Creating the web

The integration of technology into a bush education classroom isn't always the easiest thing to do.  With so many levels and standards to ensure the kids are able to achieve during their time at school, despair sometimes sets in when there are so many cool things to show them and not enough time in the day.

As a teacher of everything, the first few (I was going to say days but that doesn't even come close!) weeks are completely overwhelming.  Trying to learn the standards, understand where all the kids are at and then plan for the year with so many different levels with all the different kids in class could simply break you if you choose to let it.  The trick is to find the balance between planning and sanity while learning how to live in a completely new place.

Yes, there is a technology standard in there but honestly it's not one that can't be reached simply by doing a few projects during the school year.  I want to go above that though.  My kids will be ready for living a technology life and ready for online classes when I get done with them.  Knowing how to correctly access information online, what creative commons means and how to respond well to forum posts are crucial in college classes.  They will be in my class too!

What did I decide to do then?  Create a website for my class of course.  Which to use though?  I created one for my husband last year to use with his art class.  It has it's good parts and it's downfalls.  I know how it works and he's had great success with it but I wanted to try something new.  It's almost like having two classrooms to try things in.  A valuable thing when dealing with different forms of technology because the kids aren't being tossed from one kind to another.  My husband's classroom uses wikispaces of which we are both admins on.  As he starts to learn how to utilize it more and more, I grow more proud of his integration in his Art class.  The kids seem to really like it and the site has worked well for him.  It has allowed the both of us to grow as he becomes more comfortable with the technology and I begin to learn some HTML for things he wants to do that are not just text and an uploaded picture file.

I've decided to use Weebly for my classroom.  It has an education feature that gives educators greater tools than the average free user.  It's a drop and drag creation tool that is customizable.  I really like the assignment submission tool because it eliminates the need for so much paperwork in the classroom.  It does have a place for student sites that I will begin to use next that will allow for each of them to create sort of a digital portfolio.  This is the next step in my learning as I utilize the website to it's fullest potential.  Right now I'm focusing on making sure the student's assignments are on the different tabs for each week.  Keeping up with this will not only keep me in order but will allow them to keep up with their classes.

For now, I must say goodnight as I have a website to update.  If you are so curious to see what my students are up to and what the site looks like right now, please note that it's a work in progress and is only a week old.  The link is to the right of the blog and is named Egegik Bears School.