About This Website

Welcome to the Maria Hastings Elementary School web site. Our web site is maintained by parent volunteers with input from the school technology committee. Teachers provide many of the ideas and much of the content. All pictures of children posted on the site are displayed only with written consent by their parents. Our policy is to display a child's photo without a name, or to display student work with a first name and without a picture.

 

Parents and teachers are invited to e-mail the webmasters with school related topics well suited for the Hastings web site. We are always looking for new ideas, and love to hear from our viewers. We received an encouraging message from out-of-state grandparents of one of our school's kindergartners! We also hear from school technology specialists around the country, commending the web site, asking questions, and sharing ideas.

Website Redesigned

At the request of the school technology committee our website was redesigned the summer of 2003 with a grant from the PTA. The committee and staff spent time last spring reviewing the site to make recommendations to reorganize the site according to specifications of the technology committee, so that important information will be more accessible for parents, students and teachers.

Our goal was to maintain our strong sense of community and continue effective communication practices, using this award-winning site. The new site reorganizes content while integrating existing graphics. The site is primarily maintained by parent volunteers . Pages which focus on learning, such as the Library/Resource and Student Projects pages will be maintained by retired librarian Margarite Bradley and Art teacher Marcia Zichittella

 

Awards

  • The Hastings web site is now award winning! In Fall, 2000, Midlink Magazine, a digital magazine for kids, awarded us a "Cool School" web site award. We are now listed in the Midlink Magazine list of outstanding school web sites. Midlink Magazine is a nonprofit educational project sponsored by North Carolina State University and the University of Central Florida.
  • In January 2001, our web site also received an Education Excellence Award from an educator in the UK that maintains a site containing links to outstanding school web sites around the world. The award is given to school web sites that are well designed, clearly navigated, promote its students by publishing their work, is educationally relevant, and is regularly updated with fresh content.
  • In January, 2002, Hastings was recognized for the second time by Midlink Magazine for maintaining an excellent website. Their message: "We feel your site sets a good example for other schools and will be useful for the thousands of teachers & students who read Midlink Magazine every day."


Web Site Content

You can find the weekly Bulletin, the monthly Cafeteria Menu, meeting notes, forms, and Special Projects (including our mural and our educational garden). Some teachers also post classroom work and projects on the Classroom Pages section. The school librarian maintains current information on learning resources and library classes.

Last update: 09-10-2003/jh