Teacher Web 101

The purpose of teacher webpages is to communicate with students and parents. Keep in mind that content, organization and navigability are your main concerns in creating your pages - design is secondary. You may have the prettiest pages with the most pictures and dancing monkeys, but that page won't help anyone if you don't include the information that your visitor needs in a format that is easily accessible.

Keep in mind that you want your visitor to find the information they need with the fewest clicks in the shortest amount of time. You will be required to create 5 pages (home, about, news, students, parents) in that order - with specific content. You should also include a page or pages for your syllabus. With your five basic pages in place, you only need to update your news page weekly or daily, depending on what you post. Add your new news to the top and keep a running list on this page.

Once you have created those 5 pages you may add extra material as you see fit. When creating additional pages, consider how often you will need to update them - don't create pages if you won't keep up with them. Why add a calendar if it will remain blank most of the year?

Here are the notes for the beginner web workshop.

For more on learning about creating a good site, view Patrick Crispin's presentation or visit the Greenville County Schools page for teachers.

FactCheckEd.org - Annenberg Classroom Fact Check

I ran across this great site in the Librarians' Internet Index blog feed for FactCheckEd.org - Annenberg Classroom Fact Check. In the site intro, they convey the following mission for their site:

"Our aim is to help students learn to be smart consumers of these messages, to see through the deceptions that they encounter daily, to dig for facts using the Internet and other resources, and to set aside prejudice and weigh evidence logically."

While intended for a high school audience, I think that most of the content could be modified for use with middle school students as well. This site offers a wonderful collection of lesson plans that would be appropriate for all core subject areas, including math (Suspicious Statistics) and science (Listerine). This site will work well with writing argumentative essays, debates and studying media awareness.
There is a topical search for Internet resources and "A Process for Avoiding Deception" for students to consider when conducting research.
The creators have included a helpful little dictionary (really a glossary), encourage you to ask them questions and an open discussion forum in the Faculty Lounge.

One Minute How-To Podcast

I found a fun podcast this morning called "The One Minute How-To". Either the host, George, or a guest (an average person just like you) will explain how to do something in 60 seconds or less. Topics include "How To Get Your Artwork Hung Right The First Time", "How To Prevent Sunburn", "How To Save Time Editing Your Podcast Using Audacity", "How to Set Meaningful Goals and Reach Them ", "How To Organize A River Clean-up", "How To Read A Story Aloud" - just to mention a few of the 164 episodes. You can listen to them from "The One Minute How-To" website using your computer, download individual episodes or subscribe to the podcast feed using a "podcatcher" such as Feedburner or iTunes.
This would be a great exercise for the classroom, especially in ELA where most standards can be covered in The Writing Process, Communication: Speaking, Preparing and Presenting Information; make it a mini research project and include Selecting a Research Topic, Gathering Information and Refining a Topic; have students evaluate each other and cover Communication: Listening standards.
This activity could be modified for use in any subject area or grade level, but preparation and flexibility are of utmost importance. For all subject areas pre-writing is key.
Please share your ideas for your class!

Google Teacher

Thanks to Alan November @ SCASL 2007 , my eyes have been opened to the educational tools and ways to integrate Google tools into lessons. I subscribed to the Google Educator newsletter and found Google Teacher Activities to help you use tools such as Google Earth (with literature & social studies) into your lessons. See more ideas and activities at the Infinite Thinking Machine
Check out Google Notebook (a new one for me) to see how you can create lesson plans to help scaffold the use of the Internet in your lessons.
Too often we assume that students know what we know (or more) about using the Internet - not so. Students need guidance in creating searches, determining which search engine or database is most appropriate, evaluating search results and evaluating the information the uncover. Next time you plan a research project or a lesson incorporating the Internet, be sure to first determine if your lesson should be an opportunity to educate your students on the proper way to conduct an Internet search, or should your lesson be an opportunity for your students to access important information from the Internet quickly without spending extra class periods on search instruction. If your mission is the latter you should provide your students with links to relevant and reliable information using a webquest, pathfinder, Google Custom Search Engine or social bookmarking tool, such as del.icio.us. Your friendly Library Media Specialist would LOVE to help you with these tasks :)
Find helpful "how tos" on how to use the incredible Google tools that are available for your use in your classroom at Tools for Your Classroom. I've tinkered with almost all the tools on this page and they are quite easy to use. Brainstorm with your classes to find ways to use these tools! Be sure to visit the Google Poster Page for really nice posters and quizzes to go along with your new lessons.

Upstate Technology Conference "Using Blogs and Wikis for Meaningful Instruction"

Sarah Hunt-Barron from Berea Middle did a wonderful presentation on using blogs and wikis in the classroom. She has used blogs in her ELA classes. I have summarized the blog portion her presentation here, but be sure to view her PowerPoint for all of her links and her website for other documents.

Often we feel like using new technologies are just "too much trouble" because it takes a long time to set-up and log-in, it's difficult to keep students on task, there are always technology "issues" and you have to think of new ways to assess student work. She recommends to always have a back-up plan - often technology does not cooperate with us the way we want it to. Don't waste a class period fighting a laptop cart, simply move on to another task and try again tomorrow. Don't think of log-in time as a waste of time, but think of it as "think time" for students to contemplate their EQ, prompt or assignment. Wouldn't it be great to have a blog reflect your EQ of the day everyday for an entire year?

Sarah pointed out that some benefits of blogging are that the activity "democratizes" your classroom and encourages those shy kids or kids who need more time to gather their thoughts to participate in class discussions, it's a great hook for learning and encourages depth of thought because their thoughts are out there for the world to see. Blogs can be used for any subject and in a cross-curricular manner, are standards-based and present a great opportunity for reciprocal teaching.

Blogs can be used many ways in the classroom, not only as journals. They can be an outlet for publishing student work (poetry, essays, etc.), a way for teachers to communicate and share information with parents and students (see example http://hetherington0607.learnerblogs.org/) and promotes discussion among students - not just students within your classroom walls. Blogs do work very well as journals. Think about just logging on to your blog to read journals, type quick notes and not lugging home boxes of notebooks that can get lost, stolen or destroyed.

There are potential roadblocks (or opportunities for real learning) on the path to blogging:

• Students may struggle with keyboarding...but practice makes perfect!
• Students may be hung up on spelling...but thank goodness for spell check!
• Students can't remember their login or password...keep a list close by.
• Students are afraid to post...be supportive and be sure to respond yourself to reluctant students.
• Students are "snarky"...make sure they know you are reading their responses.
• Students get off topic...post responses that guide them in the right direction.
• Students are only writing in IM slang...require them to use formal language and discuss when to use different types of language.

When setting-up your blog, Sarah suggests that you find a blog site with few ads and that offers moderation capability. Suitable sites include: http://www.wordpress.com/, http://www.learnerblogs.org/, http://www.edublogs.org/, http://www.blogger.com/ .

Finally, some tips for fostering discussion:

• Post questions that make students think and form/evaluate opinions
• Make sure you allow enough time for thinking and responding
• Have students read and respond to each other

From personal experience, I know that using blogs in a classroom can be trying. Be sure to set aside plenty of time for this exercise, monitor students closely to be sure they are staying on task and not playing, have a back-up plan in case of "technical difficulties" and don't give up! It may take several tries for your kids to get the hang of it.

Please share your classroom blogging experiences!

Upstate Technology Conference - Share What YOU Learned

Share your favorite session or cool new idea from the UTC with the rest of us!

Upstate Technology Conference Morning News Pre-Conference Session

In the session on morning news shows, Jeff McCoy demonstrated how to create a digital programs that can be used for a morning news show, special school productions and class projects. Jeff covered topics relating to:

• Benefits of an organized news show (enhance instructional programs, increase writing and communication skills, develop knowledge of tech equipment, practice decision making and problem solving, enhance leadership skills, improve responsibility, teamwork and organization),
  
• Basic equipment necessary to get started (laptop, lights, webcam, microphone and software such as Visual Communicator 3 by Adobe http://www.adobe.com/products/visualcommunicator/ or Vlog It http://www.adobe.com/products/vlogit/)
  
• Advanced equipment (video mixer, modulator, lights, switcher, tripod, microphones, sound mixer, VCR/DVD recorder, DVD burner tower and set props such as a green screen or backgrounds)
  
• Setting up the morning news show (assigning roles such as director, producer, editor, sound technician and video technician)
  
• Getting a morning news team started (brainstorm ideas for stories and story types, determine and assign roles, discuss expectations, deadlines and checkpoints, inform school population of procedures for submitting story ideas and deadlines for announcements, determine archival procedures).
  
• Determine show format (welcome and introductions, pledge, lunch menu, morning announcements, moment of silence, sign off)
  
• Expand the news programming (Word of the Week, Art Share, Spanish Special, Weather Update, Book Reviews, Technology Tuesday, Community Updates, After-School Activities, Fundraisers, Special Class Projects, Sports, etc.)
  
• Involve the entire school (designate a class of the week for special activities such as the pledge, establish a theme of the week, broadcast activities from all over the school, focus on a student-led program, highlight classrooms, sell DVDs of each week's broadcast to fund the show, vlog the show so parents can watch at work or at home)

Upstate Technology Conference Podcasting Pre-Session

I attended two pre-conference sessions on Wednesday - "Podcasting" with Amanda LeBlanc, Mike Simmons and Paige Cochrane and "Serious Magic: Transforming your Morning News Show" with Jeff McCoy. For presenter downloads from the conference check the UTC site http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/utc/07/downloads/index.htm
In the podcasting session we were able to try out the new Creative MP3 players that were purchased by the RVPIMC. These MP3 players can be checked-out as class sets by teachers.

The presenters provided attendees with a very helpful handbook which explains the basics of what podcasting is, a glossary of terms, bibliography, instructions for subscribing to feeds and some ideas for locating podcasts of interest (The Education Podcast Network http://epnweb.org/ , Podcast Alley http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_genres.php?pod_genre_id=7, Digg - Most Popular Education Podcasts http://digg.com/podcasts/view/education, Podcast News - Directory of Podcast Directories http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Directory.html , iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/ ).

Next, we explored ways to use podcasting in the classroom:
To enrich instruction:National Geographic www.nationalgeographic.com/podcastsDiscovery Channel www.discovery.com/radio/podcasts.htmlNASA Brain Bites http://brainbites.nasa.gov/Cool Stuff Being Made: National Association of Manufacturers http://blog.nam.org/archives/coolstuffbeingmade.com_weekend_video/English as a Second Language http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.phpLearn Spanish - Survival Guide http://www.podcastingnews.com/details/www.switchpod.com/users/david_spencer/feed.xml/view.htm
For Studying and Class Review:Good example to explore: ColeyCast http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/tovashal/bcoley/studycast/index.htm

Student Created Podcasts:Willoweb Radio http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/ColeyCast: The Official Podcasts from Room 34 http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/tovashal/bcoley/coleycast/index.htmConcept Library http://www.ellwood.k12.pa.us/podcasting/Podcasting%20Team/Welcome.html
D.R. Hill Middle School - examples of using podcasts as projects in the classroom http://ssymborski.edublogs.org/category/podcasts/
Finally, we spent time creating our own podcasts. Some sites to help you get started:
How to create a student podcast from ColeyCast http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/tovashal/bcoley/coleycast/podcastinfo.htm

Some basic steps to follow to create a podcast:

1. Write a script
2. Gather your materials: computer, microphone or omnidirectional headset microphone, install a free audio recorder and editor such as Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ . Consider adding COPYRIGHT-FREE music or sound effects from a source such as Soundzabound. Greenville County has purchased a subscription, just ask your Library Media Specialist for the username and password.
3. Publish your podcast - use a pod hosting site such a Podomatic https://www.podomatic.com/user/register or iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/ to post your podcast.