Homepage Tools, Social Bookmarking, and Class Management Sites
From RE 5532: Technology-Supported Literacy
How We Use Pageflakes and Other Homepage Tools
Share the various ways that you use these tools. Be sure to be specific about what tool you use and to provide us a link so that we can see how you set it up.
I have had alot of fun working on my Pageflakes page. [1] It could become addictive. Right now I am just using it for a personal page as I get to know the options of the page. I have tries to incorporate all of the links I use most often in one place. I have also taken advantage of the the task organizer, calendar, planner, clock, and a few fun games on my second page. I love to cook so I added a recipe link as well. This is a wonderful way to organize my life on the web.--Candy Mooney 21:30, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
I created a homepage on Pageflakes. Wow!! I love all the apps and tools! Right now it is a combination of personal and school related items. It may stay that way or I may find that I use it more for one than the other and adjust it. I've already changed it a couple of times as I think of other things I might be able to add and use. I can see a real use for this personally in order to organize all the things I use like weather.com, facebook, a calendar, and a to-do list on the sticky notes tool. I especially like th bookmarking site...especially since I have not had much luck with the other bookmarking sites. --Smithmk1 04:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
OOPS...I forgot to add a link to my Pageflake site:[2] --Brandy 22:33, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up my Pageflake account this weekend but I need to continue working on it. I can see the benefits of using a class homepage as a means of communication and updates for parents. I work in a VERY rural area where most people who do have internet only have access to dial-up, cable is not an option for a lot of our families. My parents respond well to the monthly Newsletter that I send home, but don't seem to respond well to online class resources. I notified parents of our class Twitter account and at this time I only have 4 parents following us. I don't think this is because of lack of interest on their part, I think it is becasue of lack of resources. I am thinking about doing a technology survey to see how many families have computers and/or internet in their homes. This may help me figure out what ways I can best meet their communication needs.--Brandy 01:04, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up my Pageflake account yesterday, and I LOVE it. There are so many options to choose from and I can change and re-customize my account whenever I choose. I love the "To Do List" because I make one each day and the calendar. I created an account for myself because Surry County Schoolsrequires each teacher to create a classroom webpage through WordPress. I created my site at the beginning of the school year. It has pages set up for missed work, parents, honors, student council (that is the club I have been assigned to), "Where are We Going", and "about me." I load presentations that have been used for the students to download and save to their laptops. We also now have the public drive at school. I have a folder on the P-drive that my students download their assignments from. They then save them in the Social Studies folder we have created in their MyDocuments folder so they can continue to access the assignment once they are at home. My classroom homepage also has communication ability, however I have not been able to take the appropriate workshop to be able to use it yet. I should be able to open up blogging capabilities later this week.--Melissa Martin Whitfield 18:13, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a Pageflakes account today. I still have a little work to do on it, but I am concerned that it will not be as useful to parents at my school as I would like it to be. Our school is in a rural location so High Speed Internet is not an option to the residential areas. When I first started teaching there I asked the principal if I could set up a homepage on Scholastic and he thought that it wouldn't be worthwhile because parents would probably not take the time to access it very often. I do create a weekly newsletter that is posted on our schools website [www.lawsonville.stokes.k12.nc.us] and a lot of parents opt to have the page sent to them in paper form because it takes so long to access their email at home.--Tonna216 13:06, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a webpage through my school.We have a program called School Center that we use. I use to to relate information to parents. It is also required by our school system to keep it updated. On my webpage, I put information about what we have been learning and working on in class. I also have a calendar of events on the main page. I have created tabs for parents to click on with other information, so they don't have to scroll down too much on the main page. My tabs include: class schedule, spelling homework, class blog,science fair and handwriting. Today I updated what we have been working on in class,update the calendar of events and finally created a class schedule tab. I also added for the first time a science tab. Since my school is a science school, the science fair is a big deal. So, I made some links for parents so they can start helping their child think about a topic they may want to do. The science fair is at the beginning of February, but it isn't too early to start. My goal is to have most of my students participate.--Patricia Edwards 01:44, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
I use Google Sites for a classroom homepage. It is easy to use without being familiar with HTML codes. On my website, I have a front page with my favorite book and quote, along with due dates for book orders and field trip forms. Then, there are pages, such as About Me, Science, Reading, and Assignments. The Science and Reading pages provide background information parents may use to help their children study or complete assignments at home. The Assignments page is used to give every assignment a child has for homework that week from all teachers. I compile a master list of their work from the other 4th grade teachers so that parents can see it all. Also, there is a widget that shows my last 7 Tweets on the Assignments page, which usually provide information about due dates, tests, and quizzes. This has proven to be an excellent tool for my students and parents to use for assignments and reminders at home. --Brittanyjguy 02:02, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
School wide we use teacherweb for our classroom homepages. I have about 7 different tabs on the left hand side of my Tilley's SuperStars Homepage. I use my teacher web page to post classroom news, class schedule, school calendar, homework, important links which are now on ikeepbookmarks, etc. The one thing I really do like about teacher web is that if I sent out a newsflash(important information) it is sent to the parents right then in an email. Each teacher has their own page and they are not linked into grade levels. I personal find it very hard and time consuming to keep up with my teacher web page just because every single thing is on a separate page. I looked at pageflakes and decided that I would make one for my personal use Holly's page. It is amazing!!!! There are so many tools/flakes to choose from and they are updated resources. Pageflakes offers so many other things than teacher web and other homepage resources might offer. On my page I included: email, twitter, weather, word of the day, news, calendar, and a link box with the websites I visit the most. I think it is amazing to have everything in one spot. I like how each grade level can create a pageflake and add a page for each class so all the students and parents can see what the other classes are doing and the students can blog on the pageflakes and read each others from class to class. I have set my pageflake as my homepage on my computer. I think this would be a more effective way than teacher web and its free.--Hetilley 00:14, 9 October 2009 (UTC) I send home a letter asking my parents to visit my homepage, which is required from Forsyth county. There they can see what we are doing and how to communicate with me. I do need to update, but I am focusing on my new igoogle page,not where I want it yet, will link later.--Grandmacunningham 15:33, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
This year my school is requiring teachers to create a webpage. We are using google sites. This is part of our school improvement plan. I just created it and still need to add to it. Right now it has a calendar with upcoming events and a section that tells the parents what things are going on in the classroom such as units we are are studying or any special activity that we are having. I also posted a couple of pictures of the children. I love talking pictures and this will help the parents see what we are doing in the classroom. I plan to post the spelling words and homework assignments for the week. It will also help the parents to remember upcoming events. I think that this will help keep the parents involved and informed. I am going to send a letter home this week letting the parents know about the site. I am very excited about using the homepage. http://sites.google.com/site/mrscaldwellsclasssite/ Ashleycaldwell82 18:14, 10 October 2009 (UTC)--Ashleycaldwell82 18:15, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I had never even heard of pageflakes before this week. I was in class Thursday night and Tamara had her pageflakes homepage up on her Mac. I was impressed because I could see the weather, upcoming movies, and news headlines all on the same page and in a visually appealing format.
I work in WS/FCS, so we use School Center. It is a requirement that we all use the same homepage program and format, so parents have an easier time navigating between teachers and schools. My webpage follows the standard format, with a calendar I update daily, an area for me to upload documents (permission slips, notes pages, etc), a contact page, and general info. We also have a Puma Team webpage which contains a calendar that links to the county calendar. Parents have a one-click stopping spot here, where they can find assignments from all core teachers & school information.
So, I thought I’d try to set up a pageflakes account just to see what would happen. I LOVE IT! I set mine up to be used with students. I created 3 separate pages, the first an opening screen with calendar, to-do list, a daily quote, and news from Scholastic. The other two pages are designated “Team Toolbox” and “Local/World News” with flakes focused on those two topics. I like the option of being able to share files in just one spot. I will need to ask my tech facilitator if I’ll get in trouble for using pageflakes. I have a feeling I can simply link my pageflakes page into the web links on my School Center webpage, to get around the mandatory setup.
I would actually like to create a personal pageflakes page, too. Does anyone know if you can create two accounts using the same e-mail addy? Guess I could use my ASU address for one. --Rjohnson 18:15, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I finished setting up my Pageflakes page, this afternoon. I hope to email it to my parents tomorrow, after getting the okay from my media coordinator. I think it will be a another way to engage my students. Some of my students are accessing Edmodo at home so I believe they will visit this site as well. I can see them really getting into the note feature, and I like the news link I added at the top of the page. Perhaps some of my kids will explore the articles when they visit the site. Now that I have a class site, I plan to create my own site. I love the idea of having everything organized on one place and being able to check my email, Facebook and twitter all from one site! --Adover 18:07, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
In Surry County we are only allowed to use Wordpress for our sites. I attended a brief introductory workshop this summer and set up a basic page. I use Yahoo at home for my own convenience. I like having all of tools I use daily on one page, for example, facebook, twitter, email, weather, news, etc. I even added Dave's homepage! I set up a PageFlakes account yesterday and love all of the options it has, plus the added bonus of sharing with others. --jennifer wagoner 21:21, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I had also not heard of Pageflake until this class. I set up an account at Pageflake and personalized my page with my interests. As of right now, I just set up a personal page. I work in Stokes County schools and this school year all teachers are going to be required to set up a class webpage. I think we will all have to set up a similar webpage so I didn’t want to set one up yet. If I did, I would get parents used to this one and then have to change it to another site later in the school year. It is really nice to have all of the information that I check during the day at one site. I think I am going to enjoy Pageflake! --JenLawson070 22:29, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up Pageflakes this weekend. I have a lot of work to do to make it just right, but I really like the idea. I like it more for my personal use than professional use. I am required to use School Center in my county. I have a site for my team, [http://www.davidson.k12.nc.us/lmssharks. It is updated daily. Here, I post my essential questions, my daily goals and class/homework. My teammates and I also use this to post powerpoints and other info we use in class.--Carol Sherrill 23:38, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I enjoyed setting up my Pageflakes site. Our Student Improvement Team is going to have us all set up websites sometime in the near future. Setting up this page was good practice. I am not sure if we will be required to use a certain program. If they choose Pageflakes I will already know what I am doing. If not, at least I will have some experience with the idea, and will get my opportunity to learn about another one. Now, I just need to keep myself away from the games. I probably should not have includes any on my page, they tend to make me procrastinate--Ressler14 23:47, 11 October 2009 (UTC)!
I absolutely love the idea of Pageflakes. With the class that I teach, I incorporate a lot of technology, and I often feel that everything is so scattered. With Pageflakes, I can now create widgets for the various resources that we use (including our wikispace, my delicious page, etc.) and have them all in one spot for the students can access. Also, I like the idea of having the ability to incorporate calendars and note lists. I am still learning about Pageflakes and ways to incorporate it, but so far, it has provided me with some much-needed organization. --Heatherscoe 23:53, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I think that Pageflakes is a very useful tool for me personally. I too feel scattered on the net occasionally, and PF is a great way to keep everything in one place. I am tinkering with the idea of what a page would look like for my 5th grade, but I really want a more basic page with a blog-type ability for the users in my class. I too work in Stokes County and am waiting to see what sort of teacher sites they are going to ask us to set up before I dedicate too much of my energy to this site for my students. I really like it for my own personal information. The personalization capabilities are much higher than MyYahoo! and other personalized home pages. If anyone in class has created one, it would be neat for me to see it. I'm trying to figure out what widgits to use for homework assignments and other class things. I will link to mine when possible--for some reason Pageflakes keeps timing out and I can't access my page.--Stacy Cabeen 00:48, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a personal Pageflakes which I set as my homepage, it's awesome to have pertinent information as soon as I click on my web browser. My Blackberry has a homepage similar to Pageflakes that I have become very accustomed to reading at various times throughout the day. As far as a homepage for my classroom, I use School Center. Each teacher in Davidson County is required to have and maintain a homepage. These homepages range from extremely simple to very elaborate and ever-changing. My homepage is somewhere in between and I would like to make it better for students and parents. My Website includes Parent Resources, Reading Strategies for homework, a calendar, and a schedule. We also are beginning to "blog" through discussion board also found on my homepage. Students seem very excited when they are able to go online and even more excited when the website involves them. The next feature I would like to put on my homepage is a scrapbook to place students pictures throughout the year. --Burchamal 19:53, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
It seems as though quite a few of us use School Center. My class web page is typically updated once every quarter. I have placed a link to the classroom blog on the first page. It is easy to navigate for parents. I like to post major homework projects on the web page. I am not a huge fan of School Center. It seems as thought it takes an awful lot of memory to run on the school computers. I find it hard to update frequently. It is also frequently closed for maintenance, making it more frustrating to update. An advantage to using school center is the ease of uploading documents for parents to have access to. For example, around Christmas time, I always do a Giving Tree Project. I send various notes home, link to the blog with pictures of the project. There is also a great calendar to use on the classroom page. However, I find it confusing to use one for my class, the school and the district. I have set up a pageflakes account. I created my own personal page, and a behavior page for my students. I am currently having major issues with behavior. I am putting a huge emphasis on routines and procedures. We use CHAMPs at our school, which is similar to PBS. I have designed the pageflakes page to outline our most basic CHAMPs expectations. I have included in my lesson plans, activities to go along with the building of the page. I am going to require that students participate by helping me build the page. CHAMPs PageFlake --Sefeinman 22:25, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Our school decided to begin requiring teachers to have homepages as a part of our School Improvement Plan. We agreed upon using Google site[3]. I was disappointed at first, but I looked at Brittany's site and realized the potential, so I will keep working on putting my stamp on it. I just thought there weren't enough options to jazz it up, but I think I haven't put enough work into it. I have always wanted to keep a webpage for my class and it is fairly easy to use and manuever. I just think that I am not used to setting up my own website. It will be a learning process and I will definitely keep you posted on my journey. I hope that some of the parents will be able to access it.--Oscales 23:25, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
All teachers at my school are required to keep up a webpage using School Center. We are required to update monthly. My challenge this year has been updating my site to represent a k-1 class and not just the kindergarten that I am used to teaching. I enjoy my website. I use it as a way to communicate with parents. My tabs include Home,Our Schedule, Our Calendar, Student Websites, Questions and Answers, Pilot Elementary Home, Kindergarten: What we are Learning in the 1st Quarter, Class Photo Album, First Grade: What we are Learning in the 1st Quarter. My parents really enjoy keeping up with what we are learning in class and they love the photo album so that they get to see their student in action. I am working on being able to put my newsletter online as well. It is a work in progress, but something that I enjoy!--Jessicajackson52 01:51, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
I am required by WSFC schools to have my own website[4]On my web page which is run by school center. This is required by the county. On my webpage there are tabs for biographical info, documens,links, calendar in which I periodically add important dates for projects, homework and field trips. There is also a tab available for parents to fill in a contact form that goes directly to my email. Parents are able to contact anyone from my team or individually. I have a personal igoogle account set up with the school system that I enjoy. [5]. On my igoogle account I have a calendar, weather updates, quote of the day, humorous trivia, time and news updates. I usually check my igoogle account about once a week. --Cajones51 02:49, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
Davidson County Schools requires all teachers to have a class webpage and keep it up to date. We use School Center. In the beginning I hated the idea and was reluctant to embrace it. I thought- Just one more thing. After adjusting, I love it!! I am a scrapbooker at heart and years ago I would make each student their own page at the end of the year to take home.Today, my webpage allows me to scrapbook all year without ever getting out a pair of scissors. I download lots of pictures on my site of units we complete and activities we do. I also document our field trips. Parents and grandparents love to check and see what we have been up to lately. There is a guestbook page where they can leave comments and I love hearing from them. I was shocked last year when for the first time a grandparent contacted me to say how much she enjoyed looking at the site because it gave her insight as to what was going on in her grandson's life. It helped her when she talked with him on the phone. She lives in Ohio. It never occured to me that people so far away would be looking at our webpage. Please visit my class webpage: Mrs.Graham's Website My favorite page is Tar Heel Nation.--Melissa graham 00:53, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a teacherweb page that I update and use to support students with Online assignments and keep them updated with the latest class information and reminders. I also just recently created my own pageflakes page because in my school system they have talked about reducing teacherweb pages to cut cost. I will kind of be upste if my teacherweb page is removed and I have to share with other teachers because I won't be able to personalize my pages and utilize without as much space. Pageflakes is neat, but it doesn't have all the components that I'm looking for. I may try a google site next. We will see. It is usually challenging for me to find time to update so one site would be best for me and best to benefit my students. --Amy Hardister 10:13, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
How Other Teachers Use Pageflakes and Other Homepage Tools
I found one teacher that had broken the curriculum into managable areas of interest for patents and included activies, games, and working at home tips for each section. I can see that this would be a great managementg for teachers, parents, and older students.--Candy Mooney 21:34, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
While browsing Pageflakes I came across this site. This teacher uses Pageflakes for her science class. --Adover 18:10, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Our ITS mentioned using your classroom homepage at the beginning of the year for a virtual scavenger hunt. They can familiarize themselves with using the homepage and learning about their new classroom. --Burchamal 19:57, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I found this pageflake which has tons of info about Music Education. Music Education and Technology.--Sefeinman 20:21, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
I like the idea of using Pageflakes to create a WebQuest. I think it would be much easier for some people to create it on pageflakes, than on an HTML software. I found some of the WebQuest software difficult to use, such as QuestGarden. If I remember correctly, there was only a short free trial period. So using pageflakes would be a better idea for most of us. Elementary China WebQuest.--Sefeinman 20:24, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
This teacher uses pageflakes as a way to showcase different websites that support reading online. It makes me think that curriculum coordinators could really benefit from using something like pageflakes. The district I work in, and the state for that matter, are not very good about keeping things organized on their websites. It would be nice if they used something like pageflakes as a way of organizing resources for teachers. --Sefeinman 20:40, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Pageflakes, Netvibes, and Other Homepage Tool Information Resources
Share any informational resources you find helpful in learning about Pageflakes or these other tools. Be sure to specify which tool you're talking about and provide hyperlinks.
Pageflake (and other Homepage) How-to's
Here's a great set of links to Pageflakes related to writing.--Koppenhaverd 01:26, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Using a classroom webpage to communicate with parents : This article provides information on how to begin a classroom website, what to include in one, and how to maintain it. It also gives examples from an actual first grade teacher who integrates her website into her classroom. --Brittanyjguy 02:15, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
I don't know if this has already been said, but Pageflakes has a teacher edition! It comes with a premade layout of teachertube videos, education photos, education bookmarks, the department of education and so much more. I didn't realize they had this! PageFlakes Teacher.--Sefeinman 15:36, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
How We Use Social Bookmarking
Share the various ways that you use these tools. Be sure to be specific about what tool you use and to provide us a link so that we can see how you set it up.
Social Bookmarking was new for me so the information I read and viewed before really helped me out. I first tried ikeepbookmarks, and had alot of trouble downloading the bookmarks I had previously saved. After several attempts I decided to try another bookmarking site and went with delicious. This site seemed easier to manipulate. Looking ahead, just this semester I have lost all of the information on my home computers due to a virus. I lost alot of vital information including bookmarks that I had used for several years. The social bookmarking will be helpful should this ever happen again.--Candy Mooney 21:43, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
I wanted to update on my social bookmarking experiences. I have been unsuccessful with ikeepbookmarks.com[6] because I use Internet Explorer both at home and at work. Today, I decided to try Delicious[7]. Delicious is a better option for me becasue it allows you to download a tool bar into Internet Explorer. As I am browsing websites I have a toolbar that allows me to add the sites to my bookmark page with Delicious. I have already added many sites that I have found for our upcoming unit on Apples and Pumpkins. I am very excited about using this tool in both my professional life and personal life. If anyone is having a difficult time using ikeepbookmarks, you may want to try Delicious. I find it much easier to follow.--Brandy 23:31, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a social bookmarking account with ikeepbookmarks.com today. I was a little upset because it wouldn't allow me to upload my Internet Explorer favorites. I am very excited about adding all of my online classroom resources to one place. It will be very convenient to have access to my favorite sites and files from home and work.--Brandy 01:12, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I hadn't heard of social bookmarking until this past May when our Media Center Specialist suggusted that the teachers at our school set up an account with Delicious to keep our favorites just in case they would be deleted over the summer while they were installing new programs on all our computers. Unfortunately, I did not follow her suggestion. I wish now that I would have. I set up some bookmarks today and I love it! I can't wait to get to school and add all my favorites from there as well.--Tonna216 20:50, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I had heard of social bookmarking before, and I had intended to set up a site before now, but we all know how that is. I decided to set up an account using Delicious. I have not bookmarked many sites yet, but I am working on it. I am trying to create tag lines that fit easily into the social studies classroom and the way I teach. I would like to build up my account a little more before sharing it with students and linking it to my classroom website. For now, I place links into the assignments they have to try and cut down on the amount of time wasted and the amount of errors that occur when trying to do Internet assignments. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 18:32, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Until this week, I was unfamiliar with social bookmarking formally; however, I have created an account with iKeepBookmarks.com, and I am trying to get links added. Hopefully, I will provide a link from my classroom website so that parents and students can access these links from home, and I can help students easily get to the page they should be on when we use laptops at school. So often, websites URLs are long and contain several unusual characters. This could take students a while to type. However, keeping links bookmarked in this site will make finding webquests and pages much easier and less time-consuming. --Brittanyjguy 02:37, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
I was really not familiar either with social bookmarking until I read the article; which really clarified things for me. I looked at each of the different tools mentioned on our calendar and I decided to set up an account with iKeepbookmarks. I have heard other teachers at my school talking about this website but really didn't catch on but now I do!! I will be linking this site to my teacherweb page so my students and parents can easily access these websites which most can be used at home. I am also going to try to link my flipcharts after I use them so my students can pull them back up at home when working on homework. I have started linking some websites that we use at Tilley's Class. I will be adding more as the school year progresses and when I am on our schools network. I will be linking our school systems math and reading resources when I am on our school network. They might not be able to use these at home but when we move through out the school and my students go to technology they can go straight to my ikeepbookmarks site and click on the website. I am really excited about using this because I am tired of writing the URL on the board and them having to walk around and make sure they all type it in right!--Hetilley 01:00, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a social bookmarking site set up through Blinklist. Here is a link to my site. I use my social Blinklist site to keep track of all the links I have found that contain great information. I've recently begun adding new sights to it after moving to fifth grade, and continue to revisit the sites I found while teaching first. It came in handy last year with my school computer's hard drive crashed and I lost everything. Everything except my bookmarks! While I'm still in the habit of bookmarking sites on my computer, I still revisit my Blinklist site to retrieve websites, espcially when I'm on another computer in the school. --Adover 20:36, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a delicious account. I was first introduced to it this past summer in a workshop. I use my account for my own use and do not share it with my parents. It is nice because I can be at any computer and pull up my bookmarks. Also you can share your bookmarks with others and use other people's bookmarks.--Patricia Edwards 21:30, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I first heard about delicious last year during Amie Snow’s class. I never used the site until this year, when our ESL county office support person sent me her delicious links to help me find workable ideas for ESL instruction. I also added a delicious flake to my pageflake, so I figured that would be the best site to go with. (I liked the research-focused options available on diigo, but delicious looked more middle school student friendly.)
I imported my existing bookmarks and have begun uploading new ones related to The Outsiders, since we will be reading it next in class. I like the ability to add tags to your bookmarks so you (or others using your list) can easily navigate by subject. I can also choose whether I want specific bookmarks to be public or not, so I can keep my grad school links to myself but on the same list as those I share with students.
Delicious might be a good way to facilitate online research/literacy. It would allow me to differentiate instruction, by providing more choices or more support, dependent on student needs. --Rjohnson 19:46, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up an iKeepBookMarks bookmark. [8]This is something I have been interested in for a while but didn’t really know where to start. On my personal computer, I have both Internet Explorer and Mozilla. I have MANY Favorites and Bookmarks under both. At school, I regularly use four different computers and have even more Favorites for each computer. I hate using a different computer and forgetting the website for a site I want to use. I really think my new iKeepBookMarks bookmark will help out with this problem. I’m glad I finally made one! --JenLawson070 22:56, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I am excited to learn about social bookmarking. There have been many times that I have been away from my computer and jotted down cool websites only to lose the slip of paper or completely forget there was a website! This will enable me to keep up with my thoughts better. I will be using ikeepbookmarks. One of my classmates had a great idea about adding a link to their bookmarks for the students. That is a fantastic idea. It will also be helpful to have a link between all of the different computers I use. Thanks for making us do this.--Carol Sherrill 23:42, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up and IKeepBookmarks.com [9] site. I can't wait to use it when we have computer lab this week. I love it so far. I used to be a very, very organized person. I had to let that go a little these last two years with having a combo class and going to grad school. This helped me feel a little like the old me again. I love it! I can't wait to use it with the kids. It will make my life a lot easier. The amount of time on task will be amazing. My little first graders won't know what to do because it will be so easy! We spend a lot of our allotted time on turning on the computers, logging in, and typing in the web addresses. Monday is our day in the lab. I hope it goes as well as I think it is going to! I would like to get all bookmarks up for the entire year. That will be a personal goal in my spare time. I have all the ones I will need for the near future on there. --Ressler14 23:56, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I have had a personal Delicious account for quite some time; however, I hadn't really considered doing this for my class until now. It makes perfect sense. Recently, my 7th and 8th graders have been creating their own personalized wikispace pages. I have been teaching them how to embed images, videos, games, documents, etc. Well, there are a ton of website that they can grab media from. I decided to create a classroom Delicious account and add links to all of these resources (odeo, scribd, mixpod, slideshare, etc.). Then, I embedded my Delicious bookmarks onto our class wikispace page. This is going to make accessing certain websites at school and at home much easier. --Heatherscoe 00:03, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I, like many others, have been intending to create a bookmarking site for quite some time. When a computer crashes or a new network comes in and removes everything you have saved over two years, it can be very frustrating. Now, I won't have to worry about that anymore because of delicious [10] I am going to upload all of my school favorites tomorrow. I may not share this with my students yet. I think I would like to have two separate accounts for personal use and for my students to access sites used in class. This way, I don't have to worry about any wires getting crossed. --Stacy Cabeen 01:06, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Like many of the others, I have used social bookmarking (mostly to keep my sanity). But unlike most, I did not have an account on a separate site but on my homepage. It never occurred to me that our sites would crash and my bookmarks would be lost. So, I've created a site on Delicious for my students. They will be excited to try it out, especially when we do virtual scavenger hunts. Instead of worrying about typing in url addresses they can go straight to the teacher-recommended sites! --Burchamal 20:03, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
When I was getting my undergraduate degree I had to create a social bookmarking page but since then I had not used one. I created one using ikeepbookmarks and I am very excited about getting to use it with my students.http://www.iKeepBookmarks.com/browse.asp?folder=2573356 I teach younger children so this will be very helpful when we go to the computer lab. I list a lot of the children's favorite sites and sites that we visit often. I plan to have the children go here to pick a site. I am going to also link it to my homepage so the parents will have a list of helpful websites that they can use with their children. I also made a folder for the parents in which I put our school webpage and dpi website. I plan to add more and update according to what units we are studying. I think this will make my life easier and hopefully help my students and parents. --Ashleycaldwell82 22:38, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I have been using delicious for about a month now. I was using blink list, but I found it too difficult to manage from the school computers. Delicious is nice. I do have a few personal things on it, but for the most part it is professional. Last year I taught my students how to use blinklist on their own. It was quite difficult. Because students do not have a lot of time on the computer as it is, I usually just gave them the URL. This worked out better, because they needed to practice their typing skills. --Sefeinman 22:58, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I had never thought about social bookmarking. I set up an account on iKeepbookmarks[11]. Our county recently switched our server so we could access our email and documents at any school in the county. So it is very helpful to have your favorite websites handy when you aren't at home or at your school. I think it is a really neat idea. There were a few favorite sites that I couldn't remember when the server was switched, so having a bookmarking site where I can go find it is great. I added a few sites that I thought my students could use and pull up, but I am also going to add sites that I think will be beneficial to units or concepts we are studying in class as well.--Oscales 23:35, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I too like many in the class had never thought much about social bookmarking until seeing the information provided. I set up an account using ikeepbookmarks.com[12]. I think it will be a valuable tool in allowing me to work at home and school. I am planning on adding links to it for my students for teacher approved websites for an upcoming research biogrpahy that our 7th graders are doing in early November. I think this will be a valuable tool for my students and myself. --Cajones51 02:49, 13 October 2009 (UTC) I am trying to set up ikeepbookmarks, it will not accept my URL address. Again a work in progress. I do love my favorites linked to my webpage, it saves a lot of time, especialy considering my memory these days. My second grade students are bragging to all of the other kids about blogging and how they can go to "special" links. They love to use computer terms, simplified as they are, it is a good start for 7 year olds. --Grandmacunningham 01:28, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
I have a delcious bookmarks account that I set up last year in the computer class I took last fall. I really like having all the sites I frequent when I am on a quest to find something new for a unit I am teaching. I recently added more personal sites that aren't related to teaching. I don't share my delicious bookmarks with parents.--Melissa graham 01:09, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
I knew nothing about social bookmarking until now and I like it! I signed up for an ikeepbookmarks account because the article that we read said that it was a good one for young students to use. Since I teach k-1, I wanted something for young students. I like the way that this account allows me to set my links up in folders by topics. I set up a delicious account too so that I could see the differences between the two, but I think that I like ikeepbookmarks the best so far. I am looking forward to being able to use my new account when I am sitting at home racking my brain over what that web address is that I was using at school earlier!--Jessicajackson52 03:22, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
Social Bookmarking Information Resources
Share any informational resources you find helpful in learning about social bookmarking or these other tools. Be sure to specify which tool you're talking about and provide hyperlinks.
McGraw-Hill provides a great How-To in Social Bookmarking under their Teaching Today section. This site explains what social bookmarking is, how it's different from Google, and ways to use it in the classroom. --Brittanyjguy 02:28, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
Here is a link/resource that really helped me to understand and grasp a general idea of social bookmarking. On the site Social Bookmarking it allows you to see different types of social bookmarks and it tells you 7 things that you should know about social bookmarking; which I found very useful!--Hetilley 02:44, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
Here is a link to a Common Craft video that provides a good breakdown of social bookmarking. It makes social bookmarking very easy to understand. --Adover 20:41, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I was successful, I now have an ikeepbookmarkers account, only five sites listed, I can't believe how much is out there. It is like Christmas morning everything at once, and so easy. I wish I knew about this a long time ago. I keep on searching, don't have to look hard. As I talk to my peers, about half are aware of this concept. Thanks for sharing.--Grandmacunningham 00:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
How We Use Course Management Websites
Share the various ways that you use these tools. Be sure to be specific about what tool you use and to provide us a link so that we can see how you set it up if at all possible (obviously you shouldn't link us to personal information/grades and such).
My school is currently using NCWise for grades and attendance. We were just recently trained on imputing grades. I was previously using SnapGrades and loved it! I like NCWise, however I am not as used to it as I was SnapGrades. The three sites that here listed as choices all seemed great, but my favorite was Hotchalk. There are lots of great FREE lesson plans available for resources to use in your classroom.--Tonna216 21:07, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I currently am not required to use NCWISE as a grading system. However, like all teachers in NC I am required to use NCWISE for attendance. I like the "reports" options in NCWISE. It allows us to pull our class birthday list in one easy step. As a kindergarten teacher I haven't had a need for online grade books. However, last year I taught third grade and I LOVED using SnapGrades as my online grade book. When I had to do report cards or progress reports all I had to do was go online and print out each child's individual reports. Snap Grades was very user friendly and FREE for basic usage. I loved having my grades for the whole year in on place. It was very easy to see a childs growth (or lack of growth) over time. If I am in upper grade again I will be using an online grade book, it just made life easier! Who knows, maybe I can find a use for Snap Grades for kindergarten?--Brandy 01:18, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Our school system, Galax City Public Schools, changed from Integrade to the online course management program PowerTeacher this school year. Although it was something new to learn, it has been a great change. The PowerTeacher program allows you to keep up with grades, attendance, lunch orders, and even allows parents to look at assignments and grades from home with a username and password. At this point, we do not have this feature available, but I think it will be a great new method of communication when it is made available. Also, PowerTeacher has the benefit that it can be changed by simply logging in from any computer. In the past, I only entered grades at school because this is where the program was and the file was saved; however, now, all gradebook files are saved online and a simple username and password gives me access to the program from anywhere! --Brittanyjguy 02:09, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
I am managing much of my class information using NCWise. This is a straight forward program that allows teachers to track attendance, personal information, and student grades. It also allows you to create several reports. It was never designed to be accessed by parents. I was very interested in the other programs I saw posted here and set up an account using Engrade. It was an easy sight and I quickly got my class loaded and my grading started. Each child will also have an access code to parents can go online at anytime to see how their students are doing.--Candy Mooney 21:58, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
To be honest I have never heard of gradebook programs like these. Parents being able to view their child's grades is awesome! In our school system Rockingham County Schools everyone is being made to use NCWISE gradebook online; which has been a big adjustment. I need like 10 hours of training to successful use NCWise for gradebook but only get like 30 minutes . . yikes! NCWISE keeps up with our grades and attendances. I do not believe it allows parents to look at students assignments which I would really love. We are allowed access to this program anywhere to put our grades in. Here is an overview of NCWISE. However after looking at engrade I am about to make my life harder by trying to keep two online gradebooks going. I really like the idea of parents having the access to see their child's average before they get the report card. Also, maybe parents will push their child harder to perform in school if they are able to see their grades weekly. I am really excited about using this in my class for the next 9 weeks and doing something different for my parents. I feel like this will also benefit my communication with parents.--Hetilley 02:25, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I choose to sign up for engrade. I teach second grade, so we do not get to use the NCWISE online gradebook, which 3-5 teachers were just trained on. They are suppose to be able to use it for progress reports also. K-2 teachers are still required to send out the paper progress report every two weeks. Since I am not able to use NCWISE, I like having engrade as an option to record grades. When I taught second grade in Guilford County 8 years ago, I had an electronic grade book. We gave letter grade third and fourth quarters. I loved it because I didn't have to average grades. In Forsyth County, we do not do letter grades, but only determine if the child is above, on, or below grade level. So, we do not always use the traditional grades to determines a child's success. If I ever change to an upper grade level, then engrade will be very helpful. --Patricia Edwards 22:11, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I teach 7th grade in WS/FCS. Our school system has lots of tech tools already in place, which we are required to use. Options range from everything from finding substitutes, to moodle training courses. We have been using NCWise the entire time I’ve been in the system. We use NCWise to take attendance, store grades/assessments, create progress reports (which we print & e-mail out every three weeks), and store student information. Students’ data is stored in NCWise from the moment they enter our county and all info travels with them from school to school. That means, I can see 4th grade EOG scores, read medical alert messages, find out whom the student lives with, etc. before we even meet the students in August. It also means the data manager has to deal with entering student ID numbers, not me. That makes for a much easier life for me (96 students is a lot to keep up with…no matter the format) and a full time job for her.
We can access NCWise from any computer with internet access, as long as Google toolbar or other similar toolbars aren’t present on the computer. NCWise won’t broadcast data if these toolbars are in place.
At the moment, WS/FCS is working to create a parent portal that will allow parents to log into NCWise so that they can see their student’s grades in “real time”. Every student will be given a login specific to them, which seems fairly congruent with the features available in Engrade & Hotchalk. We do not have a specific timeline about when this portal will be finished, but it should be before the year is out. (The county has completed a teacher webportal that has links to online lesson plans, allows us to access our network files from home, and more.)
Honestly, I watched the videos for Engrade & Hotchalk (didn’t see one for SchoolRack) and did not see features that would make it worthwhile to create a second online account. I like that you can upload assessments and have students complete them at home, but in reality, many of my students do not have internet access in the home. So, for my school, it makes more sense to use the existing mandatory homepage to upload documents as needed, but mainly do things the old fashioned way, with paper. We can use my pageflakes page to do computer-based assessments in the lab at school. --Rjohnson 01:36, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
My school uses NC Wise to keep up with attendance online. This year we are actually trained on how to enter grades using the gradebook, however I haven't entered any because the process is much more complicated than keeping them in an Excel book. However, I have found it difficult to calculate grades when you weight some assignments, so I like the feature at Engrade that would allow me to use a weighted system to calculate my grades. I also love the feature that allows me to print individual student reports to show that individual students grades. This would be an excellent tool to help students understand how their child is doing in a particular subject. I plan to transfer all my Excel grades to this system when I return to school on Monday. --Adover 18:21, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Just like many of the other people before me have said, my school uses NC Wise as well. We take attendence, enter grades, print progress reports, keep notes on students and complete many other tasks using this website. I did review Engrade, SchoolRack, and HotChalk and they all seem to be helpful websites, however they only let you have a certain amount for free (HotChalk and SchoolRack) until you would be charged a monthly fee. I liked the ability to integrate digital content into your lesson plans so easily with HotChalk. My husband has been taking a paremedic class through a nearby community college and his instructor uses Engrade. My husband navigates the site with ease, however when new grades are posted, it takes a while for the grades to actually post. The instructor has even told the class participants that when this happens to just wait. I like the idea of parents and students being able to know the status of grades however, since I am required to use NC Wise, I would have to enter grades and assignments a second time in order to use these sites effectively. I also don't want the added pressure of having to enter grades immeadiately for students and parents to see, especially if I am busy with other matters. I have no problem of printing a progress report or writing a note to a parent whenever it is requested. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 18:54, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
At the beginning of last school year, I set up an excel document to keep all of my grades. I had everything color coordinated based on letter grades and I really enjoyed using excel except I could never figure out how to make different assignments weigh more than others. Colleges introduced me to Snapgrades [13]and I fell in love. It was a very easy program and I could assign different tasks different weights. I even had a print section where I could make one click and print every child’s missing work. Now, our school system recently went over to NCWISE and this year we are required to do NCWISE grades. I was just trained last week how to use this. It is a little confusing at first but I think I will get used to it. If anyone has any tips, please let me know. --JenLawson070 23:10, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Like many of my classmates, I have the opportunity to use NC WISE. I use it for my gradebook, to print progress reports and for report cards. There are good and bad things with NC WISE. I wish we could make the reports more personal and that we could change the appearance.--Carol Sherrill 23:46, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
As a first and second grade teacher, I wasn't planning on using an online grade book this year. I have used CAMPUS (if I remember right) when I taught middle school in Minnesota. I loved being able to type everything in plus it had the parent porthole so that the students and parents could see grades at home. It was wonderful that the parents could help keep track of how their children were doing between conferences. Our school rule was that you had to enter grades within one week of the due date. My parents got accustomed to having them put in by 5:00 that night. I would get phone calls if they were not there by then! I set up an engrade account. It seems like a good system. I was able to set up two different groups, one for each grade level. The only part I had difficulty with was the grading scale. In the tutorial it showed an option for outstanding, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory. I was excited as that is what we use in class. It wasn't an option when I got to that portion. I will try again later to see if I can change that. If not, that's fine too. Our report cards are done with 1, 2, and 3. I just put in percentages and can easily translate that for report cards. It's a good thing this technology wasn't around when my brother was in school. I think he would have been grounded a lot! Or maybe it would have helped him keep on track if he knew our parents could see the grades at all times!--Ressler14 00:06, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Our school currently uses NC Wise and Snapgrades. NC Wise, like many others have said, is used for attendance and grades (primarily for report cards). What teachers at our school love is Snapgrades. It is our online gradebook/communication tool. Parents, students, and teachers all have a login--each allowed access to different things. Teachers can set up their gradebook based on percentages or total points. For each assignment entered, we can include date assigned, class average, and any additional notes. We can view student and parent information, including email, phone, and other students' schedule. Teachers can access students progress/grades in other courses as well. What I also love, is that we can post class updates/announcements for parents to view. Parents and students can view grades from each couse they're enrolled in--including every assignment for each class. Since we began to use this system, parent communication has improved tremendously. --Heatherscoe 00:19, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I have been using SnapGrades for two years of my own accord because my fiancé's little brother goes to Chestnut Grove, and I saw his site. They use it school-wide to communicate with parents and record grades. I use the free version, so parents cannot access my site, but I love the ease of use and the ability to quickly calculate grades. Our county has just implemented NC Wise for grades as well as attendance. We used the program for attendance last year, but the gradebook was only implemented this week with our fourth and fifth grade teachers. I was trained by our county tech director, and 30 minutes later I was training the 4th grade. It is not the most user-friendly program, and I still do not understand it completely, but I can do the basics. If anyone needs basic help, I think I might be able to help them. Hopefully we will use the parent contact portion next year, but right now Forsyth County is piloting that in our area. I would just like to have a site for parents to have instant access to the progress of their students. --Stacy Cabeen 01:20, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Davidson County currently uses NCWise to keep attendance and grades. Just recently, our principal asked that instead of printing out progress reports, ask our NCWise administrator to print them. This does take some stress off of teachers, but I was unhappy to find out that the only grade being printed was the average. When sending a progress report, I prefer parents to see all of the grades to better understand how their child is performing (or how badly). With Engrade, I am able to post students' grades on a weekly basis for parents to refer to anytime they would like. The only drawback, is many of my students do not have internet at home, but they can go to the computer lab at school and print out a list of their grades for their parents to see. --Burchamal 20:13, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Like all other NC teaching, I use NCWise as a way to manage my attendance. I am currently required to keep records of assessment data in spreadsheets that my testing coordinator uses and I use to analyze academic growth. I do not use any other system. I did set up an account for SnapGrades. It seems very simple to use. My math grades are based on level 1, 2, 3 or 4. I wonder how I could incorporate that into SnapGrades. My writing grades are based on developmental levels given by the state. I don't really see anyway I could include that into SnapGrades either. The same goes for reading. Students are placed on a book level, and then given a proficiency level from that point. Teachers at my school also use progress reports that are sent home every 2 weeks. The "grades" are satisfactory, unsatisfactory, outstanding, improving and needs improvement. The district also requires that teacher send home a progress report once, in the middle of the quarter, and a report card at the end of the quarter. The progress reports from the district are in a digital format, but the progress reports from the school are not. They are on carbon paper. I like the idea of using a system such as SnapGrades, however, I do not see myself using it while teaching first grade. I wonder if there is a site where parents can see an updated progress report of their child online (specifically geared towards k-2). That way they can continuously stay informed.--Sefeinman 23:31, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a site on Engrade[14]. I am not exactly sure how much use I could get out of it. My parents seem to have limited internet access. I only have 3 parents following me on Twitter and I am not sure if I will get many more than that. Of course, I am also using NCWise for attendance. I am in lower grades, so we do not use the grade book portion. We do not use letter grades either, so I am not sure about assignments and the grading portion. I did manually put in percentages and the level (1, 2, 3,) it would coordinate with. I am going to try to input some data this week. I think I would mainly use it for my math grades.--Oscales 23:53, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a site on Engrade [15]. I teach a 1/2 combination so I do not give letter grades. I do not know how much I would use the grade book portion. I was thinking that I could enter my spelling test grades. I also could put in some math data. Right now I have only entered my students names. I do not know how many parents would use it but I would be willing to try it. I could see how this would be a great resource for upper grade teachers. At my school, we are using NCWise for attendance and grades 3-5 are using the grade book portion. --Ashleycaldwell82 00:07, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
I teach 7th grade EC inclusion LAnguage Arts in WSFC schools. Our school currently uses NC Wise as a record of keeping attendance and gradebook.[16] I looked at Engrade and thought it would be too complicated for me personally to keep two gradebooks for the purpose of class. I can look up grades, print progress reports with all completed/uncompleted assignments, homework, test/quiz grades, overall average and comments. Parents can also choose to have the progress reports emailed to them to save on paper and to ensure they receive them. My son's high school requires all to be emailed. As an EC teacher I use the required Encore system to write IEPs and keep updated with my caseload. [https://eweb.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Encore/EncoreCBLWebUI/Login.aspx. Encore allows me to access previous IEPs, psychological reports, and previous schools with just a click of the keys. A big difference from the handwritten paperwork with carbon copies I remember writing when I first started teaching. --Cajones51 02:49, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
Our school uses Ncwise as well to maintain an electronic record of grades. It has come a long way since it was first mandated in our school system. Now it is a lot more user friendly. Daily attendance is taken on NCWise. I can print progress reports and eventually they tell us parents will be able to check grades at home through this program. I am not able to maintain two electronic gradebooks because of time constraints. It is just too much to put in twice. I think Engrade looks like a great resource for parents and teachers alike though. I would utilize that if I wasn't required to use NCWise for inputting grades and grade reports. --Amy Hardister 10:18, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
Our school uses NCWise to keep records of attendance. Our report cards are completed by hand. I usually just use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of my grades. I got an account through Hotchalk for this part of the assignment. I am really enjoying it. So far I have entered in my class list and some of my grades. I have entered in a few assignments and four days worth of lesson plans. Because of the complexity of teaching a combination class, my lesson planning has really been a challenge this year. I really like the detailed format presented in this program and will continue to write lesson plans and print them out from there. I think the ability that parents and students have to access assignments and grades are amazing. This would really be helpful for middle and high school students. My students don't need to check grades and assigments as much in kindergarten and first grade, but I could post my weekly homework assignments on there so that parents could use them.--Jessicajackson52 01:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
Course Management Information Resources
Share any informational resources you find helpful in learning about course management or these other tools. Be sure to specify which site or tool you're talking about and provide hyperlinks.
This quick reference card for PowerTeacher gives instructions on how it is used and even shows a few pictures of what the interface looks like for a teacher who is logged in. The biggest problem with PowerTeacher is that is expensive and is typically purchased by a district rather than an individual. --Brittanyjguy 02:12, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
On this site about Engrade it helps and explains and easy way to set up an account and at the end it explains the benefits of using Engrade and other online gradebooks. --Hetilley 02:33, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
This site gives a brief break down of the site Engrade. It explains some of the features and benefits. --Adover 18:25, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Our county's tech director has created some very useful videos and help pages to get teachers started with NC Wise, but he has them under our county's secure website. I'm going to try to link them here somehow tomorrow. --Stacy Cabeen 01:26, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
This is an excellent list of teacher tools, some of which includecourse management websites. 35 Tools for Teachers.--Sefeinman 15:39, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
This is an interesting article about how Online Report Cards are a great way for parents to see how their students are doing. PC World.--Sefeinman 20:48, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
