I believe I have made good progress on my GAME plan. Regarding the first indicator, communicating with students, parents, and community using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation, I have set up my teacher webpage, blog links, and sent home my first newsletter to parents—in addition, putting a copy of the newsletter on my webpage. Regarding the second indicator, participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning, I have read and communicated with other educators on my PLN.
As I have monitored my GAME plan progress, I have found some modifications I need to make. I have found out that there is no way that I can make my Blackboard teacher webpage open to the public. Only my students and parents with usernames and passwords can login and have access to my teacher webpage. This week, I am creating a new webpage so everyone can gain access to it. In addition, I believe that instead of sending out a newsletter monthly, I am going to send one out every quarter (9 weeks instead of 4 weeks). I have learned that even though you create a detailed plan where originally you do not foresee any flaws; there will always be changes you need to make.
One question that I do have is: can anyone recommend a good website where a teacher can make a webpage that is free and everyone can have access to?
Thank you,
Amy
Amy,
ReplyDeleteLike you and many of us, my plans look great on paper, but the reality comes with the implementation, and that is when the plans are regularly modified to fit the situation. I tried to send an update with long term plans, but soon found I was continually explaining why things did not go as planned. So I changed my approach. I now capsulize what we did in the past week and what the plans are for the up coming week. I do post long term assignment due dates and test/quiz dates as soon as I release them to the students. The parents are quite appriciative with this format.
Hi Amy. You commented that only your students and parents with usernames and passwords can access your webpage on Blackboard. Do all your students and their parents have usernames and passwords? If so, I am curious as to why you would need a different webpage? If your webpage is intended for communication with your students and their parents, why would you need anyone else to have access to it? Does your school require you to keep an updated webpage using Blackboard? If you begin a new webpage elsewhere, are you going to need to keep both webpages updated? Do you want to take on that much work? Just a thought :)
ReplyDeleteAmy,
ReplyDeleteI know that the program iWeb, for Apple Computers, allows you to construct a webpage of your own. However, I am not sure if the district I work in bought licenses for all of their teachers, if some teachers purchased it themselves, or if it can be downloaded off of the Apple website for free. I would suggested looking into this program one way or another, however, because I have heard very positive reviews from teachers who have used it.
Judy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great suggestions. It is difficult to keep everything always updated to notify the students and parents of upcoming projects, tests, and quizzes on my webpage. I have a place on my white board where I put announcements for the students, but actually posting it on my webpage is a constant struggle for me.
Linda,
The reason I wanted to create a web page is because part of my indicator that I have trying to achieve includes notifying the community too (not just students and parents). Yes, the students have log in information (which is what the parents use too). Yes, my administration requires that we either keep an updated webpage and/or homework hotline account. Every teacher though has a Blackboard webpage and homework hotline number. I know that creating a new webpage would be a lot of work for me to keep updated, but I don't see any other way for me to achieve success in that indicator.
Marcus,
Thanks for the suggestion of iWeb. I will check this out! :)
-Amy