Greene County educators praise eChalk

SNOW HILL — Greene County educators and school administrators gathered last week at Greene County Middle School to show off eChalk, an online education network.

The network, which has been in place in Greene County Schools since 2003, helps teachers communicate better with students and parents, Assistant Superintendent Pat MacNeill said.

“We wanted our community to know what we do with eChalk,” MacNeill said. “But we also wanted to showcase what our students and teachers and parents do together through our technology.”

A 45-minute presentation highlighted the use of eChalk at each of the county’s schools, with teachers, administrators and parents taking part to sing the praises of the network.

Greene County Middle School instructional technologist Carol Taylor said the network provides good checks and balances system with teachers, students and parents.

“We wanted the public and surrounding schools to know what a wonderful vehicle eChalk is for communicating among students, parents and teachers in our community,” Taylor said. “From an administrative point of view, it allows us to make sure our students are doing what they are supposed to be doing, in terms of learning.

“It puts accountability on teaching, as far as posting assignments and communicating with teachers and parents. … It’s not just a calendar of events, it’s interactive.”

Richard Frabow is the parent of West Greene Elementary first grader Andrew Frabow. The elder Frabow said he enjoys being able to see his son’s school work at eChalk.

“This encourages us to go to the Web page to see what is going on,” Frabow said. “We get to see what his homework assignments are and what activities are going on in the schools at that time. It keeps us abreast of everything that is happening.”

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan’s blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.