Digital Badge #F- Chapter 8

Digital Badge #F- Chapter 8

After reading Chapter 8, there are numerous ways a teacher can communicate with his or her students using computers and social media technologies.  The first section I discovered to be a great communication tool to use between teachers and students was, “Electronic and Communication Between Teachers and Students”.  It was mentioned that there are several media technologies that can be incorporated in their classroom. For example: Email, Teacher or Classroom Websites, Blogs, Online Discussion, and Wikis pages are available as a form of a communication system.  As a parent of two children, I would love to know how my child’s day was at school.  When children are younger, some times it can be hard to communicate about their “school” day. If there was a classroom website available weekly, parents could be informed about what was happening in the classroom.  Emails are a common tool for teachers to use today.  Collier County school district uses “Outlook” email.  Most teachers will set up a “parent” group, making it easier to reach their families.  Another form of communication that could be resourceful is “Wikis”.  “Wiki” pages are an online website where teacher, student and parents can create and make changes together, so new ideas can be created. Also, this can be a site where a classroom teacher can post and embed useful links.  This is a great resource to have an open communication with their teacher.  As an inspiring teacher, I would certainly create a weekly email that would be called, “Ask Your Child”!  In this email, there would be questions that only their child would know, since we were learning it that week.  Also, attaching helpful tools/web links would be another tool to communicate with parents.

The following video is a quick tutorial, that could be helpful to establish a classroom website.

The second section I discovered to be enlightening was “Teaching Beyond the School Day”. Most educators will most likely agree that their instructional time is limited, and to instruct what is required from the standards can be challenging.  For some teachers, they escape to this outlet.  They will design a classroom blog, where notes, homework assignments, and having the capability of sharing ideas amongst their students.  The benefits of teaching with this technology tool, is having the opportunity to reach and connect with your students.  The third section I found intriguing was, “Publishing Student Writing”.  In this section, it stated that students tend to work harder knowing that their peers will see their work.  Students tend to be more excited and willing to put in the effort, where it is needed.  As an inspiring teacher, I will certainly incorporate this creative tool with my students in the classroom.  There are a lot of methods, an instructor, can choose to keep his or her students engaged and excited about publishing their work.  For example, one might have them write and elaborate a story. Once all of the students have completed their story, the teacher can publish and create a class book. It was mentioned in this section, students are interested in joining science fairs, plays, musicals, and dance because it can be meaningful to perform to an audience.  The irony in this, students will work diligently on their writing when they know that their work will be published!  What a great way to display your student’s progress!

This was just a "fun" story I created with my "three" year old! He was so  excited to see his book published...What a neat tool!

References

How to create a classroom website. (n.d.). YouTube. Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/

Maloy, R. W. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Ms. Cassidy's Classroom Blog. (n.d.). Ms Cassidys Classroom Blog. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org

Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.. (n.d.). Storybird. Retrieved September 29, 2014, from http://storybird.com/