Education Web Design

Home Practice Sites

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:12:40 +0000

The internet is overflowing with remarkable and fun “games” to reinforce student learning. Each day, as I presented new skills, I quickly added a site where that skill could be practiced at home that evening. The students loved it and became quite competitive. I also had opportunities at school where students could go online to practice the current skills of the week. This game, MATH SPLAT, would be a game that was posted on the day we explored adding and subtracting fractions. Isn’t that more fun than taking home a worksheet?

Tutorials

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:47:34 +0000

I often posted Tutorials for students to review at home, or I may present them in class on the screen. It was great to be able to give preview time for a new skill I would be teaching, or for parents to look at ahead of time. Then the students felt more confident and understood the new skill better. Then it could be reviewed again at home the following day. Here is a good example of how my third graders were introduced to the new skill of borrowing. Trust me, they would rather listen to this explanation with the magic pencil than to me using chalk with my back turned to the class!

Announcing Tested Skills for Home Study

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:36:02 +0000

Parents appreciated being able to look online to know exactly when the next test was coming and what skills they should be reviewing to prepare for that test. Here is a post to help students prepare at home for a chapter math test:

Our next chapter math test will be this Thursday afternoon. These are the skills that will be tested on that day:

Rounding to the nearest hundred

Estimating with benchmark numbers

Comparing numbers and ranking by size

Rounding to the nearest thousand

Rounding to the nearest ten

Less than and greater than signs

Reading a bar graph an interpreting the data

Getting information from a table

This leaves no question about what skills need to be perfected. Parents love this.

Recognition for Accomplishments in the Classroom

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:28:37 +0000

When my students accomplished our classroom goal of memorizing multiplication facts they were able to “graduate.” Putting their picture on our bulletin board and blog with their graduation hat on provided a real incentive to get busy and memorize those facts. Once their picture and paragraph were published the other students congratulated and raved about their success. Grandparents and aunts and uncles were alerted and they left messages as well. What a good feeling, and again, students were encouraged and praised for academics!

Reminders for Students and Parents

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:23:51 +0000

Here is an example of reminders I could quickly post just to help everyone remember what to take care of. Lives are very busy and parents appreciated these quick online reminders.

Please remember to return library books tomorrow. Also, if you haven’t returned your conference slips, tomorrow would be a good day to get those in as well. Tomorrow school will dismiss at 2:07. If there are any new volunteers for writing lab on Thursday at 1:25, please let me know.

Parents could post right on the message whether they would be coming to the writing lab. If other questions arise, they can be posted right there and the answers may benefit others as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Posting Pictures On Your Blog

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:17:32 +0000

On Backpack Night it is always exciting to come into your new classroom and meet your friends that will be in your new room. I like to take a picture of each family and give out a card with our web address on it. When the students get home families are posted on the website because it can be done in a matter of minutes. Both parents and students like to know who the other families are that will be spending the year together.

Why Have a Blog in Your Classroom?

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:06:53 +0000

I am a retired teacher with 30 years of teaching experience. During the last few years of my teaching career my classroom blog became a very big part of what happened in every child’s learning process. The use of the blog brought to our classroom many learning experiences, recognition, communication and a general connection that we all cared about each other as friends and excited learners. Soon parents and grandparents were leaving comments on the blog, providing the strong message that “I love you and I am so proud of what you are learning.” The blog kept everyone informed daily about what we were studying and also provided a place where students could practice a newly learned skill at home. Take a look at what a blog can provide for your classroom with just one small entry a day.

Need a new school website, Where do I start?

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:58:57 +0000

Preparation is just as important as getting the perfect design for your new website. The way your website is organized can determine if your school district website or teacher website is going to be successful or a bitter failure. Most of the clients we work with want a new website because their current website is unorganized and information is buried deep within the site. Many older school district websites are also built with static HTML. If your school doesn’t have a person comfortable with updating those types of sites you will be left with a web pages full of buried information and broken links. Here are some steps in preparing your new website.

Start with a blank slate

Usually old websites still have accessible information that is out dated and no longer relevant. In some instances plan your new website layout as if you don’t have a website currently. This will help you determine what information is really important to your visitors.

Answer this question: What are my visitors looking for?

Determine what your users are trying to find on your website. Throughout the years of working with school districts, many of them see announcements, lunch menus, and upcoming events as some of the most important items on their website. Using our website traffic monitoring software you will find out what pages are being looked at the most and can organize your site accordingly to make sure those popular pages can be easily found.

Create a sitemap and flow chart

Once you have determined what information needs to be easily found on your website you can then start developing your menus or “tabs.” Most education websites will have menu items and sub menu items full of information. Categorizing and organizing your information into menus can be time consuming task, but is the most important aspect in the success of your school website.

Example of a simple flow chart:

Drop down sub menu for District Information: Calendar, Newsletters, Financial, Health, Employment, School Board

Drop down sub menu for High School: Welcome Page, Activities, Departments, Calendar, Contact Us

Sometimes your drop down sub menus need to be broken down even more. Here is an example where this school wants a page dedicated to each activity in the high school.

High School Activities sub menu: Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Speech, Drama, etc.