Friday, June 17, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Home Page Project
My Kindergarten Home Page!
Calendar (KeepandShare: Username laurel_kindergarten1, password kindergarten)
Gradebook (Engrade: Username lace7787, password kindergarten)
Contact List (Plaxo: Username lace787, password kindergarten)
Parent Discussion (Tangler: Username lace787, password kindergarten)
Checklists (Tadalist: Username lace787, password loriliz787)
Calendar (KeepandShare: Username laurel_kindergarten1, password kindergarten)
Gradebook (Engrade: Username lace7787, password kindergarten)
Contact List (Plaxo: Username lace787, password kindergarten)
Parent Discussion (Tangler: Username lace787, password kindergarten)
Checklists (Tadalist: Username lace787, password loriliz787)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Technology Integration
A classroom website is an excellent place to not only share with parents and the school community, but also to organize and manage everyday classroom tasks and duties and to advance and scaffold student learning. In order to most effectively utilize the webpage, meet student needs and facilitate communication, web applications should be explored in order to discover what particular applications would best suit the classroom and its individual needs. Additionally, web applications should be simple enough for parents to use on an everyday basis, but complex enough to meet classroom needs effectively.
In terms of classroom organization and management, there are several web applications that could be efficiently integrated into a website, better enhancing and facilitating communication. For example, a classroom calendar can be created at keepandshare.com, and then embedded to the classroom website for parents to view. This calendar can be sent to families and later synced with individual family calendars, effectively integrating the school calendar into everyday family life. A second web application that can be used is an interactive contact list, like plaxo.com, that allows parents to view different groups of contacts—such as classroom parents or school administration—in one cohesive area. Parents can sign in to the secure, password-protected website, and know that their information is safe. Finally, a third web application that can be effectively integrated into a classroom website are interactive checklists, like those that can be created at tadalist.com. These checklists can be e-mailed to parents, giving each family a personal copy for each individual child, or embedded into other media sites, for parents to comment upon or make decisions.
As teachers, we should consistently be considering how to advance our teaching and scaffold learning both in and outside of the classroom. Creating a reference page for parents that includes things like booklists, links to online flashcards and online games, and subscribe to video and photo sharing sites. Allowing parents the access to such learning tools can help them to better support their child become more actively involved in their learning.
Finally, as teachers, we must be concerned with, not only our web-based needs as teachers, but also our students’ learning and studying needs. We must first assure that we are comfortable using the technology at hand, and be able to effectively communicate how to use these technologies effectively. Additionally, our ability to search for and seek out technologies, such as online math or language arts flashcards, that can be used in the classroom and later to study at home, will benefit our students greatly, as education should never stop at the classroom doors. Increasing our own comfort level with such technologies, in addition to parents’ and students’ comfort levels, will help to create an effective, efficient classroom website and classroom community.
KeepandShare / Calendar
http://www.keepandshare.com
date retrieved June 4 2011
Plaxo
http://www.plaxo.com
date retrieved June 6 2011
Tadalist
http://lace787.tadalist.com/lists
date retrieved June 6 2011
In terms of classroom organization and management, there are several web applications that could be efficiently integrated into a website, better enhancing and facilitating communication. For example, a classroom calendar can be created at keepandshare.com, and then embedded to the classroom website for parents to view. This calendar can be sent to families and later synced with individual family calendars, effectively integrating the school calendar into everyday family life. A second web application that can be used is an interactive contact list, like plaxo.com, that allows parents to view different groups of contacts—such as classroom parents or school administration—in one cohesive area. Parents can sign in to the secure, password-protected website, and know that their information is safe. Finally, a third web application that can be effectively integrated into a classroom website are interactive checklists, like those that can be created at tadalist.com. These checklists can be e-mailed to parents, giving each family a personal copy for each individual child, or embedded into other media sites, for parents to comment upon or make decisions.
As teachers, we should consistently be considering how to advance our teaching and scaffold learning both in and outside of the classroom. Creating a reference page for parents that includes things like booklists, links to online flashcards and online games, and subscribe to video and photo sharing sites. Allowing parents the access to such learning tools can help them to better support their child become more actively involved in their learning.
Finally, as teachers, we must be concerned with, not only our web-based needs as teachers, but also our students’ learning and studying needs. We must first assure that we are comfortable using the technology at hand, and be able to effectively communicate how to use these technologies effectively. Additionally, our ability to search for and seek out technologies, such as online math or language arts flashcards, that can be used in the classroom and later to study at home, will benefit our students greatly, as education should never stop at the classroom doors. Increasing our own comfort level with such technologies, in addition to parents’ and students’ comfort levels, will help to create an effective, efficient classroom website and classroom community.
KeepandShare / Calendar
http://www.keepandshare.com
date retrieved June 4 2011
Plaxo
http://www.plaxo.com
date retrieved June 6 2011
Tadalist
http://lace787.tadalist.com/lists
date retrieved June 6 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Narrative and Technology
Our daily lives seem to be marred by an indelible mark caused by technology. We can’t go anywhere without first searching for our cell phones, setting the DVR to record our favorite shows, and checking e-mail and Facebook one last time before journeying out the door. We drive instead of walking, microwave our food rather than cook over an open fire, upon many of the other activities that have become so mindless and ordinary because of our constant reliance upon technology.
Where did it all begin? And where would we be today if none of the technology had been created? It seems nearly impossible to imagine a life without the extras, yet the concept of creation in the face of a void or a need is what drives our creativity and development of technology. To be able to comprehend our lives and the technology we consume daily, we must consider it as a matched pair: technology and narrative.
Technology does not simply arise on its own. It is first motivated by a need, and then an idea to regulate the need, and then a means to create the regulation to fit the need. Imagine the creation of the pen. Rather than continue to write in pencil, a writing implement that could be easily wiped away, or continue to write with a quill and ink, an implement that made writing a lengthy process, the ink pen was created as a medium of writing that would be a long-lasting, less time-consuming process. Stories could now be written and re-told, quickly jotted down in journals or in letters to be sent across the country; recipes could be written on cards and placed in a box, held safe for generations of safekeeping. Yet now, the pen simply lays on a desk, taken for granted in the world of e-mailing Word documents, one copy saved to a file on our computer and the other sent off in the vast nothing, only to be received seconds later by someone next door or halfway around the world.
Each piece of technology has a story to tell; it is our remembering the individual story and the role it plays in our everyday life that creates its importance. We cannot take for granted the technology that we have, nor forget the time that we had less. Technology is there for our use and the betterment of our daily lives; we should listen to its story, and remind ourselves of not only why it is here, but also how we can use it to effectively help ourselves.
Where did it all begin? And where would we be today if none of the technology had been created? It seems nearly impossible to imagine a life without the extras, yet the concept of creation in the face of a void or a need is what drives our creativity and development of technology. To be able to comprehend our lives and the technology we consume daily, we must consider it as a matched pair: technology and narrative.
Technology does not simply arise on its own. It is first motivated by a need, and then an idea to regulate the need, and then a means to create the regulation to fit the need. Imagine the creation of the pen. Rather than continue to write in pencil, a writing implement that could be easily wiped away, or continue to write with a quill and ink, an implement that made writing a lengthy process, the ink pen was created as a medium of writing that would be a long-lasting, less time-consuming process. Stories could now be written and re-told, quickly jotted down in journals or in letters to be sent across the country; recipes could be written on cards and placed in a box, held safe for generations of safekeeping. Yet now, the pen simply lays on a desk, taken for granted in the world of e-mailing Word documents, one copy saved to a file on our computer and the other sent off in the vast nothing, only to be received seconds later by someone next door or halfway around the world.
Each piece of technology has a story to tell; it is our remembering the individual story and the role it plays in our everyday life that creates its importance. We cannot take for granted the technology that we have, nor forget the time that we had less. Technology is there for our use and the betterment of our daily lives; we should listen to its story, and remind ourselves of not only why it is here, but also how we can use it to effectively help ourselves.
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