I also suspect OP's daughter wants Kik for social rather than school reasons. You could test it out by telling your DD you're going to talk to her teacher about the assigned "project". If she's fibbing about it she may out herself to avoid having you going to the teacher.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I also have an 8th grader, and also I think your daughter might be playing you for a few reasons cited above. 1.) 8 kids is too big a group. 2.) it's not like kids who use Kik can't text. 3.) again, too big a group and teachers are hip to how many out of a group project are actually doing the work. I'd check in with the teacher. Specifically? I'd tell her/him what my kid told me, and ask if she could shed any light as to its fact or fiction.

+1. This story is nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yup. Your principles ruined things for your daughter, and the truth is you can't control other families. Get used to compromising.

OP, I also have an 8th grader, and also I think your daughter might be playing you for a few reasons cited above. 1.) 8 kids is too big a group. 2.) it's not like kids who use Kik can't text. 3.) again, too big a group and teachers are hip to how many out of a group project are actually doing the work. I'd check in with the teacher. Specifically? I'd tell her/him what my kid told me, and ask if she could shed any light as to its fact or fiction.

Anonymous wrote:8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Translation: OP's kid is a lying liar who lies.

Absolutely tell the school. Tell the teacher who assigned the project and ask that he or she ban use of social media platforms that some kids might not have, and then remind the teacher that Kik is being cited a lot in articles about the Blacksburg murder. Also inform the counselor's office and frankly I'd e-mail the principal's office as well. Google "Kik predator" and you'll find there are many more incidents that have been in the news in other areas of the U.S.

8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Is this a public or private school?

I'd talk to the school; it's not okay that kids can't participate in group projects because they don't have an account on a social media platform. Also, what about the kids that don't have access to this technology at home? How are they disadvantaged? I'd speak up about this group of kids, too, OP. How does this exacerbate gaps between kids based on their household income levels?

I think your kid might be playing you. She wants kik because all of her friends have it and is saying everyone's doing the project on it.

Most kids would find a work around. She didn't because...

Tell the school though, the parents prob have no idea their kids are using it. A good school will communicate to the parents and give them a heads up.

I'm wondering, since it took place during snow week (was it assigned as something specific for that week due to snow or was it a regular assignment?), if the teacher even realized they were using kik.. It sounds like they used kik to communicate, rather than actually work on the project. Regardless, this is something that should be ironed out for future projects, so everyone is on the same page.

Don't they use google's system at your school?

This is what my kids' elementary and middle schools use for all group projects that require at home participation.

I would be very upset by the kids being allowed to use a separate program like kik.

I am trying to understand how that would work for a project. Strikes me as grossly inappropriate.

I would have signed myself up for a kik account, and just let her use it for the project. Then delete it.

Yes I would bring this up to the school. Too bad that could not happen while the project was in progress. Your daughter was excluded from the group.

My daughter is in a class in the 8th grade. The students are supposed to work together with about 8 kids. Somehow, the kids decided the group would meet on Kik. My daughter wanted to do it through texts....but others decided on kik. DD does not have kik, because, frankly, I see anonymous social networking as a bad thing, and will not allow it. This was before the Blacksburg case.

My daughter was excluded from the project -- it was done during the extended snow week, but it did not impact her grade.

My question is, to I let this go, or do I talk to the school about this?