1. Tech Tools For Teachers Communicating With Students And Parents Through A Classroom Website By Maritza C. Hurtado

2. + Learning Objectives By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to: Identify several applications available for free to teachers; Create a Weebly website for their classroom; Plan ways to use and integrate various web applications, including Weebly for Education, with their students and for themselves. 3. + What are some commonly used applications you use to keep connected, organized and/or manage paperwork? 4. + Whats available & for what: Byrne, R. (2014) Websites and Blogs: Weebly, WordPress, Google Sites, Blogger, Edublogs Wikispaces Forms, tests and quizzes: Google Forms Data Storage: Google Drive, MS SkyDrive, Dropbox Polls and Surveys: Google Moderator, SurveyMonkey Video creation: Animoto, Masher Flyer creator: Smore Social Networking: EdModo PLEASE NOTE: Listed are just a few of whats available! 5. + Technology makes it easier to: Show student classwork and artwork Inform parents about news, upcoming events and other notifications pertaining to classroom and school (Brown, 2003). Organize paperwork Assess student work 6. + What are the positives to having a classroom website? Teachers can use a website to communicate important information to students as well as parents. All handouts are retrievable and archived in ONE place. Students can collaborate what they learned each day or week in a Blog page together with the teacher. Parents can gain insight on projects and classroom activities through pictures or videos. Environmentally-friendly, ultimately saves paper usage! Students can have a safe place to go on-line for supplemental resources. Tutorial videos, links to other educational sites. Brown, S. (2003) 7. + Creating a Classroom Website Using Weebly Go to https://education.weebly.com/ to set-up a free account Weebly: Easy & fast to use; Tons of resources available; Drag & drop capability; FREE 8. Step-by-Step Instructions: Go to: https://education.weebly.com/ Set up a Username and Password (make sure you write this down) Choose a Style/Design (Dont worry this can be changed later.) Choose a Subdomain of Weebly.com and type in the NAME of your website (This will be your Domain name.) Now we can START BUILDING your website using the basic toolbox on the left-hand side of the screen. BUILD: Contains - BASIC, STRUCTURE and MEDIA options, all have a Drag & Drop capacity DESIGN: This menu contains editing tools to change the sites theme, color and fonts. PAGES: Add pages here, control the layout of the page and create subpages. (Skip the STORE menu) SETTINGS: This tab controls the site address, change or edit the site Title. Start building your site! PUBLISH: When you are done this button will make you website LIVE! Menu items on the TOP of the screen 9. A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE Fill out this window 1st E This is the 2nd window youll see that allows you to manage your sites (Yes you can create more than one site through one account!) M This cool To-Do List in the bottom right helps you stay on track. M DName your site here https://education.weebly.com/ 10. In this window you will choose what KIND of site you will be creating. Keep in mind, you can include a blog as a page on you site. https://education.weebly.com/ 11. In this next page you will choose from tons of themes available for FREE. If you decide later to change your theme, no problem, the Site Manager allows for editing the Theme. https://education.weebly.com/ 12. Go ahead and add PAGES first, then go back to BUILD. Determine how many pages you want to have on your classroom website. The links on the left should help you determine how many pages to have and for what purpose. Resource for sample classroom websites: http://teacher- sites.weebly.com/ http://wefed.weebly.com/sam ple-sites.html 13. Sample of web manager: Drag & drop onto page 14. + Thats it! Here are more resources for Weebly help. Or just watch this tutorial for more help! https://weebly.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 15. + Links to cool apps for communication https://drive.google.com/ https://www.wikispaces.com/ https://www.edmodo.com/ http://www.sophia.org/ https://www.google.com/moder ator/ https://www.smore.com/educato rs http://www.scoop.it/t/edtech-pk- 12 http://animoto.com/ http://www.masher.com/ https://edublogs.org/ https://www.surveymonkey.com / https://tools.google.com/dlpage/ drive https://onedrive.live.com/about/ en-us/ 16. + What was the hardest part of working withWeebly? What is the 1st thing you must do before creating a website? Do you foresee creating a classroom website for your class? Please share any tech tools that you know teachers can use that was not mentioned in this presentation. 17. + I believe that being a teacher is the hardest job in the world. So why not take technology by the reins and learn how to be efficient, innovative and creative! New and amazing applications are being dreamed right now. As you go into your career, I thought knowing how to create a classroom website would be a Must- Have. Enjoy! 18. Links & References http://www.uscranton.com/teaching-career-resources/how-technology- can-help-teachers-in-the-classroom/ http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2013/05/07-teachers- technology-students-education-west-bleiberg http://www.edutopia.org/learning-alliances-building-a-better-school http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology Report on Effectiveness of Technology in Schools 1990-1994 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED371726.pdf Brown, S. (2003). Using a classroom webpage to communicate with parents. Learn NC. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/689?ref=search 50 Fab Apps for Teachers http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/50-fab-apps-teachers 19. Links & References (continued) Classroom Website Guidelines http://www.carrollk12.org/instruction/staffdevelopment/tech/classweb/def ault.asp http://mattbgomez.com/weebly-simple-and-free-way-to-create-a-class- website/ http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/design_site/ http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/06/create- impressive-class-website-under-hour http://www.pinterest.com/julie_faulkner/technology-weebly-website- creation/ Using Blogs in the Classroom http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47 http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/472-technology-helps- teachers-manage-classrooms