Creating my classroom website is slow moving. I was able to complete a homepage with a menu down the side listing the different pages available. Realistically, my webpage will not be completed until the middle of the school year. I will still send home a flyer to parents about the availability of the website but I will modify my plan to wait until my next full school year to survey the parents. I have received a school schedule to place on the website. The lunch menu changes each month and I now realize I need to find the place on our school’s public drive that keeps the menus so I do not need to count on someone to email it to me each month. Overall, I learned that time is a major factor influencing the progress on my website. Once my website is set up, I think it will be a great tool to use for parent communication. Also, as I learn more about my parents and my students this school year, I have come to the conclusion that the website will be a great tool for disorganized students who do not bring any information home to their parents (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
The activotes have not been hooked up for use on my Promethean Board, so my second goal is at a standstill. The learning resources from this week discuss the use of wireless response systems when assessing students in the classroom. “This type of live polling of responses is ideal for monitoring learning through formative assessment and can help you and your students quickly determine content areas that require further instruction or where there are obvious gaps in understanding” (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009, p. 145). Once I am able to use the activotes, I will be able to take a quick assessment of what the students understand from a lesson and use that to guide my follow-up.
References:
Allison,
ReplyDeleteWe just adopted edline into our lives at my school. Edline is a place for teachers to set up class websites, and it is really EASY! It allows you to easily put links up, post homework assignments, put events on a calendar, upload pictures and student work. The best part is it allows parents to see their child's gradebook. Parents can also email you through the webpage. I set mine up in a one hour faculty meeting, and now I just to make monthly changes. The company can be found at www.edline.net. You have to have activiation codes set up, and I am not sure if it costs money or not. It may be worth looking into and possibly pitching to your administration.
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ReplyDeleteResponse to Allison,
ReplyDeleteTime is ONE major factor when dealing with technology. There just isn't enough of it sometimes. Creating a class website can be very time consuming depending on how you set it up, and what technology you have to work with. You are not alone. This stuff does take time.
The other issue, is that when the technology does not work (or you have a piece that does not work), it can be a real hardship. We are getting so dependant on technology, that without it, we become a sailboat without a sail! We can't do anything!
Allison,
ReplyDeleteThe classroom website is a very good idea. I know a Spanish teacher at my school who has a great website that she uses to give all of her students information. I have talked to her about it and I know that she had it set up by someone with the Joomla content management system. It really helps her in terms of allowing easy updates.
I use Moodle for all of my classes, but it does not get the same exposure. I guess the benefit of having a personal website is that it really helps your content stand out in a school, to the students, parents and the Board of Ed. Hmm, sounds like I should jump on this band - wagon (note to self).
Allison, it sounds like your developing a good plan. Do you have a Tech Administrator for yor school or are you guys just kind of figuring it out as you go? Our school district has a Tech Admin. but he stretched over 7 schools which makes it difficult to find him at times.
ReplyDeleteIn our school district we currently use wordpress for our school web sites but the Tech Admin. is interested in getting Moodle up and running for us. What little I know about it - it seems more interactive than what we're using now. You can put quizzes on it that are automatically graded as one example.
Allison,
ReplyDeleteWhat program are you using to create a webpage? This year our school has made it mandatory that every teacher have their own website. At first I thought it was going to be terrible and so time consuming, but the program we are using is SO easy and user friendly. we use onmycalendar.com. You should try it. I am sure you don't want to have to recreate anything, but when I was told I had to do mine, I went on and within an hour I had a website. Now, it wasn't perfect, but it was useable. Now I update it and change things all the time. If you would like help, please just let me know.
John,
ReplyDeleteWe do have a tech administrator that is also stretched between schools. It is hard to get ahold of her but she is very efficient and gets things done.
Katie,
I will have to check out onmycalendar.com. Thanks for the advice!
Dan,
I was looking for a different website than the one the school provides for us at something called schoolwires.com. I was hoping to making something more personal and more interactive eventually.