Module 8 blog

This is the link to my pinterest account. I am new to "pinning", but have used this site in the past to get ideas for lessons. https://pinterest.com/ahickma0/ I have added it to my website so that parents could easily follow any websites I like to support their child education. Having interactive elements in a website allows for involvement and feedback for the studens and the parents. A blog allows students to communicate and share ideas. Facebook allows for ease of sharing information. My school does not allow us to have class facebook accounts, and I think that is unfortunate. While I have seen the down side of it, if it is a "like" only that does not allow commments, but does allow messages to be sent to me, I think that would be a great tool for teachers, and parents (and students) are already on it. Blogs allow for comments to be made, altough that could lead to problems and would have to be monitored well. With parent conferences in my school this week, communication is one of the biggest obstacles. As a 4th grade teacher, we are trying to teach them responsibility, and that can lead to them learning how to manipulate information that goes to the parents. If there were easily accessible ways for parents and teachers to communicate, I think we could see an improvement in performance. A downside, I feel like that could lead to me being more "on call", needing to monitor blogs/facebook/etc. for questions, or assitance, and time is a hot commodity in education right now!

Module 7 Blog

Module 7 Blog What information will you put in your page header? My header will have a logo/link back to my home page, tabs that will direct people to the information they are on the site to obtain, a link to my external CSS file, Will you be incorporating scan columns? If so, what specifically will be included? I will be incorporating scan columns for links to various sites for students and parents to access, as well as links to the school site that I work at. How will you organize the content on your page? I will be organizing my content based on the needs of different people. On my home page, I would like to have upcoming events. I would like to have a tab for students, where they can access educational web sites, a tab for parents with links to educational information, school test results, etc. I would also like a tab that will host photos of what is going on on the class, and one that shares apps and their descriptions, since I have a class set of iPads. What will you include in your page footer? I will have a link at the bottom of the page sighting me as the author, as well as a link to my schools web site. In regards to the survey form, things I found that I would change are: asking for your name twice, maybe ask for email and/or phone and not requiring that unless I needed to talk to the survey participants, I would not make additional comments required, especially without further directions, and the like/dislike question had yes and no as answers, and both could be selected at the same time.