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As many have pointed out in their projects, class discussions, and blog posts, this class has been super empowering. As my epiphany moment of using technology that's right for me to build my own classroom website has shown, I am now much more confident in researching, playing around, and recommending new technologies. I wish all TCH grad classes were this enlightening!

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one!

Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :)

Try it now

Promoting student collaboration with online tools

PBworks allows for endless student additions to a class site!

Unlike traditional website builders like Wix and Weely, PBworks allows students to submit their own work, link to other places on the internet, and comment on fellow students' thoughts, all in a distraction-free environment. The teacher can present information to his/her class while students actively reflect and respond to that information. PBworks allows for a workspace between teacher and student, rather than a platform of communication that is one way, from the teacher to the student.

Our new website will allow for better utilization of our classroom chromebooks!

Everyone should have an interactive class site

I am so hooked on my new classroom website! I'm proud of what I have made and was happy to have such a great example in the format of our TCH 401 class site. Many other teachers in my school have sites like the one I did before this class -- they have a stagnant, unchanging, one-way website. I can't wait to share what I've learned and help my move school forward in technology use and get students excited about learning!

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one! Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :) Try it now Promoting student collaboration with online tools Unlike traditional website builders like Wix and Weely, PBworks allows students to submit their own work, link to other places on the internet, and comment on fellow students' thoughts, all in a distraction-free environment.

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My Classroom Website Prior to this Class

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My Classroom Website Prior to this Class

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My first year of teaching our school required that each teacher have a class website. It was up to us how we wanted to create this site and what tool we wanted to use. I picked Wix. Wix was okay. I was able to put my contact information on there with a picture, but that was about as far as I went with that. This past year my school decided everyone needed a Weebly website -- so I moved over to that platform. I expanded my site a little bit my including embedded YouTube videos, but honestly, I did not use it the entire school year and I bet if you asked my students if Ms. Kennedy has a class website they would say "I don't think so...."

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With my self-imposed deadline for the Self-Analysis assignment, I did not leave myself much room to "play around" with many of the technology tools available in our class Symbaloo. So, I found Projeqt, which looked like a simple enough tool that was similar to PowerPoint in that it was presentation-style. Not wanting to branch out too much, I figured I would create a terrific Projeqt to explain my relationship with technology. After about 30 minutes of working with the website, I realized it was NOT for me. It was not intuitive, I couldn't use the slides the way I wanted to, and I felt the product I was creating was not my best work. However, because I wanted to be done with the assignment so I would have plenty of time to work on the class website, I stuck with it. I was too afraid to switch to a different tool since I had already invested what felt like a lot of time into Projeqt. As I said on my student page, I didn't feel like Projeqt was conducive to education or the purpose I was using it for the assignment -- other sides like Emaze and Prezi are much more effective and intuitive for the educational world (in my opinion).

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After my experience with Wix and Weebly, I decided to cross those two tools off my list when creating my new classroom website. I knew I didn't use those and needed to find a platform that conducive for me. I tried Canvas, Wordpress, Google Sites, and Wikispaces before I finally settled on PBworks, the site we use for this class! Really, this moment provided me with two epiphanies. 1) I should not be afraid to explore technology tools and decide not to use something if it doesn't work for me. I can keep on moving! 2) PBworks is AWESOME! With my new site, students can collaborate, I can put the content I want on the site, and it doesn't have all the distractions of site like Wix and Weebly that I feel are based more for businesses. PBworks is clean, simple, and collaborative.

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Coming off my meltdown from the Self-Analysis assignment, I felt a little defeated and like it was impossible to search through all the Symbaloo tools to find an effective way of communicating what I needed to. So, I decided to change my attitude! For the Classroom Website project, I vowed that I would stop using a site if it wasn't working for me, and to not be afraid to start working with a different tool, over and over again if need be, until I found the site that would work best for my purposes.

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I started this class (as I'm sure most everyone else did) with a bit of syllabus shock on Day 1. This typically happens to me every semester, but it seemed especially daunting knowing so much was crammed into 4 short weeks! With this shock overwhelming me, I started work right away that first Monday and had a plan to finish our first assignment, the Technology Self-Analysis, by the end of the day Tuesday. I was successful in getting this done, but not without a few bumps...