Well.... it has been one week since I formulated my GAME plan that involves using my school web page to enhance my own technology skills and communication with parents. In order to meet my goals, I need to attend the technology workshops (aka Tech Thursdays) led by the people in the technology department. At these workshops, I can use their expertise to assist me in making my goals become reality- making my web page an actual resource for parents and students; not just a site that is never visited. Since last week, I have updated my page on my own (there was not a workshop last week; nor will there be one this week, unfortunately). I have discovered that I can create a calendar on my electronic lesson plan program and post it to my web page. Therefore, I am currently working on a basic plan for the month of October. I will need to wait for another "Tech Thursday" Workshop in order to find out how to put a blog on my page. I have tried talking to some of my more tech-savvy peers, but no one has worked with blogs in this way yet. We are suppose to be getting a new program soon that is rumored to be more user-friendly in the are of blogs, podcasts, and other tech tools. I may need to wait until this program becomes live before starting a blog on my web page.
I am not entirely sure yet how often I want to post to my blog or what I want the content to be. I am wondering if a weekly blog may be too much. Or might it be too little? Do I post in the beginning of the week, explaining what I plan on accomplishing and any upcoming assignments? Or should I post at the end of the week, and summarize what was accomplished? These are details I want to work out before the blog goes live.
Tomorrow night is my "Back-To-School night and I will inform parents of my plan for the website. Wish me luck!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI definitely wouldn't want to post more than once a week. With the grading load that I have, I find it difficult at times to keep up with updating my classroom portal online every week as it is.
Something I do to maximize my classroom portal is use it during open house at the beginning of the school year. I put our class syllabus on it and a few links so that I can show parents where to go and how to use it. It makes it easy for me because we have projectors hooked up to our classroom computers...so if your school does not have the technology it makes it a little difficult, but it is a thought.
Hey Linda,
ReplyDeleteSo far it seems like you are making great progress. I post my assignments online using the school website and I have discovered that it has both its pros and cons. The first negative aspect would be the fact that I can sometimes be forgetful when I have fifty thousand other things going on so I forget to post on Mondays. Some other issues I have had in the past would be the fact that if things would change in the weekly schedule (which they do quite often) I would forget to make these changes to the website and then I would have both students and parents arguing with each other regarding whether or not their son/daughter actually has homework. However, I must say, I not only put my assignments up for each week but I also add all the corresponding attachments and this really helps when students are absent or get out early for sporting events. Instead of me doing all the work to make sure they get caught up, I can just say, "check the website". Parents also really appreciate being "in the loop" once I tell them about my website every year at back to school night. I am certainly not trying to discourage you at all from creating a website but i just wanted you to be aware of some issues that exist o hopefully you can develop a GAME plan that will circumvent those issues and make this tool extremely effective for both the students and you! Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions!
Linda,
ReplyDeleteYou have a great start here! I love that you have the assistance that you need to create this blog. I guess I'm curious what the goal of the blog will be? Will students comment there?