Face of Your Classroom
Creating an online presence
This "Face of Your Classroom" thing looks at a variety of resources which teachers can use to create a web presence for students and parents to access information about their classroom online. Blogging, wikis, classroom management systems, and web authoring systems all are wonderful ways to create an online presence.
Pre-Assess your skills for this "Thing"
Making your "Face"
Here are four core resources you should consider for your classroom. These include:
1. Websites, including personalized homepages or start pages using online resources such as Weebly, Pageflakes, or Google Sites.
2. Classroom management systems such as Blackboard or Moodle.
3. Blogs (which is a contraction of the term "Web log") have a web site feel and are maintained with regular entries. Common Blogs for educators include: EduBlogs, Blogger, Blogmeister, and Live Journal. NOTE: Macomb County teachers should obtain their Edublogs site from http://edublogs.misd.net ,
4. Wikis: two excellent wiki sites are Wikispaces and PBWorks.
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Summarizing and Note-Taking; Homework and Practice; Non-Linguistic Representations; Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
All have their advantages
Online Classroom Management Systems can function as an extension of the classroom. They are a secure environment that requires logging in with a password to gain access. Teachers can post documents, videos, and tests online. Most of these are purchased by a district and offered to teachers. See the "Additional Resources" below for some "free" options to consider.
Blogs are similar to journals. Blogs let teachers add information on a regular basis to the site. Teachers often use blogs to post assignments, student writing, podcasts, or links to resources.The video below explains blogs in a simple terms.
Wikis and Online Infrastructure Systems: Wikis are websites that allow the users to create and edit interlinked web pages. Wikis are powered by Wiki software and are often used to create collaborative websites. Online Infrastructure Systems (OIS) refer to purchased products that school districts use for their online process. Check with your district to find out if they have an OIS and if you have access to it. Check out the wiki video below.
WEEBLY: Go to http://weebly.com and click on the "Try Demo".
Come back to this site and click on the Weebly image below to launch the video tutorial. While watching the tutorial, stop along the way and try each feature from the demo site
Inserting a video into a webpage
21 Things Hands-On Activity and Assignment:
1. Before beginning this "Thing", complete the Pre-Assessment of your technology proficiency.
2. Create your own web presence using one of the tools above or one of your own choosing.
3. Include at least three web pages, text, images, documents and web-links. You may want to use your site as a means to demonstrate some of the things you have learned from this 21 Things course. Include three screen shots.
4. Include the URL to your site and a reflection about the ways you could use a web page creator to create a web presence.
5. Capture a screen shot of your Home page (s) to include in the portfolio.
6. After completing all of the activities for this "Thing", take the Post-Assessment of your technology proficiency for this "Thing".
Post-Assess your skills for this "Thing
Additional Resources:
1. Websites created using Weebly:
--Begin With Me
--Teaching With Technology
--The Info LIbrarian--Tech Boot Camp
--Cochrill Connection
2. These sites provide an alternative to a paid course management system and can be used to create an internet presence for your classroom, post assignments, create groups for students and teachers, etc. You may need to pay for "premium" features to the sites.
Schoology
Edmodo
3. Get started blogging! Here's the ultimate guide to Getting Started with EduBlogs!
Sample blogs created using Edublogs:
http://edublogs.misd.net/mlshort/
http://edublogs.misd.net/dangelo/
If you are a Macomb County educator, please remember - you should sign up for an Edublogs Campus Account!
4. Livebinders is a unique system that allows you to take a subject and create a web presence with "tabs" for the different "sections" of your "binder". This could be used as the face of your classroom OR a livebinder about a particular "topic" could be embedded into a classroom web page. For example, you could create a Livebinder to showcase all your resources and assignments for a unit of study, or you could create a Livebinder to house all of your basic resources for the year, with pdfs, how-to videos, etc. It is definitely worth a look when you are considering your online presence. Also see this tutorial which includes student and iPad suggestions.
5. Sample Wikis:
http://joycevalenzaworkshop.wikispaces.com
http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbworks.com
http://www.mjwhite.wikispaces.com
6. Posting video to your online presence:
After finding an amazing video, how can you post that video to your web presence? Check out how to use three options:
1) Upload the file
2) Post the hyperlink
3) Embed the HTML Code
21 Things for 21st Century Educators by CCRESA, IISD, MISD, SRESD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at 21things.weebly.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://21things4teachers.net/. Page updated August 19, 2011
