our class to meet three times per week in the computer lab. However, I will encourage all students to show their work to their parents at home on their computer or here at IST several times during the school year.
The goal of having your child write their journal entries about their reading books on the internet is to teach them technology and modern communication skills while also practicing Language Arts skills such as proofreading, spellchecking, and proper English grammar use and paragraph/essay writing forms.
Thank you for signing and sending in the form below, and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me personally.
Sincerely,
Jim Pastore, IST Director/Grade 8 Language Arts Teacher

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I give permission to my child
__________________________________________(print name) to use the internet to publish his/her work from Language Arts 8. I understand and accept that Mr. Pastore, the teacher of the class, will have complete control over what my child publishes, and that my child and Mr. Pastore are responsible to do this work at IST, not at home on the internet. I also understand that I my child is responsible to do this “blog” exercise throughout this school year as a part of his/ her grade in Language Arts 8. Finally, if I have any questions at any time, I will not hesitate to contact Mr. Pastore to discuss with him the course content and the course outcomes on the internet.
Parent Name: ___________________________________________________ (print) Parent Signature: ________________________________________________
Date: _______________________________