blog #5

Blog 5
As a teacher, what range of Web 2.0 applications do you need to integrate into your web presence? What are your goals? What are your students’ needs? How best to facilitate communications with your students and their parents? What about your principal’s expectations and/or concerns?

The answers to these and other questions are to inform the discussion topic of a next blog entry.

Just recently, I just conducted our state of the schools address. One of the suggestions made were in reference to our one 2 one initiative. Parents need information about technology. They need resources and sites to access, so that they can be aware of how they can help their child with the new technology. Parents want to know about jump drives, and the way teachers use drop boxes, and wiki pages.

I also need to work with our IT department so that I can assist with making sure those teachers that have Wikis’s are all together so that parents can see what’s going on. I need able to be more of a resource to my parents to that they have a better knowledge base for technology.

The conversation that you had with me at the end of class was profound. It reinforced that I have a tremendous obligation to the Monticello community to be the best resource that I can be. If that means thinking out of the box, then so be it. The one to one initiative is an endeavor that is extremely exciting, but also one that comes with a tremendous responsibility in regards to it’s successful implementation.

My goals

To be the best resource of information to my parents in regards to what is happening at Monticello Middle School in a web environment. I want to be able to share resources and information in which parents can assist their child in any way possible with school practices. I want to have various links for parents so that they can help their child in the critical areas of Math, Literacy, and technology.


What are my student’s needs ?
My students need to be able to have a better understanding of internet safety. They need more opportunities from me to do constructive things on their laptops. This is also an area of ongoing research for me. As we explore the one to one initiative, I must continue to be involved with my students so that I can really get a clear snapshot of what their needs are. This is a work in progress

Students also need the skills that were discussed in the chapter. These entail:
Critical thinking and problem solving
Collaboration
Agility and Initiative
Effective communication
Learning to assess and analyze
Curiosity and imagination

The overall goals of my website and this whole initiative is to:
Increase the engagement of students in their schoolwork
Teach 21st Century literacy skills--the new learning, communicating, and thinking skills of the Information Age as well as general technology skills
Develop the teaching skills of participating teachers
Increase parental involvement and satisfaction
Improve student achievement, particularly literacy, across all core curriculum areas as demonstrated in a significant rise in standardized test scores.
Lower rates of absenteeism and decrease disciplinary problems,





How best to facilitate communication with students
In regard to the students. I want to be able to communicate with my students via my web page. I also want to be able to interact with my students on my webpage via our school-wide Cardinal Bucks reward system. I also want to have incentives set up for students to get on my website. Of course this will entail learning more about student interest areas in regards to technology

It also essential that that I relay the expectations of the school in regards technology and our cardinal rules on my site on a regular basis.