3.7 Communication & Collaboration
Candidates utilize digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community. (PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g)
Artifact: Classroom Website
Reflection:
My school website was created several years ago and is updated each school year (and throughout the school year) for the purpose of communicating with students and parents. My school uses the Schoolwires platform for the school website and each teacher has an individual webpage for his or her specific classes.
My website is updated throughout the school year, usually several times each week. While the website contains important information, such as a course syllabus and materials list, it more importantly contains items that facilitate communication and collaboration with students and parents. For example, I include a classroom calendar and daily agenda with links to documents used in class so that students who were absent may catch up and parents may double check what their students did in class that day. I also include various blogs on my website when they are needed for classroom assignments. Students can use the blogging features on my website rather than access a different website in order to communicate with their peers and the larger community, including locally and globally. One of the most recent blogs students completed was on Frankenstein; students shared responses to specific prompts as they read the text, and engaged in conversations with their peers on the blog. I also use the website as a way to communicate with my own peers, posting presentations from professional learning workshops I have conducted so that teachers may access them after the presentation.
One change I would like to make to my website in the next school year is to include more examples of student work, as well as demonstrations of me and my students implementing technology in the classroom. As I hope to move into an instructional technology position, I think it will be important to have a portfolio that allows people to see specific ways I use technology in the classroom, in addition to my Weebly portfolio; similarly, many of the teachers at my school could benefit from brief tutorials about how to use specific digital tools, including Socrative, Padlet, and Google Docs. Tutorials or screencasts demonstrating how these tools work would be a great addition to my website and would expand by ability to communicate and collaborate with my teaching peers.
In many ways, my website facilitates student learning, faculty development, and school improvement. Students can use the resources provided on the website to ensure they are staying caught up with assignments, and faculty can use some of the professional learning materials to improve their technology implementation practices. Communication with parents and the local community is an important part of the school improvement plan, and my teacher website certainly aids in achieving this goal.
My school website was created several years ago and is updated each school year (and throughout the school year) for the purpose of communicating with students and parents. My school uses the Schoolwires platform for the school website and each teacher has an individual webpage for his or her specific classes.
My website is updated throughout the school year, usually several times each week. While the website contains important information, such as a course syllabus and materials list, it more importantly contains items that facilitate communication and collaboration with students and parents. For example, I include a classroom calendar and daily agenda with links to documents used in class so that students who were absent may catch up and parents may double check what their students did in class that day. I also include various blogs on my website when they are needed for classroom assignments. Students can use the blogging features on my website rather than access a different website in order to communicate with their peers and the larger community, including locally and globally. One of the most recent blogs students completed was on Frankenstein; students shared responses to specific prompts as they read the text, and engaged in conversations with their peers on the blog. I also use the website as a way to communicate with my own peers, posting presentations from professional learning workshops I have conducted so that teachers may access them after the presentation.
One change I would like to make to my website in the next school year is to include more examples of student work, as well as demonstrations of me and my students implementing technology in the classroom. As I hope to move into an instructional technology position, I think it will be important to have a portfolio that allows people to see specific ways I use technology in the classroom, in addition to my Weebly portfolio; similarly, many of the teachers at my school could benefit from brief tutorials about how to use specific digital tools, including Socrative, Padlet, and Google Docs. Tutorials or screencasts demonstrating how these tools work would be a great addition to my website and would expand by ability to communicate and collaborate with my teaching peers.
In many ways, my website facilitates student learning, faculty development, and school improvement. Students can use the resources provided on the website to ensure they are staying caught up with assignments, and faculty can use some of the professional learning materials to improve their technology implementation practices. Communication with parents and the local community is an important part of the school improvement plan, and my teacher website certainly aids in achieving this goal.