Blog Post #6

            For this blog post, I went back to my high school’s, H.B. Plant High School, website to see if they had changed anything since I was there.  I couldn’t find any links to specific classes, other than the Plant High Chorus website. On the first Home page there was a slide show of upcoming events such as pep rallies and Homecoming. Beside that they had a lie feed of everything being posted on twitter that are coming from Plant High School accounts. Below that is the school calendar with a link to the extend school calendar. Other pages include, faculty and staff, programs, athletics, performing arts, resources, and community. I looked under faculty and staff to see if there were any links to teachers’ personal pages, but it only gave me their contact information. I remember when I left Plant they started utilizing a website for teachers to post on. It was a lot like BlackBoard but it was called Edsby. At the top of each page there is a drop down menu that says, “student links” and that is where you can access Edsby, but of course a login is required. Under performing arts there is a choir choice and that takes you directly to the plantsings.org website. This is where the director posts all of his upcoming events, photos, and forms. Grades are not posted here, but almost all other information about his class is.

           

            When I become a teacher, I will most likely use teacher planning tools, Microsoft applications, and Evernote. Teacher planning tools, as the podcast said, will be really prevalent especially in the first year. I want something that will help keep those documented for the future and be easy to update when the requirements and curriculum change. Microsoft applications will make making tests, power points and spreadsheets a lot easier. I have grown up using Microsoft so I feel like that will be a go-to software for me to use. Next, I will use Evernote to make notes on websites before I use them. That way if I see something I don’t really like for class I will make a note and it will be there on the first page; I will not have to search everywhere in case I forgot.

            After our last assignment I learned a lot about how to accurately and effectively evaluate a website before letting my class use it. I liked composing my own evaluation form and utilizing it on a website because it made me realize that some things are more important than others depending on what class you are teaching and how old the students are. The thing I did not particularly like about the assignment was that we had to write a paper with two other people. It was challenging because everyone had varying ideas splitting up the load is difficult because you’re not sure how well their section is going to be done. I think for next time, it should be an individual assignment and maybe instead of a full-page explanation, only half a page. I will definitely use this when I am a teacher, especially since I am planning on teaching younger students. I want to makes sure that the websites I will be using are secure and appropriate for young children.