School Webpages

Most schools have their own webpages.  It is something to show the calendar, post teachers email addresses on, publish announcements and pictures of special events.  It is just a general area that gives out information about the particular school.  It is important to have for parents to find information on and even as a marketing aspect of the school.  Many prospective parents look on different school websites when inquiring information about the school before sending their children to it.  Public Schools also have district websites that will provide links to all of the schools within the district. 

Web Page Building

For some reason the day that we had class technology was not on my side and the website that I had created did not save at all.  I then had to restart my website but then as long as it saved it seemed to be an easy assignment for me to complete.  I have worked at two different schools in my teaching career and neither one of the was done with this particular program.  I think that having parents and students be able to easily go online to check for homework or even just to find out websites to help practice with is a great idea.  I utilize technology everyday in my classroom and my students each use their own laptops at least twice a week.  I think it is very important that they can just sign onto my site and find the sites I have put up for them to use or even just to get the thrill of seeing their name on my Announcements board for doing a good job.  So even though this assignment didn't start out in my favor it was good that I was able to see another Free site to be able to create my class's website through.  All teachers know if it is free it is definitely  something to check out.

I can not wait to see how some of the websites have come out.

Web-based Educational Resources

There are many educational resources out there on the internet for teachers to utilize in their classrooms to make learning exciting and fun.  Technology is a must in todays classrooms.  I have had personal experience using many interactive websites, as well as many of the listed sites for this weeks examining.  My school district also holds accounts with many other educational resources like A-Z books, Tumblebooks, United Streaming, Kidspiration, Nettrecker, etc.  By being allowed to incorporate these types of resources into my lessons my students have many opportunities to learn the topics that we discuss in a variety of ways.  By using computers and technology learning seems more fun and less like work.  In fact though they are learning and will probably have a better chance of retaining the information for longer since they are doing it in a fun way.  Learning straight out of the textbook and doing workbook pages is a way of the past the future is really in technology.  

Kidspiration Video

Here is another video I had found on using Kidspiration using a MAC computer.  Hope you find it helpful!

Kidspiration & Inspiration

My school has an account with Kidspiration so I already knew what that was all about.  I was unaware though that there was Inspiration for students in the older grades.  I think this is a wonderful program that teachers and students can utilize to great creative with their thinking and putting together projects. I have used Kidspiration with our 6+1 Traits writing program in school. It was nice that one of those videos got to show how it can be used if someone has not seen it before.  This program can be used in a variety of ways, for example, whole group instruction, group work, pair work, or individual usage on a laptop/computer lab.  It can be used by students of all ages and of all different learning abilities.  It is a great program to be used for all different subjects in a variety of different ways.  I would definitely recommend using it if you have never done so before.   

Blogging

I think that blogging is a great idea to reach kids in a fun way.  I had taken online courses before but I have to say even though a discussion board on blackboard has the same idea as blogging there are so many extras that come along with using this type of format over the regular just blackboard.  I didn't realize how many educational blog spots there really are out there but it is amazing what you can find on the internet.  Between myspace, facebook, and this new thing I keep hearing about Twitter blogging is the new thing to do on the internet.  It is a great tool to keep in touch with friends or just to have a conversation/discussion on and find out new information from people all around the world.  Being a second grade teacher I was really trying to come up with a way to start using a blog type application in my classroom because I think that by starting my students early using this type of technology it can only benefit them in the long run.  I just opened my first account with WikiSpace.  It is another type of blogging outlet but I think it would be easier to use with students of their ages.  It will be an ongoing process and I am sure there are tons of other blogs that I can use with my student that I just haven't found out about yet.  I am going to give this one a try and see how it goes.  If I taught students in the upper grades I would probably use this application since it is so super easy to use.  I just think overall it is a fun way to teach and have all involved in the blog learning from each other.