Being an educator today requires far more than a chalkboard, desk, and apple. The increasingly harried plunge toward an digital existence won't allow us to sit back with out dusty books and berate students with knowledge. We must incorporate technology, and one way we can do this is by establishing a functional presence on the internet.
An educator's web site must, before anything else, be informative. In designing an online beach head I am first trying to decide what, exactly, I will want my site to include. I have doodled the following using
Inspiration.
I'm trying to include everything I can think of to give both students and their parents a place to go for information and fun. I will want to be an open-door and open-book kind of teacher. Some things about my life will remain private, naturally, but I want my literary and intellectual self to be out there for all to see and interface with. I feel this is a good starting framework and I've already begun to render it in Microsoft Sharepoint Designer. The site, once it's up and running, will link back here and vice-verse. Feel free to leave comments with ideas on what this design is missing or things you think might need to be tweaked. After all, it'll be as much your site as mine.
I realy love your "open book" philosiphy when it comes to working with your students in a community of learners. It really seems to me that you are trying to create a free space to share ideas and learn from each other which is exactly the kind of website that will be most helpful. Because your focus is English I wonder if you considered adding a creativ/formal writing forum. I know that in high school I sometimes had to used writing skills in other classes and was always worried about it. I think it could be reaslly cool for students considering writing who might want some input.
ReplyDeleteExcellent observation, Victoria. I had actually pondered the inclusion of an online writing-lab or sorts. Ideally this would encourage peer editing as well as self-critiquing. The important thing to stress would naturally have to be respect and a professional/mature attitude. It's definitely something to strive toward.
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