Now that Christots.com has gotten off the ground and is being used by a few parents, I'd like to get more suggestions about what everyone would like to see here. Please use the link at the bottom of this article to join the discussion or submit suggestions.
Or, if you're shy, you can always email me (
).
Thanks!
Current ideas:
Directory of students/parents. I envision this to be in the private area of the site (users have to log in). I would like to include information such as children's names, parent's names, cities, phone #'s and emails. Organization by class (north, south, upstairs, Woodland) would also be nice. I'd also like to include pictures so our kids could point out their friends and we'd be able to place faces to names. The biggest challenge I see with this one is technical - I'd have to either put up all the detailed information and keep it current manually (not fun) or get everyone to create their own "record" and be responsible for keeping it current. With the latter, if everyone didn't do it, the list would be incomplete and thereby not very useful in my opinion.
Include the Woodland School more fully. Currently there is very little information about the little school. I would like this to be a resource for all parents.
Signup sheets. This area would allow for signups to various school activities and would supplement (not replace) the signup sheets placed at the front door. The challenge with this is that someone from the school would have to add the information from the paper signup sheets to the web sheet so everyone gets a complete view.
RSS feeds. For those of you that aren't familiar with RSS, this would allow you to be notified of new articles/content posted on the website without you having to visit the site. To receive notification, you would use an RSS reader or a (free) service to convert the RSS to emails. I suspect this would be a nice feature for those of you already using RSS readers for your daily news, but not very beneficial to those who are not.
Class picture Along the same lines as the directory - a class picture would be nice.
Class activities for the week. This would provide more detail than just the 'this week's work' box on the main page. Similar to what Ms. Terry & Ms. Lindsy have put on the corkboard & emailed the last couple of weeks. The challenge with this is getting the directresses to consistently post the information.
Ask the directress a question/pass them a note. This section would allow parents to send their child's primary directress a message. While this certainly can be done now via email, people other than Lindsy, Jen or the Stecks don't currently check the admin@christots email. I would envision this feature sending the message straight to their printer so it could be handed to the teacher. I know - it's backwards, but it might work!
