Sanchez Elementary School Online Mentoring Program Information for Parents

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We encourage you to read through this web site thoroughly! It provides complete details about the goals of this program, and how this program will work.

To participate in this program, you must have signed and returned a permission slip, which was sent home with your child in August or September 2000. If your child is in Genny Gamboa and Jim Wahrer's fourth grade class at Sanchez Elementary School and you did not receive this permission slip, please let us know via our feedback form.

We also would like for you to complete a short survey before your child begins participating (a paper version of this survey will also be delivered to you; please complete either the paper version or the online version, but NOT both).

 
Online Safety

We have taken a number of precautions to ensure the safety of ALL participants in this program:

• The online exchanges between your child and his or her mentor can take place only via the web site you are viewing now, and, for participating students, only via computers at Sanchez Elementary School.

• None of your child's contact information (address, phone number, e-mail address, etc.) will ever be made available to his or her mentor. Likewise, the mentor's contact information will never be made available to the student. This will ensure that no interactions of any kind, on or offline, can take place between mentors and students outside of the web site you are viewing now.

• All exchanges between mentors and students are subject to review by teachers Genny Gamboa and Jim Wahrer. In addition, ALL messages will be reviewed by Jayne Cravens at the Virtual Volunteering Project at the Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas at Austin.

• All potential mentors were required to submit an application that includes their complete contact information, and the names of two personal references. Jayne Cravens at the Virtual Volunteering Project reviewed each of these applications, confirmed contact information, and interviewed the personal references of all accepted applicants.

• No child will be identified by their real name in public materials as participating in this program.

• Teachers Genny Gamboa and Jim Wahrer, as well as Jayne Cravens at the Virtual Volunteering Project, have a record of all contact information for online mentors participating in this program.

• Teachers Genny Gamboa and Jim Wahrer, and Jayne Cravens at the Virtual Volunteering Project, will provide an orientation to students participating in this program, stressing the importance of online safety and responsible computer use, as part of this or any online program.

• Learnings and best practices from this program (but no real names or contact information of participants) will be shared via the Virtual Volunteering Project and the National Mentoring Partnership, two nonprofit organizations working in collaboration to help develop quality standards and resources for online mentoring programs throughout the U.S.

• We strongly encourage you to talk about this program with your child, discussing what kinds of activities and topics they are talking about with their mentor, what their mentor is like, etc.

• If you ever wish to communicate with the program team for this project, please use our feedback form. All messages are answered within 48 hours of receipt (two business days; excludes holidays and weekends).

• If you wish to view the exchanges that have occurred to date between your child and his or her online mentor, please contact us via our feedback form.

• If you have an emergency regarding this online mentoring program, please see our guidelines for handling crisis situations.

Return to the main page of the Sanchez Elementary School Online Mentoring Program