6- wikis & productivity tools

The school website that I looked at was Elms Elementary School and it included class pages from prekindergarten all the way to fifth grade. All of the class pages had calendars posted, announcements about school events (fundraising, PTA, ect.), and basic contact information for the teacher including their name, room number, grade, email, and subjects that they teach. For the younger grades the pages had the spelling words listed, and different announcements regarding homework and events going on at the school. One class page for a 5^th grade math class had a symbaloo with lots of different websites, the page also had a list of resources for the students. I was surprised that the class pages had so much information that people can see publicly. I was most surprised that the teachers contact information was so detailed, even including their classroom number.

When I become a teacher I will try to use technology, and more specifically productivity tools, often to more effectively and efficiently accomplish my professional responsibilities. Productivity tools make everyday tasks that teachers are responsible for, including planning, documenting lessons, grading, record keeping, and communication, much easier and more effective. Some specific tools that I plan on using in my classroom are diigo (social bookmarking tool), Microsoft word, google calendar, and email. Putting things in digital form has the huge benefit of being able to share with others, including other teachers, students, and even parents. So using technology doesn’t just benefit the teacher, but can benefit many others because things in digital form can be easily shared.

I learned a lot from working on the last assignment, Web Evaluation Wiki. I have never had any experience with wikis prior to this assignment, so I acquired the skill of mastering how to create a wiki and what it’s all about. It was fairly easy to navigate the website, and I figured it out quickly. It was nice that it wasn’t too complicated, but I was also a little disappointed that it was very plain. In the past when making my blog, website, or even a newsletter, I like to use lots of color and background themes. This site didn’t really have any formatting tools. The most stressful part of this assignment was working as a group, because two people in my group went out of town for the weekend so we weren’t able to work out a time for all of us to meet. I felt like it would have been less stressful for me to just do it on my own, especially since we didn’t have a lot of class time to work on it as a group. The skills and experience that I have gained from making my own wiki are applicable to my future career as a teacher because wikis are a wonderful tool to use in the classroom.