It's a....

Obsolete?

 Powerschool is a new tool in BRRSD this year. It's an online grade book that allows parents (and students) to be hyper-vigilant. Like most cyber-things, Powerschool increases access to information until it's TMI. But like many online sources, it's hard to interpret the information. (Have you ever tried to look something up on MedMD? You read the horrible side-effects, but don't really know if you're prone to them, or how realistic they are. Powerschool is similar - you see a 5/10 on a quiz and think "OMG my kid failed a test! She's flunking 8th grade!")  It's hard to judge weights - a homework should be less important than a test, but maybe a particular homework is more important than the others? Powerschool is straight forward and confusing at the same time. Also, there are no comments - is my participating, chatty, distracted? Nothing like a good old-fashioned phone call to a teacher to get the real info!

But, in general I really like Powerschool. It prevents surprises and helps parents/students nip issues in the bud. You can choose how often you get information e-mailed to you - and to whom it gets sent. We get an e-mail every other week with an update. It currently goes to T, C and me, but there is no reason why N can't get used to checking his e-mail regularly too.

But, when report cards come home (I think they come home still, and I think it's today), it will be very anti-climatic. No surprises, good or bad.

Sometimes technology is great - an ultra sound tells you many things about the baby in your tummy, including whether you are carrying Heather or Heath. But there's nothing like the big surprise when a baby comes out and the midwife/doctor/nurse/Dad says "it's a girl!" (or "it's a boy" - I've been lucky enough to experience both). It used to be that my friends called with big news. Now I just read about it on Facebook.....

Surprises are at a premium.

Today, I already know "It's an.... A!" (Or B, B+, B-, C...etc.)