Teacher's Web Templates

***Very Rough Draft***

Template-Based Teacher Web Pages

This article starts out talking about Brewster Central School District, a school district North of New York City. This story starts in the fall of 2002 and talks about their efforts to enhance the district web site. I decided to check out the district web site.

http://www.brewsterschools.org/

All Brewster's teacher's page:

https://www.brewsterschools.org/site/technology/teachersitesindex.html

I chose one teacher at random. Horrified by the garish colors and blinking images: I wondered, am I in Las Vegas? What sort of template did this teacher use? I won't name the teacher. Perhaps it is a culture difference between mellow San Diego and the other side of the country; I don't know.

Not to be discouraged, I ventured on. One disappointing experience should not stop me. I chose this article because it was pertinent to the 422 class assignment of designing our our own web teacher sites.

I found myself curious why I was reading such an “old” article; so much has changed since 2002. In technology terms, a decade is a long, long time.

NETS standard addressed: #2 Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning and Assessments

I Published a rough post to open the forum to input, please feel free to reply

***this post will be updated***

Explore Learning Site

Yet Another Resource!

I was visiting an Earth &Space high school classroom today and saw the teacher employ a neat online interactive resource.

http://www.explorelearning.com/

Unfortunately, it is not free. The students really enjoyed using it though.

Student working with the ExploreLearning Gizmo.

The class moved to the computer lab from their regular classroom. Some of the students had trouble logging in, both to their school computer and the website. The importance of having info about logging in properly clarified was reinforced to me.

The lesson plan is titled "Student Exploration: Star Spectra". It included online interactive and printed media. The primary online activity involved matching the spectrum profiles of various elements and the spectrum of various stars.

Handout Page 1

Handout Page 2

Handout Page 3

Spectrum gizmo closeup

Students could click and drag the spectral lines of the elements and compare to the star's spectrum. They had some fun once they got the hang of it.

Younger generations are increasingly interested in technology. Give them an electronic toy (I know bad word, should say tool, but learning is play) to use and they can go from disruptive to productive. I thought this would be a nice experience to share.

Go there... Virtually!

Must Find a Good Virtual Field Trip

Review of: The Beginner's Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips By Jan Zanetis

I was so excited about this concept of virtual field trips. Students love watching videos! Engage some technology and they can go from distracted to enraptured. Disengaged students can become fascinated students when you turn on electronic media. Let's face it, they get sick of listening to the teacher drone on and on and on... So... show them a video or a slideshow! I thought to myself, "This is brilliant". I can't wait to explore what is out there!

Then I started perusing the sites that are linked in the article. I found: broken links, videos that would not do full screen view... Frustration, Anxiety, and Tension started to set in. There seemed to be so much potential. My hopes were so high! Yet, I found mostly disappointment.

Then I found one that worked! It wasn't everything I expected, but it was interesting. No videos or interactive media, but a neat little tour. Describing George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens, this site has many pages for different parts of the estate and gardens. I went through the different parts of the tour. There are links to pictures and short stories of the different parts of the estate. There is the paddock, laundry, kitchen, etc.

Then I got to the "Dung Repository"... I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

I think as teachers, that we have an obligation to be entertainers as well as educators. We can connect to students with electronic media and silliness. Students really enjoy technology. They really enjoy silliness. Anything that we can do to keep them engaged is beneficial.

To Blog or not to Blog

To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question!

ISTE article "POINT/COUNTERPOINT IS BLOGGING WORTH THE RISK?"

Maybe yes...

Like so many things in life, blogging as an educator boils down to balancing risk and reward. There is certainly significant risk to putting personal information and opinions out there in such a public forum. As long as that risk is carefully managed there can be great potential for reward. Does the potential reward outweigh the inherent risk?

Maybe no...

The potential risk is enormous. People lose their jobs because of bad decisions with internet social media. The damage to a person's life can be devastating. You can confuse people with misinformation or poorly phrased information. We can bring grief upon ourselves. The horror story detailed by the author of the article is concerning.

I think the question is moot. There is no making Blogs go away. Being opposed to blogging won't make blogs go away. At this point, I think that using blogs in education is inevitable. I will stop short of saying that I think blogging is necessary. A good teacher can be effective using a variety of media and techniques. However, the more methods we use to communicate with students, parents, and peers... the more ways the better.

Different student interact in different ways. We should interact with all of them, not leave any students behind. The argument for "no blogging" is based on a horror story, a bad experience. I believe that as educators, we can not let the possibility of a mishap derail us from our objectives. Sure I might offend someone... sure I might say something off queue. We should avoid doing these things, as much as possible. If we hedge ourselves into a box and never take any chances, then we are being too timid.

Discretion is the better part of valor. So on the "to Blog or not to Blog" question... I come squarely down in the middle. Do it, but do it with exemplary caution. Don't do it, and use other techniques. It all comes down to the students.

Favorite Commmunication Tool

Contact me!!!

Although I really appreciate the advantages of email and texting for the distribution of information to large groups of people, neither is my favorite.

I like to talk to people. This might be because, as a youth, I was really shy, very reluctant to open up and say something to anyone. I recognized this about myself and made a point of taking some drama classes. I was in two different plays (Anything Goes and Museum).

The current fascination with texting kind of baffles me. I think it has encouraged a mangled use of language. When I sit down to lunch with someone and they are clicking away on their phone, sometimes I feel like moving to another table.

So... if I had to choose one mode of communication, it would be the phone, but as a tool for verbal communication.