This week we are looking at different class website pages, I decided to look at my old elementary school website. Roberts Elementary was my literal childhood. The schools usually have pages for their teachers and those teachers sometimes have websites for their class which is nice for the parents. to get to know the teacher and keep up with classroom updates. I specifically looked at the kindergarten pages. I noticed that kindergarten, and grades like fourth-where the curriculum gets tougher-were the most developed in terms of the teachers having websites. Majority of the kindergarten teachers had websites that included things like: meet the teacher, classroom resources, announcements, and class calendars. The younger the kids, the more involved the parents are, and they want to know what is going on with their child, that is why it is so helpful to have a place for them to go to indirectly check up on what is going on. There were pictures of them, as well as links to their email and website on the faculty/ staff page for easy navigation of curious parents. Some teachers even had links to the lesson plans like the Pre-K teachers. Many of the teachers also had links to educational websites so the students could go home and practice more online. Overall the class websites were very helpful and another way to reach parents, besides sending home hard copy information in the students Friday folders.
Link to Roberts Kindergarten Webpage: https://www.leonschools.net/domain/5754
When it comes to using technology in the classroom to promote efficiency and effectiveness in terms of my professional responsibility, I will definitely make use of a class website. I imagine myself with a website that not only covers the basics namely, about me, resources, etc. But I want to have a website that has a different page for each student where the parents can go for weekly updates on their child and know what they personally need to work on in terms of skills and behavior. Similar to that of what they get on paper each week but more updated. An easier way to reach out to the parents; which helps with the process of learning in their children. I know that the website will be very high maintenance especially with the vision I have. However, the time I waste rightly so in that area will hopefully be made up by the lack of phone calls form parents because they will have all the information they need right at their fingertips. For the most part. If I can make sure that the students learning doesn't stop just because they left the classroom for the day, then I will be able to successfully fill the role of a teacher who not only teaches, but encourages the students to apply what they learned no matter where they are and no matter how young they are!
Switching topics up a bit, this past week the class went on a field trip to Tech Sandbox. I'll admit, even with my very public decree of how much I hate technology, everything there was out of this world amazing. From the virtual reality sets, to the 3d printers, and pens. Lots of the things were not only fun to play with, but they could prove very useful in a classroom setting. There was a whole corner devoted to Coding of all types. At first I was intimidated, but then our very helpful guide broke it down and explained the basics. These different sets could range from using apps and physical pieces for making music, and connecting different things that formulated commands over the various mini robots. Coding is something that encourages the students to think about what they are learning and apply critical skills in the process, reaping some really rad results. If I was teaching the kids about science, the Merge cubes-which turned into completely different 2d things on the phone-could be helpful in teaching students basic facts in a new way. Not only would the kids be blown away, but they would want to learn more. There was also the Smart board, that was essentially a big monitor screen that could be placed flat, similar to the look of a table, where the kids could gather around and try different things and learn new lessons. The whole thing could situate an entire group of kids and facilitate group lessons and small projects or just occupy fun in some cases. I think everything in the Tech Sandbox could be used in someway to enhance a classroom atmosphere. I'm so glad I got to go see it all! Below I included some of the pictures I took...
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