It is hard to imagine my life before my website. I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but it truly has become my home base. Between communicating with parents electronically every week, attaching resources for students to access, and attaching necessary forms/documents, I always manage to use it daily. It has become a common language for my students, parents, and myself and that has been invaluable.
The uses that have been wonderful the past week are:
1) Linking Google Forms to the site (thank you Dana) for students to complete. These quizzes can be easily accessed and completed, and then I grade them with Flubaroo. This has saved me a lot of time this year and copies.
2) Weekly Newsletter and Parent Updates has allowed me to better communicate with my families. Between my Google calendar with the weeks activities and Specials linked to it, a blog type post with important information listed, and a schedule/homework rundown for every subject, I try to keep parents in the loop as much as possible. Parents have let me know that they appreciate knowing what is going on in the classroom so it feels like everyone is on the same page.
3) Resources...We just received a subscription to the math website IXL. I can find material on IXL that fits our weekly math lessons and link them to my site. This way, when students finish their work, they can go to my site and continue specific practice on IXL. Not only does the site track their progress for me, but it can be matched up to specific lessons! They are loving it and so am I. Using the website as a common point of access makes it easier to use as well.
4) Linking to other places...I use Sign-Up genius for my parent volunteer opportunities and use the link to the sign-up on my website. If parents loose the link I send them in the email they can just go to the site to sign up. This also allows other family members like grandparents to volunteer as well.
I am so grateful this cohort gave me the time and opportunity to create the resources. I am excited to keep strengthening it and making it a stronger resource for all involved.
I agree, a classroom website makes things so much easier! I often embed a Google Form for kids to score their participation/collaboration in group work. It makes it easy for me to see if a group is having a problem with a teammate that I might know about.
ReplyDeleteKristi,
DeleteWhat a great idea, I didn't even think about that! That will be a much easier way to check in with them during their group work instead of after when I can't fix the problem. I am going to try that! Thanks as always for the ideas.
Penny
I'm delighted to hear about your success with your site! I would agree with you as I can't imagine teaching without my wikispace. A virtual platform grows every year as you learn what works, what doesn't, what makes more sense for kids, etc. It's just like setting up your physical classroom. There are always changes and improvements to make, but who wants to live without either one of them?!?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're using your site in a myriad of ways that are benefiting your students, parent community, collegial community, as well as yourself! That's wonderful!
As for Google Forms, the possibilities are endless with such a user-friendly tool. I like Forms a lot better now that I've figured out ways to sort, manipulate, and retrieve the data I'm looking for. I've also learned to include the sign-in feature when I want students to receive a copy of their responses, which is how I approach their Weekly Reading Log, but take that feature off when I give a quiz. Not that any middle school student would EVER consider showing the test to a student who has my class later on in the day, but I like to play it safe ;)!
I am jealous that you are working so well with your website. I seem to have such a hard time keeping up with keeping the site updated. I use technology in my lessons all of the time so I suppose keeping the class website up to date is just something I'm going to have to find the time to do. In most cases I bet I could find a few things I am doing instead, eliminate them, which would give me more time to focus on my website. Do you ever have students update your website?
ReplyDelete