Classroom Newletter

1) Why is communication important between teachers and parents, or between the colleagues? Communication is extremely important between parents and teachers and colleagues. A lack of communication can cause misunderstandings that can lead to issues within the work place or with parents and students. Many times, keeping good communication between parents and teachers can help improve students progress within the classroom and help alleviate situations in which students tell parents one thing when in fact that may not be the case. It also lets parents know what thier child is doing in the classroom and what any upcoming events may be coming.

2) In what way will you communicate with your students’ parents/ or colleagues? Right now I communicate using e-mail for privacy, bi-weekly newsletters, and home books for those parents that do not have a computer. When communicating with my colleagues I mostly e-mail.

3) What new communications software applications would be fun to try to communicate with parents/colleagues? I would like to get parents to use wikis, or plurks. I also feel that blogging can also be a fun way to communicate, yet there would need to be a way to communicate privately so certain information and privacy laws are not violated. But I do feel that getting parents involved and excited about communicating with thier teacher their child will follow suit.

4) What software did you use? Share your experience with it. Well I currently use a mac and have a program already installed in my computer for newsletters. The templates are already there and very user friendly. All I have to do is click on which one I want and then add the information. It is under microsoft word for macs. When developing the newletter I just added in any information I wanted to be added. I could easily put in pictures and change fonts and colors.

5) What would you do differently if you did a Class/School/District Newsletter again? I would do nothing differently. I really enjoyed this and found it easy to use. I feel that instead of bi-weekly do a monthly one as they can be timme consuming, especially when one is communicating with parents daily.

Mind Map

For this group project we had to develop some kind of graph to show how we have been connecting to the learning standards based on the internet. One of our group members came up with a great idea of using a min mapping tools to display this information to the class on our wiki site. In reviewing what all my group members have added to the site I feel we have done so much work and have connected all over the place in regards to the standards and each other. Check out our mind map.

Creating quizzes

Well, one thing about being a teacher is that you have to create quizzes and usually they are the plain, boring, same old, same old. Not anymore!!!!! My professor has shown me that creating quizzes and making them more invoved or user friendly is the way of the future. I loved creating this quiz and it actually grades in for me and I can have a student that has been absent take it from home. This is ingenious. I cannot wait to share this with my teachers at my school. I am so excited. Check out what I came up with for the first time, and I'm not even a technology person. Students are more engaged and it will diminish testing anxiety. It is the way of the future, and "makes teaching smarter not harder," (I heard that in an in-service I attended). Cancer Quiz