Classroom Website 2016-17

Mrs. Mann's Classroom Website

I recently started working on my classroom website through Swift. The challenge seemed difficult as there were no videos to watch but I got assistance by my kind colleagues. The learning experience of creating a website was not only rich learning but also a very pleasant one. 

Being a new teacher, I had many ideas in place for what I wanted to teach and felicitate my students  in the current academic year. But the real struggle was to keep track of everything while staying organized. Classroom website would not only help me stay organized but also help my students and parents to stay updated with current posts and archive older posts. This challenge is truly helpful in reflecting what is that I have missed and would like to add for students and their families. With a room to create, go back, and update current information, classroom website is a strong tool necessary for every classroom teacher to have.

Additionally, classroom website is a very effective tool to communicate with parents and keeping them engaged in their students' learning. It informs student families about events that are happening in their students' classroom, school as well as district. Parents can also access my website to contact me no matter where they are. My classroom website is an ongoing process and I will keep adding necessary pages to make it easier for parents to navigate.

Challenge: Digital Citizenship

What did you create, and why?  I created a support tool in Google Slides for the 5th grade "Talking Safely Online"  Digital Citizenship lesson.  Creating slides gives me an opportunity to reach the students who are visual learners and reinforce vocabulary and concepts for English Learners.  One of the main learning targets depends heavily on understanding that what you see on the screen may not be the whole picture.  It feels like it will be valuable to be able to illustrate that idea with the slides.

What went well for you?  I am very familiar with Google Slides as I have used them for my Morning Messages in 1st Grade as well as supporting lessons in Math and Science.  The articles and videos included in this challenge were thought-provoking and entertaining.  Please see the attached Google Doc for my reflections. Digital Citizenship Challenge Reflections

What was challenging?  Volume!  First, the sheer volume of information regarding Digital Citizenship was enormous.  I wanted to read every resource, but knew I could spend my entire summer focused on this topic alone.  Also, I wanted to include everything in my lesson.  I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to stay focused specifically on that lesson's learning targets and try not to take too many birdwalks.

What did you enjoy?  I enjoyed taking a look at a couple new tools that were suggested for presentations.  I appreciated the wealth of resources available to help us to more safely navigate the internet frontier with our students.  I had fun thinking about the students I would be working with and trying to use images that would appeal to them.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff, or to communicate with families?  I have two 5th graders and a 4th grader at home.  I will also be working in their classrooms this year.  Although they do not have their own Social Media accounts, they see that all of the adults in our home use them.  They see their grandfather and grandmother using Facebook frequently.  As they become more and more familiar with Social Media and the online world, I want them to know how to proceed in an safe and informed manner.  I want that for all of their classmates as well.  The Common Sense Media lesson plans and the ever expanding number of apps and websites for our students can help us to reach our students in the formats that are familiar to them.  For those students who are not online, it will help us to prepare them for a future at school and work, that is already there.

3x3 links

3x3 links is a very useful tool for students, parents, and teachers. It not only organizes all the educational websites and apps that are used in the classroom conveniently but is also make them easily accessible all at once. In my view, it is a far better and most interactive tool for all ages as it saves a lot of time for students in navigating sites. To me, as a teacher, 3x3 links proved to be helpful in reflecting on the quality and quantity of educational sites and apps I have been using in the classroom. Having them all at once place was beneficial in finding what is needed to be added.

Organizing the links as per subject is valuable in finding out ways to help and support my fourth graders as well as having a place to save and celebrate their accomplishments. I found it challenging in the beginning as it took me quite some time to figure out what is better option between a folder and a link. Once I figured that, I faced the problem of opening many webpages at once. I learned a way to open all tabs related to one subject and then copy the links one by one. Each folder allows nine folders or link and all nine can allow 81 folders in them. In short, there is enough space for teachers to categorize as per subjects and students’ interest.

The challenge was helpful in discovering my own strengths in using technology effectively. One thing that I learned through this challenge and was a little time consuming was to set similar user names and passwords for all educational websites. For students, the name 3x3 links helps to learn 'dimensions' and other mathematical vocabulary related to dimensions while they visually see how it works. 

I enjoyed this challenge while having a sense of accomplishment. 3x3 links can be added to my students Chromebook and it will save me so much time in setting up new chrome books ready for my new fourth graders. 3x3 links allows teachers to put links to educational websites as well as online bulletin board like Padlet and digital journal such as See Saw. 

Even though the work of adding new links as per students' interest and demand of curriculum is an ongoing job but I am excited to start the academic year with this helpful tool. 

 Here is a link to my 3x3 links:http://www.3x3links.com/?open=34e593ea8cd52e75ade5e56b249df938

Challenge: Reading Online

Reading Online Challenge

What did you create and why?
My students struggle with reading online and need more practice. I created a lesson where they will read an article on Newsela and then find and quote evidence from the article.

What went well?
By having my students use online tools such as Scribble and Highlighter, they will be able to find evidence quickly and accurately.

What was challenging?
No challenges. The tools are easy to use. The articles were interesting and helpful.

What did you enjoy?
The articles were interesting. They gave strategies for helping students read online. I had not used some of the tools before like Reading Glasses and DocHub. I enjoyed finding out about them.

What ideas do you have for using this tool?
I plan on having my students use the online reading tools whenever they are reading online.

Google Drive Challenge

Google Drive Challenge

What did you create and why?
For this challenge, I learned how to make files for my documents and how to remove files I no longer use or need. This was very helpful for my effort to become more organized.

What went well?
I learned how to organize folders, move my files to folders and upload files. Getting organized is a work in progress but I was able to make a start.

What was challenging?
Trying to figure out what some of the documents were was a challenge for me and slow going. I had to open a file, decide whether or not to keep it and then trash or put it in a folder. Not naming the files added work to this process.

What did you enjoy?
I enjoy the fact that I'm moving one step closer to organization.

What ideas for using this tool with students?
I will be able to help my students organize their work, name the file and put it in a folder.

Google calendar

I did the Google Calendar Challenge.  

Once I figured out how to make the calendar it was easy to make one that will be helpful for me next school year.

There was quite a few videos that were not necessary to watch.

Reading Online

It was interesting to read and think about online reading and the challenges it poses for students. The main complaint is that students struggle more with comprehension than when reading print-based texts. Part of this stems from the propensity toward skimming words rather than spending time on each page/section.

• What did you create, and why? I created a lesson plan in which students will use online reading tools when reading on RazKids and/or Scholastic online. My students read online at least once per week as part of a Daily 5 model. Using the tools Readability and Read & Write with Google Chrome, my students will be able to reduce color and images (Readability) and highlight text or use a picture dictionary (Read & Write with Google Chrome).
• What went well for you? I enjoyed learning about online tools my students can use to help when reading online.
• What was challenging? I was unable to complete the Online Reading Article Study. It came up as a Read Only document so I was unable to add anything/share. I sent a request to the administrator.
• What did you enjoy? I enjoyed learning about tools that are available to help students when reading online.
• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? My students will be using these tools when reading online during our literacy block. I am going to do more research about Cirriculet, which was mentioned in the 'Digital Reading...' article. Perhaps I will incorporate this website as an option for my students.