This week I created my Home page. I know that most of my audience will be parents/guardians and students. On the Home page I wanted to state the purpose for the page, which is to be a resource for parents and students. I briefly explained what both the parents and the students would be able to find on the site. I also wanted to make it known that the site would serve as a connection between all parties involved and that they could contact me for any reason. Even though I have my contact information on the About Me page, I also put a button at the bottom of the page that sent them directly to my contact information.
Lastly, I included some brief information about me along with a picture. I didn't want to take up at ton of space on the Home page so I again linked them to my About Me page.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Journal 6
This week on my webpage I added a few things to the parent link, so that my parents will have more information about our class. I know that as the next school year begins there will be more things that I will need to add and will do that as the time comes. On the student page I added several links for them. Some of them are links they are familiar with at school and some are other links to interactive sites they may want to explore at home. These links are organized into those two different categories. I also made the links buttons on Weebly because I thought it would be more intriguing for the younger kids and easier to manipulate.
There were some other things I changed as well in terms of formatting. On my links that were yellow I underlined them so that they would stand out as links. There were also some issues I noticed on each page with the size of the text. So I had to go in and make everything consistent.
I think the most fun thing I did was on my Student page and was the activity I made up that they can do at home. Keep in mind that this is first grade, so I had to point out at the very beginning that the activity had to be done with an adult. My activity is to read an on level text, determine the title, author and illustrator and why they liked the book. Then they are to create a VOKI character and in one minute record their voice explaining the above mentioned things to the VOKI. Lastly, they are to share it with me through email. Then we could share them in class AND I can actually create a new page under the Student page to start a collection of them!
My next step is to determine what needs to be on my Home page. I plan to go back to some of the websites we looked at in the first classes assignment to get some ideas on what is appropriate for it.
There were some other things I changed as well in terms of formatting. On my links that were yellow I underlined them so that they would stand out as links. There were also some issues I noticed on each page with the size of the text. So I had to go in and make everything consistent.
I think the most fun thing I did was on my Student page and was the activity I made up that they can do at home. Keep in mind that this is first grade, so I had to point out at the very beginning that the activity had to be done with an adult. My activity is to read an on level text, determine the title, author and illustrator and why they liked the book. Then they are to create a VOKI character and in one minute record their voice explaining the above mentioned things to the VOKI. Lastly, they are to share it with me through email. Then we could share them in class AND I can actually create a new page under the Student page to start a collection of them!
My next step is to determine what needs to be on my Home page. I plan to go back to some of the websites we looked at in the first classes assignment to get some ideas on what is appropriate for it.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Journal 5
I am glad that in this class I learned about picture formats and sizing. I have always known about the different file types: jpeg, gif, bmp, tiff. In the past I have just used whatever "worked best" when it came to picture files. I also didn't know much about picture size, and I definitely didn't know how to change their size so that they would be emailed and downloaded easier!
I also didn't realize there were so many mechanics that went into website design, besides just user friendliness and the aesthetics of the site.
Here are some of the the specific things I considered/changed in my website:
-I made subpages under my "Parent" page. This helped with the organization and simplicity of the site and made it so that users wouldn't have to scroll through a ton of content on just one page. With the subpages, I am able to break it down and make it more accessible. With this change, I was also considering the Chunking aspect, by placing the objects that relate together.
-I did add more documents and links to my parent page, I even think I could find more. I also know that in the beginning of next school year I will add more of the documents we send home at the beginning of the year for parents.
-I changed the header also, to make it so users don't have to scroll down much to reach the content. I have the full size header on the "Home" page, but have taken it off completely from the other pages.
-Lastly, a small change, was changing the colors of the links. They were blue and I thought I needed to keep with the color scheme I was using; therefore, I changed them to yellow.
I am excited to complete my "Student" page next. I think with that one I will have subpages as well. With the interactive sites that we put on Diigo, there will be plenty of sites I can add for my students.
Also, I have a question Dr. Gibson. Why when I posted pictures of my wire frame and site map in one of my previous posts, can they not be seen?
I also didn't realize there were so many mechanics that went into website design, besides just user friendliness and the aesthetics of the site.
Here are some of the the specific things I considered/changed in my website:
-I made subpages under my "Parent" page. This helped with the organization and simplicity of the site and made it so that users wouldn't have to scroll through a ton of content on just one page. With the subpages, I am able to break it down and make it more accessible. With this change, I was also considering the Chunking aspect, by placing the objects that relate together.
-I did add more documents and links to my parent page, I even think I could find more. I also know that in the beginning of next school year I will add more of the documents we send home at the beginning of the year for parents.
-I changed the header also, to make it so users don't have to scroll down much to reach the content. I have the full size header on the "Home" page, but have taken it off completely from the other pages.
-Lastly, a small change, was changing the colors of the links. They were blue and I thought I needed to keep with the color scheme I was using; therefore, I changed them to yellow.
I am excited to complete my "Student" page next. I think with that one I will have subpages as well. With the interactive sites that we put on Diigo, there will be plenty of sites I can add for my students.
Also, I have a question Dr. Gibson. Why when I posted pictures of my wire frame and site map in one of my previous posts, can they not be seen?
Friday, April 4, 2014
Journal 4
I used to think that I had a pretty good grasp on technology and was technologically savvy. However, within the past few years with all the new things that have been added I don't feel that way anymore. Web 2.0 reminds me most of social networking, hash tags, blogging and wikis. I know that there are so many more sites and resources that students can use to enhance their education than the ones I already use. I use technology to design and plan instruction and I use it during many of my lessons, but what is lacking is student use. Student use is something that my school lacks as a whole. For me, teaching first grade, I just know there is so much stake in teaching them to read and write that spending the time for THEM to use the technology is on the back burner. It would take so much time to take them to our computer lab and teach them how to use the computer correctly before we could actually accomplish a goal. However, just recently my district added 20 minutes onto our school day to help make up snow days. My first grade team and I decided to spend some of that extra time teaching our students about typing and the keys on a keyboard. We are hoping to get them to the computers on Friday afternoons to actually practice typing. This would be a step in the right direction!
As far as my blog, I haven't started my parent page as of yet. However, I do know what types of things I want to include on it. I want to give them access to many of the informational things I send home at the beginning of the year. This could be: behavior management plans, grading policies, attendance policies, day to day routines, etc. I also want to give them links for resources, like reading with their child at home, common math strategies, even curriculum maps and documents to help explain the new common core.
So far the website making process has been very easy thanks to Weebly. I will go back to one of my earlier posts about not having the time to keep it updated and to search for all of the sites that would be most useful. Also, I know that not all of my student's parents have available technology at home and even some that do don't always take the opportunity to use it to help their child. This is frustrating, knowing that when I do put in the time to do things they aren't used by even half of my parents.
As far as my blog, I haven't started my parent page as of yet. However, I do know what types of things I want to include on it. I want to give them access to many of the informational things I send home at the beginning of the year. This could be: behavior management plans, grading policies, attendance policies, day to day routines, etc. I also want to give them links for resources, like reading with their child at home, common math strategies, even curriculum maps and documents to help explain the new common core.
So far the website making process has been very easy thanks to Weebly. I will go back to one of my earlier posts about not having the time to keep it updated and to search for all of the sites that would be most useful. Also, I know that not all of my student's parents have available technology at home and even some that do don't always take the opportunity to use it to help their child. This is frustrating, knowing that when I do put in the time to do things they aren't used by even half of my parents.
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