What's In A Web Page - Things You Should Be Sharing. Part II

Reviewing and getting your students ready for testing always seems to be a daunting task but think of making things easier because as you prepare your students in the classroom for what they will need to know for the testing why not remind them and their parents from your teacher website. It would be great to add information onto your website that will help students beyond the classroom.  

Even if that page starts out with a reminder to the parents that testing is coming up and that their children should be ready for test day by getting plenty of sleep the night before and eat something on the morning of the test.  

A great web page to create would also be one that has the same information abbreviated that you are going over in class on the web with web links they can go to for further information.  

If you are a teacher that will not be changing grade levels or subject areas this page is now available ongoing for your students and parents as a reminder of what is coming up in the fourth quarter.  

Talking with other teachers can help you if you change grade levels or subject areas because you could share your information with them and visa versa so your web site stays up to date.  

With the summer months coming up you also want to have information on your site again that promotes yourself, your class and your school so if there are any potentially new students coming in they will be able to make an informed decision to attend that school.  

Other types of easy quick web pages that you could add to your site:

• A summer reading list for both incoming and outgoing students.  
• A list of local summer locations and activities that offer a learning environment in which students are interactive and a part of the learning process.  
• A page that talks about what students can expect as they enter the new school year in your classroom.  

What other types of pages could you create on your website that would offer the most information?  How about an individual page per Quarter that outlines what you are doing if you are an Elementary teacher.  If you are a subject area teacher you can put that class syllabus on the site.  How about those always great self-promoting pages that outline a great lesson, an incredible learning activity or field trip.  You can create a homework page that lets your students know when assignments are due.  

If you are a Magnet school you can have a page dedicated to outline your school classroom for the time of the year when Parents are looking to enroll their child(ren) into these schools.  Or as a Kindergarten teacher you can have a page that talks about all of the wonderful learning that is going on in your classroom for Parents during Kindergarten registration.  

With all things being said if you do some upfront work on your web page it will pay off in the long run with continued views from students, parents and community members.  It will ensure that the information you are sharing is up to date because all you will have to do ongoing is make small changes to keep things current.  And it will guarantee that you sell sell sell what you are doing in your classroom to get the buy in from whomever is looking at your website.

photo credit: w4nd3rl0st (InspiredinDesMoines) via photopin cc

Geddit And Don't Forget It

So I found an interesting new site today that I thought I would share with you.  for some this might be old hat for others its brand new and you will really like it.

Let me start with some questions:
How many times does a student come up to you after the class to say that they really do not understand the material?
How often in class do you ask a question where you get the blank stairs or no one raises their hands?

In your mind you may be thinking that the students did not do their work, or just don't care.  But what if there was a student that really does not understand the material but is just afraid to ask questions.  Geddit allows you as the teacher to know how your students are doing at anytime during the class.  It gives a voice to the student that is afraid to ask the question.  As the teacher you can do some Formative Assessment by asking them a question on the fly by sending it to them silently.  The student can tell the teacher silently through the App or site by clicking on the bar graph and sending it to the teacher.  A student can even get the teachers attention by raising their virtual hand.  The one thing that I see is that it help with differentiated instruction by allowing the teacher to see students strengths and weaknesses an then be able to react to them quickly.  Maybe by grouping students that understand the concepts with those who do not for some peer assistance and collaboration.

Above is a quick video about Geddit, what it is and how it works.  The product is platform independent so as long as you have a Wifi enabled device and/or computer connected to the web you can use Geddit.  In the iPad App store you can search for Geddit and download it, or you can open any browser and go to letsgeddit.com to use the product.  When you get to the site there are just two options, Sign in as a Teacher or Sign in as a Student.  As a teacher you will create your account setup your class and give your students a code to join your class.  It is completely protected from outside influence since you need a code to join.  According to the website creators there is no requirements, or limitations, when it comes to age.  The site is very easy to use and set up, within minutes I had my account created, class setup, app downloaded, website up and created a generic student log in and was testing everything out.

Tune in next week for some ideas on how this can be used in the classroom. 

What's In A Web Page - Things You Should Be Sharing. Part I

Let me start by asking you this question… 

What do you do when you open a web page to a site that you think has information about spring and Summer clothing and it is still talking about the upcoming fall collection?  

You would open up another web page with the information on it that you are looking for....right?  

That is the same thing that happens if a parent, community member or even your students do when they go to your web site and there is no information available that they are looking for.  They go somewhere else, and that is not good.  

I see this every day in what I do both in and outside of the school system.  I admit that I may not have the best patience when it comes to outdated web pages but just think about this scenario:

• I am a parent, living out of state, who is moving to the area this summer and I need to figure out what school I want my child to go to in the fall.  
• I start looking into the schools that are close to my new home and when I check the teachers’ websites many of them still say "Welcome to the new school year" or "Have a Wonderful Holiday Break."  

That would not be a great way for a prospective parent to start their search of a new school for their child.  This may even cause that parent to reconsider attending a school in the area based on their first impressions of what they see on a teacher’s web page.  

Think of it this way, your web site is selling a product.  Whether that product is something that is tangible that you can hold in your hand or an idea of what there is to offer.  If the web site is not current or full of non-relevant information you will lose the sale, and in a game of numbers could mean the difference between an extra classroom of students and a teacher or combining classrooms of students and losing a teacher.  

What if you are applying for and/or are receiving a grant and part of the requirements are that you keep a current account of activities on your website.  You may lose the grant because of an out of date web page or site.

This scenario may seem extreme and some of you may be saying: 

• "No way, that's not me." 
• "I keep my web page up to date."
• "My students won't go to my webpage so why bother."
• Some may be saying "It doesn't matter because a parent will see the school web page before mine and that is all they need to see."  

But let me tell you more often than not those first impressions are the ones that stick regardless of how good you or your school is.  

So let’s get away from the negative and look towards some positives.  Just some simple things that can enhance your websites to keep them informative and current for anyone that may be looking at them.

Let’s start with today, we are in the final week of March and we all know what will be starting up at the beginning of April.  Yes, its review and testing time.  Raise your hands if you agree that you will spend the bulk of the quarter reviewing for a week of testing, then retesting.  Caught you, some of you actually raised your hands and that's OK.  

Join me next week to keep in the loop as I talk more about ways to keep your web site up to date. 

photo credit: jinkazamah via photopin cc

How do you Edit a Photo?

Now that Digital Cameras have image resolution capabilities up to and beyond 18 megapixels what do you do when you want to edit those pictures after you have taken them.  How do you take an image that is 4000x3000 and reduce it or compress it so that it can be put somewhere else like a webpage, blog, etc.  What tools are out there to do this? There are programs out there that can help you out but what if you cannot afford to buy a program what is your alternative.  Well up until recently there was a website that offered the ability to edit an image on the fly for Free, Picnik.  The site offered more than basic editing features for images that some pre installed computer software could handle.  But as you know websites come and go everyday and Picnik was caught in that wave of passing websites recently.  So what do you do now if you were an avid user of Picnik?  What are your options now, some sub par or expensive software that will either not give you what you want or go way over the top and give you so much more that you will never use all of the it in your lifetime.

Recently Mashable put together a small list of viable alternative websites that will allow you to edit your images on the fly on the web, Free and without the need for a registered account.  I took a look at them and these are some really robust and feature filled websites to allow you to edit pretty much any aspect of an image you want to.  The only issue that I founds that might come up is that Thumba requires you to have the most recent version of Microsoft Silverlight.  I think that you will have a lot of fun editing images on any of these sites.

• PicMonkey
• BeFunky
• iPiccy
• Pixlr Express
• Sumo Paint
• Thumba
• Psyko Paint

Now if you are a teacher and are going to use any of these in the classroom with your students then make sure that you take a look at the sites ahead of time.  Some of them do have ads along the sides which could be of questionable material out of the grade level you are in which could cause some questions to come up from your students.   Some even have Apps that you can download to your Smart or iPhone.  Not that I want to promote any of these over another but PicMonkey does not have any ad space on its site that I could find as I was using the site.  But you make the decision on which one will be the best fit for your situation and comfort level.

photo credit: austinevan via photo pin cc

A New Take on History

If you are a fourth grade teacher and have not been to the North Carolina History Project web page you might just be missing out on some new and interesting facts about North Carolina.  You might be asking how can this site benefit me?  Here is how they describe it. "... an edited, evolving, and free online encyclopedia of North Carolina that also includes commentaries, lesson plans, and a community calendar."

To me the site offers a lot about North Carolina that has been broken down into multiple categories and listing so that it makes it easier on the researcher to locate topics for discussion, reports, conversations an other information.

The site homepage is laid out well to offer the visitor a quick glance at what is available but to also provide the most amount of searching power in a few short clicks.  On the website you have scrolling image set of people, places and things inherent to North Carolina that you can click on and read more information about.  Across the top of the page you have an alphabetical list so you can perform a broad topic search just like an Encyclopedia by just clicking on the letter you want.  There is a Featured entry of the day section in the bottom middle of the page that offers you a one click link to read more information about the topic.  You can also browse through the Category dropdown menu on the right side of the page to filter information about specific topics.  Categories like Colonial North Carolina, Places, Document, etc.  Then in the bottom right corner of the page lists out the latest information that has been added to the site.  So far in just a few days of researching the site I have been able to find lots of information quickly and easily through the different search options available on the site

The North Carolina History Project site is funded by the John Locke Foundation and they are currently offering a Citizens' Constitutional Workshop from the link on the left banner.  This link takes you off of the site to the John Locke Foundation website for further information.

There is a separate Educators Corner on the site that offers some research and lesson plan information that has been shared with the site through user created content.  Currently there are not many user lesson plans available but there is a call to share on the site where if you create lesson plans from the content on the site you can share it with them and they will review and post the information for others to use.

If you are teaching North Carolina History whether in Elementary or Middle School this is a site that you just might want to add to your resource list not only for your use but for your students as well.

Web redesign 101

Conversations abound regarding website development and design. What is good, what is appropriate, what is functional? Some say you can never have too much, others have a minimalist approach. Do you put the fancy animated logo that rotates and flashes or a plain static logo that gets the point across?

My personal philosophy... "less is more." I struggle sometimes when searching for information on the web because sites are too busy, or there is too much going on that it distracts from what you're looking for. I have also seen sites that are great and have specific content I am looking for but takes me five to ten minutes to locate it because it is buried under multiple layers.

I recently read the article "Build it Better" which outlines a number of educational institutions that have recently undergone a total redesign of their school web page sites. This short, to the point article provides additional viewpoints on what a good website has to offer the public.

4 main topics are covered in the article, "Pepper the site with links," "Many Moving Parts," "A Look of Continuity" and "Colors Matter." Each topic provides some insight and background testimonials from school districts that have recently undergone a redesign of their web site. The information in this article can provide insight to anyone who is thinking of creating or redesigning their personal or professional website.