Ms. Taylor's Classroom Website

cross-posted on the Global Learners Blog

My classroom website is now active on the web! Please check it out and let me know what you think. My goal in creating this website for my classroom was to have it serve as a tool for communication and collaboration. I also see it being a space to share our classroom's educational experiences with the world, and a place for my students to access learning resources and activities. The website features:

• pages for each academic area with related website links
• links to google calendars for Alsup IB school, each academic area, and homework
• a clustr map to track visitors
• a page where Global Learner lesson plans will be posted
• photo gallery that utilizes embedded Picasa slide shows
• and more!

I used ideas from Jeff's website and many great links that Andrew has posted on Central's website. Thank you both! And thanks to Dave for helping me edit Html on my site to allow me to embed the clustr map and Picasa slide show!

Any ideas on how I could improve the site?

21st Century Learning Tools

I am a second language learner. I am not studying a spoken language of the world, but the fascinating world of technology. This summer I have been becoming familiar with new vocabulary words and concepts. Web 3.o, voki, technorati, wikis, blogs, clustrmaps, and more! What is more, I have been joining in and participating in this technologically minded world. Three months ago I didn't know what a wiki or blog was and now I have both! My classroom website will be up and running within the month! Then the journey with my students will begin! I am excited to start the next school year with so many new 21st century learning tools at my disposal. What will happen? Will my teaching improve? Will student participation, motivation and achievement improve? I think so... What do you think?

Website Development

I am currently creating a website for my classroom. This has been both a challenging and delightful experience. It has also been very useful, acting as a tool to help me share my vision of teaching with a potentially global audience. I plan to use my website for many purposes: a source of information for students and parents, a place to share students work, a place to post lesson plans I create so that they can be utilized by other educators, a place to post links to other online educational resources, and a way to communicate with people connected to our classroom community. Developing this website has started first with a framework which details are being added to. I am excited about what will happen in the near future when my website is launched and hopefully useful!