Central Elementary is a large school with approximately 785 students. Parents are heavily involved in the school and most have a strong interest in what is happening in school. Our school has never had class web sites for communication with parents. Posting information on a grade level web site will help keep parents up-to-date with what is going on at school. Although there is some work in putting together and maintaining a web site, I anticipate that using grade level web sites will help save some time. For example, if a parent loses a field trip permission slip, it could be downloaded from the web site so that parents will not have to write notes requesting another copy and teachers won’t have to run to the copy machine or waste paper by having a stack of just-in-case extra permission slips. The same goes for many other pages going home from school, such as Valentine lists, project assignments, homework policies, etc. Another advantage of a grade level web site is sharing student work. Exemplary samples will give parents an idea of what is expected.
When I talked to my principal about having all grade levels create a web site, she was very receptive to the idea. I emailed Debbie Ray at the Office of Instructional Technology asking for advice about what she thought would be the best software to use, and she recommended using software that the county provides. She said it is relatively easy to learn, and the board takes care of hosting the sites. Debbie was very enthusiastic about our school finally getting grade level web pages. For my internship I would like give staff development sessions to train teachers in each grade level to create and maintain their own web pages.
I plan to create a staff wiki to provide a central place where the staff at my school can share technology resources. Teachers will benefit if they share great activities, lessons, web pages, etc. Resources from staff development sessions could be found easily. New tools and sites found online can be shared. I’m looking forward to seeing how much the staff takes advantage of the site.
Another area I would like to focus on is introducing various Web 2.0 tools to the staff. During my studies at Loyola I have learned about so many great tools teachers can use, but they don’t even know they exist. Because finding time for staff development is so difficult, I would plan to introduce many of these tools using the staff wiki. Examples of some of the tools I may introduce are: wikis, blogs, word clouds (Wordle and Tagexdo), social bookmarking sites, online document converters so that student work can be made into slide shows that can be embedded on the web pages, pod/vodcasting, etc.
Main focus areas of my internship:
• Web pages for all grade levels
• A staff only wiki for sharing technology ideas and tools
• Introduction of various Web 2.0 tools
I will be giving teachers a technology survey at the beginning of the year to find out where everyone is in regard to their comfort with technology. This will let me know how to differentiate staff development sessions. Also, I can use the results to address particular needs or interests. My principal mentioned that I should try to secure some money from Instructional Technology to hold some after school sessions.
