Digital Project; Progress is being made!

For my last post I was trying to determine the best way to bring my class website, twitter, and blog into one site.

After meeting with Katia she suggested I use wordpress for my class website. I went straight to work.

Here is where I am at;

  

I apologize for the small print screens. It is a 2 hour frustrating story with my computer at work. Please check out the link to my class website for an up close look at the progress I’ve made. I am excited about the many things I can use the website for. I can connect more with my families and students at home. This is something I have always struggled with so I am looking forward to telling my student’s families about it.

As you can see, I chose a cute classroom background theme with a layout that I believe will work well for the plans/goals I have in mind. I have written a welcome post and included pictures of the classroom. I added a few widgets, including a calendar, email addresses and a map of the school (maybe the map is too much information??). I will post a blog about our class blogging too!

My plan now is to add a page with our classroom’s favourite links. One of these will be a link to our kidblog for easier access. I will add the twitter widget and tidy up the sidebar. I will add page(s) for student work, subject areas, notes sent home, etc. Anything that I know will be helpful for parents, students, myself and others.

I will post “How to” screencasts for parents and students when homework is sent home and/or a student is not sure of what to do. For example, I believe I will become very skilled at posting screencasts to explain new strategies and concepts taught in Math. Often times, I hear about parents who do not know how to help their child with math at home. My goal is to post at least one screencast before the end of this semester.

My intention for the site will be to post blogs, photos, videos, student work, school events,  notes/commication to parents, etc. to share some of the things happening in the classroom. I have always wanted to do this and look forward to it!

Finally, an update on our class blogging. It is going really well and the students are enjoying it. Thank you to Lisa K.! I follow her blog posts and I loved the lesson you did to practice blogging. I did the same lesson and they loved it! A lot of enthusiasm and engagement!

    

The first blog post was by Kaleeha! She wasn’t even asked to post a blog, but she was too excited and couldn’t wait. It was a nice surprise when I was reading my emails last week. I tweeted a picture of her first blog on my class twitter account.

Is anyone else blogging with their students? Any thoughts on what I should include in my webpage?

Thank you for reading!