Teacher Websites

I am a big fan of teachers having websites and that is something that we (technology department) are working towards in our school district. Over the summer, we moved to a new website platform called DotNetNuke (www.dotnetnuke.com), which this is a free solution. With this web tool that users can be given permission to edit various pages that belong to them and it can all be done online from anywhere in the world. With this tool and others like this, it opens up a lot of doors for an non-technology savvy person to add content (assignments, files, handouts, etc) to a website without having to understand an HTML editor or even the need to purchase expensive software.

Anyways, lets get to the meat of this post. Here is the link for Ms. Kennedy's website for her 5th grade class at Bueker Middle School (http://teachers.emints.org/fy05/kennedyb/). I discovered this website via google and I jumped to Page 8 so I wouldn't (more than likely) repeat a page someone else does if they did a search as well.

With being a tech person, the thing on a website that jumps out a me is appearance. I do not like busy backgrounds and I can't stand it when people can't read the text due to the color being identical to the background if the person uses a picture and you can't read the text because the picture is too dominate. But with this site, the background isn't too horrible and the content on the page is very readable. I like how it has the school link and the district link at the top of the page so anyone can see what school and district they belong to and they are able to get to the organization's website. I like the Agenda menu at the top so you can pull up details about what was covered in class on a particular day. This is good for a parent to look at what was covered in class so yo can help your kid to succeed by helping with homework or go over the material to make sure they understand it.

She has a lot of content on this website. If you can think of it, it is probably there. She includes links for supplies needed, newsletters, classroom pictures (which has pictures of the classroom), class list (first names of students), calendar, and the list keeps going. It is very easy to navigate thru the site and to locate information.

One thing that was a little troubling, but in turn it may not be, is that she list students first names. I don't know if this is horrible or not but I do know it is better than listing their full names. My fear would be a person would come in and ask for a student by name at the classroom, which I understand that hopefully buildings are secure (doors locked) and visitors need to stop at the office before going anywhere else, and staff are required to wear ID's, but truly, how many schools are completely safe that they are secure, all staff wear proper ID's, and visitors can only stop in the office an no where else in the building? If you have a person come to the door asking for a student, would you question that person or if they look like they are official, would you release the student to them?

Overall, I don't really dislike most of what is on the site and my biggest thing is that it is readable and navigable. Those are two big things that is a MUST on any website. There is no point of a website if you can't read it or find information on this. It is great that she has an abundance of information and that it is updated regularly, which is another important point on the website. I really didn't find too much that I didn't like other than the background, but as I said above, the background isn't too bad because my focus stays on the page and it isn't super distracting.

Nicholas

Games in the Classroom

How many more game entries are we going to have? LOL. Anyways, I think that video games can be helpful for some, if not all students when it comes to curriculum. If you can get students to take what you are teaching them and relate it to their experience,which in this case, it would be a video game, it could help to reinforce what is being learned in the classroom as long as the teacher explains the link(s).

I am reminded of the article we read earlier in the semester that talks about teachers needing to change to reach the new students since they process things differently and to get their attention, we need to do different things. I think there are quite a bit of truths in this article and we should be looking for more ways that students can take what they learn and see how it fits in their daily lives and what they do, like play video games.

Games in Schools

My experience in the past with games in schools have been mixed. When I went to school, which I am currently 25, we played games on the Apple IIe's. Most of the games really didn't offer much learning or application, but there were a few, such as number munchers that I can recall. Currently, in the school district I am working at, we have been having a battle with the lab teachers about the software / 'games' we have in our district. Our curriculum person wants them all gone, mainly due to a bad teacher in the past that just had students play games to pass the time and the person never really tracked progress and the games didn't really encourage any learning. I don't know what these games were since this happened before me, but I can see why this is a heated issue.

But personally, I was on the fence on this issue and I can see both sides of this argument. Recently, after talking to a lab teacher, I saw the value these games have IF you understand what areas, or objectives, these games can fulfill. I think games can help students learn and practice the materials they learn in their classes. It is very important for lab teachers to create lesson plans and list objectives they like the students to fulfill and they need to explain how a game might reach some or all of these objectives. I think this area is where most lab teachers in schools lack and districts don't require this. I could be off basis on this but from my experience in 2 school districts,this is what I have observed.

Well, that's my thoughts on games. I think they can have real value for students in schools to help learn and practice what they are learning. It is also good to get games that are network versions, so you can track students progress and see if they are meeting/reaching the various objectives or improving in the areas they are struggling. This is something our district is doing so we can track students progress and make sure they are actually doing what they should be doing.