Mr. Gurnett's Class

WEBSITE REFLECTION

I really enjoyed creating a website for my classroom. From taking this course, I have realized how to effectively integrate technology into my classroom. I see my class website serving as an information hub for my classroom. Students would only need access to my website for everything that they would do on the computer. I really enjoy the simplicity of having all my classroom approved links on one page. From working with younger children, it is an immense pain having to type in a web address twenty different times. By setting my class website as the home page, even the youngest of kids would be able to navigate their way around by clicking on links.

My only concern for the use of the website would be parent involvement. From working in a lower-income school, many families do not have access to the Internet. I would still create the website as a resource for the family, but would not rely solely on it to get information to parents.

I like the ability of being able to display the students work. It would be my goal for the students to think of the website as their own. By being able to see their work on the Internet, students would share their work with their family. It would also create an excitement for learning as they have a place to display their work.

I really enjoyed the idea of creating a PLN (Personal Learning Network), and I feel this website would help me communicate with other educators as a way to share ideas. I would also let other teachers in my school use the information I have on my website in their classrooms.

Favorite Tools
Delicious
I really like the ability to have access to all my links from all computers. This allows me to keep better track of the many websites I come across when I am browsing the web.

Google Docs
I feel that Google Docs could revolutionize the way we share information in school. As someone who seeks to teach younger students, there may not be a need for sharing documents, but if I ever teach older students, it will be a tool that I use for writing papers.

I really appreciated the variety of technology we were exposed too. I wish that I had this wealth of information during my undergraduate career. There are only so many times one can sit through a powerpoint presentation!