The Russell Street School website offers parents and students information regarding the school and classrooms, in a central location. One of my favorite parts is outside media is connected to the website, calendar and school updates. This makes the website easy to navigate and also easier to find information. One thing I do not like about my own school's website is that there are multiple different websites, we have a different website for the calendar, teacher pages and twitter pages. Trying to remember each website and then having to relay that information to parents can be time consuming.
I also like that each teacher has their own blog or website. I really enjoyed sites where the teachers used their pages as an opportunity to share student work, have students write on the page and provide resources to families, such as ways to practice academic skills at home. After looking at some of the teachers pages, I noticed many used a program called Seesaw. I had never heard of Seesaw up until now. It looks like it would work best for younger grades. I will need to do more research on this program, but it seems to be a great way for students to share work, thoughts and ideas and get responses from classmates.
One thing I did notice was the differences in the amount of activity on each teacher's page. There were many that had a new entry at least once a week and students were interacting with that particular entry. I also found some pages that have not had a new post since October of 2016 and 2015. If a teacher is going to create a website or a blog, there needs to be regular posts. This way it is relevant to your current classroom students and families.
Kendall. Nice post. I agree that for the most part it shows the learning in a positive way. But like you mentioned not all blogs (or classes) seem to be functioning at the same level. This stuff is hard to do and can be tough to keep up once you start doing it.
ReplyDeleteI think for that reason it needs to be looked upon as part of the overall experience and not as an add on that teachers must do. Seesaw is a great tool in that it can help to facility the process of reflection, feedback and journaling. These all continue to get easier as time move along and often now it is put in the hands of the students themesevles so the whole process doesn't feel like another task on the teacher. I think they have a good start and not all folks (or classes) will show the same level of engagement but maybe that is ok.
That being said. Old outdated items as you said should be taken down or at least updated. Gotta give them credit for getting this far. Many schools are still struggling to even start the process. Exciting times ahead.
Overall I believe that Russell Street School exceeds expectations for a school blog and website. One suggestion is that Russell Street could offer professional development for teachers who are unfamiliar with Seesaw or even blogging in general. This may encourage teachers to post more often.
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