Over the course of this semester, I have learned about several useful tools which I will be able to equip myself with in order to reach every student to the best of my abilities. Each of these tools can be used in any classroom, to reach a wide variety of students. These tools will allow me to be better equipped in reaching and staying in contact with students, parents, administrators, and other teachers. Over the course of this final blog entry, I will discuss how each of the projects will come in handy in my classroom next year, the things which I need to work on to make the resources more effective, and how I will be using these projects in the future.IT645 has given me several resources, which I plan on implementing into my classroom quite frequently next school year.
The first set of projects dealt with meeting with parents prior to the start of a new unit to discuss what each student should expect. The project had three required portions; a flyer for each student to bring home to their parent, a progress chart at the meeting for each parent to examine the progress of their child, finally a PowerPoint quiz so that the parents can see an example of how the students review for a test. All three of these assignments were quite easy and I have used, or will use each in the fall. Next school year I will be holding parents meetings at the start of every 9 weeks so the parents can be aware of how their child is doing in my class, and what they can expect to be happening in future. The progress chart is something that I already use in my classes, I generally only print one out however when I have a parent teacher conference. I plan on using progress charts quite frequently next school year, in order that students will have a better idea of the progress their making in my class. The final was the PowerPoint quiz review. This is something I have used over the course of the past two school years and I believe it is one of the most effective technology tools for review. I generally play jeopardy with my students and allow them to use whiteboard in my class. This is always something every student enjoys participating in. These first set of required projects were not overly complicated, but very useful in a middle school classroom.
The next set of assignments dealt with creating a puzzle, test and rubric for a state project which I used in class, and a trackstar site for student, and parents to access for frequently used websites in my class. I chose to have all the projects dealing with US states and Capitals. With the exception of trackstar, no project was extremely difficult and each came along quite nicely. I had difficulty with the trackstar account because I did not place the http:// in front of the website. Therefore I was not able to have the website homepage. Once I figure out that minor problem the assignment came together easily. The biggest problem I had was uploading each project to my blog. The puzzle was a word scramble which I used for review, as they sorted the names of US Capitals. The test I did not use in class, while a useful resource I prefer to make my own test in class. The rubric I found extremely useful. When it comes to grading a writing assignment or project the only fair and accurate way to grade a paper is by using a rubric. That way I can be fair to each and every student. The final assignment dealt with reviewing websites for its content and lay out. I found this assignment to be not very effective for parents and students. It could however be useful for teachers to use these forms as a way of assessing the websites for important information which is necessary to find out before students use the site. From these five assignments without question, the rubric will be the one I use the most in the future.
The next assignment was setting up a website to use in class. Overall this was my favorite of all the projects, and the one I will use most in the coming years. The website was developed much easier than I originally anticipated. I have several features on my site which I will use next school year. The homepage of the site had a variety of announcements such as word of the day, upcoming dates of events, and the student of the month. Also on the website viewers can find my philosophy on education, and how they can get in contact with me. Next year I will also be sure to have important documents such as permission slips, and course syllabi. I also have websites linked to my site, so that students, parents, and other teachers and administrators can access all possible information about my class in one easy spot. This website is going to be by far the most beneficial tool for me in my future endeavors in education.
The final set of assignments I created a listserve to stay in touch with parents and coworkers. Along with this I was also created a short movie for my students, about the diversity of South America. The listserve took no time to create, and was quite simple. A listserve can be very beneficial to a teacher because it allows teachers to get in contact with a number of recipients with just one message. With this type of communication is far easier than having to send home newsletters each week. If enough parents show interest next school year, I will definitely be using this form of communication. The second portion of this assignment was the creation of a movie. Before starting the movie I felt that it would be extremely difficult to complete. However in the end it was not hard at all. It was just a matter of playing around with Windows Movie Maker to learn how to use it. Once I took some time just to learn the program the project came together very easily. I created a short movie about the diversity of the South American culture which I used in my 6th grade Social Studies Class. I believe once I become more familiar with Movie Maker I will be making more movies in the future.
Over the course of the last four months I have learned several useful resources to use in my classroom in the coming years. As technology develops it is the responsibility of the educator to familiarize himself with any technology which could be used to reach each student. As educators we must do everything in our power to reach each and every student, therefore no student will be forgotten or left behind.
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