Technology Recommendations for Starting the New Year : There are a million things to do prior to that first day of class and no matter how long you’ve been teaching, there’s not enough time to get it all done. Losing pre-planning time due to furlough days compounds the problem and makes it essential that we put careful thought and planning into getting ready for school. How can your technology help? IS YOUR TECHNOLOGY WORKING? First of all, your technology must be up and running. Over the summer most of your technology may have been disconnected and moved so that floors could be cleaned and waxed. You may need to re-connect computer, monitor, printer, internet cables, speakers, Elmo, projector, and Smartboard. Make sure they are all working. If they are not working, check with a nearby teacher (who is maybe a little more tech-savvy) or check with your media specialist. If it’s still not working, put in a work order as soon as possible. COLLECTING DATA Let’s consider all the information that you have to disseminate and gather in those first few days of school. Depending on your situation you may have anywhere from 18 students to 150 students. Again, depending on your school situation, they may or may not already be in PowerSchool as being registered for your class. If they are, you are ahead of the game. You have 24/7 access to class rolls and student demographic information, addresses, etc. If not, you may want to collect that information that first week. [More on PowerSchool preparations later] How can technology help you collect data? In the past you may have sent home a paper form to fill out. If you have a gmail account, you have access to creating online Google Forms as part of your Google Docs. You can create a form which asks for all the important information that you need and/or allows parents to give you extra information you need to know such as “my child is allergic to chalk”. The results are collected automatically in a spreadsheet that is available from anywhere. Not all parents will use the online form, but each one that does will keep you from having to type that information yourself. You’ll have to add in the ones that still elect to fill out the paper form. See an online YouTube tutorial on how to create an online Form Using Google Docs. DISSEMINATING INFORMATION What about all the other information that you have to send home? Some of it is on Rome City Forms that have to be returned. Some of it could be posted online for parents. Could you save paper and copies? Again, you’ll have some parents/students with no computer access, so you’ll need to be prepared with paper copies for those that need it. Perhaps that could be one of the questions on your paper/online data form ….to see who prefers to get information online (or by text) and who requires a paper copy. Be careful how you ask that, so as not to embarrass anyone. You could ask, “Do you prefer to get classroom information or communications through papers sent home, email, text messaging, or the classroom website?”, rather than asking, “Do you have a computer with internet access?” How do you post information online for parents? There are many options these days, but a classroom website should probably be the minimum. If I’m looking for information on just about anything these days, my first question is, “Is it listed on their website?” Many parents are the same way. You should probably get this decision out of the way and give out the address to your classroom website with the materials that you send home the first day. CLASSROOM WEBSITES Each teacher can create their own classroom website through Myschooldesk.net/rcs. If you haven’t signed up before, you can go to the website, scroll down to the bottom of the page and register. You will need an RSVP code: wolf. I do have a demo site that I have used when teaching a class on this. It has not been updated in a while and uses the built-in blog rather than the blog I am currently using, but does give you an idea of the different things you can do on the site. I have also recommended that you take a look at David Musgrove’s site (Thank you David!) to see how he uses the classroom website at Rome High. Of course, there are other options (both free and paid) for websites. You could use Weebly, Google Sites, or others. Whatever you choose, my suggestion is to start with just the basic information that will stay up all year. You might post a personal introduction (not too personal … more on that later), any special classroom rules, classroom supply lists, important dates or projects, etc. I would not start out with posting each night’s homework. That gets too cumbersome very quickly. STORING AND SHARING FILES FROM THE “CLOUD” You can also make information available through several cloud-based sharing applications such as Google Docs, Dropbox, etc. The files you store are private, but you can elect to “share” files so that anyone with the address can access them. It’s basically the same process as sharing a poll or Form survey document, as described above. Of course, you still have to get the word out by sending the link to the file on paper, by email, text, or on your website. Many of these things can be done by using Socrative as your classroom website and communication tool. See the previous information on Socrative in one of my emails, my blog, or Facebook account. If you are going to use Socrative, it’s probably a good idea to start setting it up now and publicizing the information on how to join your class that first week. If a significant portion of your class parents have access to texting (many people have cell phones and texting instead of a regular phone line now) and/or would rather communicate by texts, consider setting up an account with Remind101 or Celly (cel.ly ) and send information home the first week on how parents can subscribe to this without either of you knowing each other’s cell phone number. Messages would go straight to their phone without getting lost in book bags! All of this may sound like a lot of work. However, just like anything else, a little work before school starts could save you a lot of time or make you much more efficient and effective later.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:14:47 +0000
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