This week's progress toward my GAME Plan has been extremely slow. I am still waiting for a response from the district technology guru about how to make my students active subscribers to our classroom blog. The district doesn't want to issue the students email accounts, but without email, I can't make it possible for students to comment and post actively on the blog. So, I'm waiting for a response from him to let me know how I can get the kids to be part of our blog.
I definitely feel as if the technology piece has been my greatest challenge. Other than trying to remain flexible and split my students up between the classroom computers, the laptop computers, and the library computers, I am at a loss at how I could otherwise complete both goals.
I am still working on getting grant money to help acquire all of the needed technology to complete both goals most appropriately. Partially because of that, I am not ready to change my own goals. I need more time to gather the resources I need to do a large presentation so that my students can collaborate and problem solve effectively. Without the integrated equipment, I will struggle to reach the community connection with a real-world problem
In creating better parent communication, I have felt as if I am at a complete standstill. Many of my parents do not have working telephone numbers. Some that do have said they refuse to answer the phone before 2pm. I truly feel that creating a quick, easy, and accessible online parent page would be the easiest, fastest way for me to communicate with parents on a more frequent basis. For those who do not have internet access, I could simply print the weekly page out for them. Beyond this, I am at a loss. I would love to hear any suggestions for improving this! Perhaps that should be my next goal: to work with colleagues and teachers from other buildings to hear about what different teachers do for parent communications. It would enable me to find a plan, or create a plan with new ideas, that would work for me, and my student's parents.
Suggestions to get around my greatest stumbling block in my game plan are most welcome!
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Hi Julie,
ReplyDeleteMy own experiences are similar to yours in terms of time. I feel like we can make progress in this short period of time but to meet our goals and set new ones, fells like rushing it a little to me. It takes time to make all of the changes we envision.
It sounds to me like you are making progress. Be patient, change does not happen overnight. I think your plan to create an online parent page is a good idea. Sending home a hard copy to the parents who do not have internet access is a good accommodation. It is hard, when you feel like you are pressed for time, to wait for someone to get back to you with the information you need. Hopefully, your technology guru will get back with you soon.
Terri
Julie,
ReplyDeleteOh, but you can make them activie subscribers! What blog service are you using? I set up each of my students (120 of them) with their own blogs through Edublogs.org using my own Gmail account. You can "trick" Edublogs into thinking you're using different e-mails by adding to the address.
Here's what I mean. My gmail account for Edublogs is "mulanax.edublogs@gmail.com" When I sign a new student up, I add "+lastnamefirstinitial" to that address. Yours would be "mulanax.edublogs+hathawayj@gmail.com" The system thinks it's a new account, but the e-mail comes to me and I can complete their registration without a problem!
Sure hope this helps!! If it doesn't, give me the details and I can help you figure out a way to get past the "no e-mail" stumbling block! There's ALWAYS a way around EVERYTHING! :)
Deana
Terri,
ReplyDeleteIt can certainly be frustrating to wait on someone to get information to me so that I can move forward with my plan. So, for now, I've decided to concentrate on formulating my parent page. I would like to make it easy to post, as well as easy to print out. Eventually, I would like to have my students managing this, with an exception of a message from me to the parents. Thanks for the words of support!
Julie
Deana,
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of your idea for adding my students as subscribers! I don't have a gmail account, but will certainly be setting that up very soon! That idea felt like it just took a huge weight off of my shoulders! It is so simple, it seems like one of those "DUH!" moments! Thank you so much for all of your help! Between this idea and the grant ideas, your help has been much appreciated! Thanks! :)
Julie