I will be the first to state that this website is a living "document" in the sense that it will continuously be updated throughout my career.
As mentioned in previous posts, I already have a classroom website that my school provided through a program called TeacherWeb. If you would like to see what I do on a daily basis with my students you can view the page using the following link: Mrs. Ferry - TeacherWeb My students use the website daily to find out their homework and receive updates on any upcoming events.
Since I already had a classroom website, I wanted to create another website that I could use for not only my students but also for teachers looking to increase their use of technology in their own classrooms. I had a lot of fun using Google sites to create my website. It is not very flashy and does not have a lot of pictures, actually it does not have any pictures. What it lacks in luster though, it makes up for in content in my opinion.
My initially plan was to give teachers of any content area a website that they could use that would direct them to a variety of online resources. At the beginning of November, I was asked to provide professional development to teachers in my district's math department. They wanted me to present a session that would last 90 minutes about online Common Core resources. I saw this as an opportunity to do a sort of "soft" introduction of my website. During the session I introduced twelve math and special education teachers to my web page and in particular to the category titled Common Core Resources. I did not spend a lot of time lecturing to them about the resources, rather I had them basically play for an hour or so with the resources.
At the end of the session I had the participants complete a survey using survey monkey. I wanted to see if they were pleased with the website and if they would use it for their professional use. 92% of the participants felt that the website was either extremely useful or very useful. The remaining 8% found it to be somewhat useful. In addition, 82% of participants felt that there were websites they they could use in their classroom or for their professional use as a teacher.
The survey results confirmed to me that I was on the right path with my digital learning hub. Since the professional development, I added more resources under all of the categories. You will notice also that I wanted to create a category specifically for online content creation. After serving as discussion director and then completing my unit lesson with my students, I am eager to begin implementing online content creation lessons for my students. I want to help them with their digital footprint with academic content that they create online.
The link to my website can be found at www.tiny.cc/techtoteach or by using this link: Mrs. Ferry - Tech to Teach
As always any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated!
WOW! That is my first reaction. You are sharing such valuable information, all in one place. I already shared it with our MS math teacher. You have covered much material and I can already tell you it will help many teachers and students learn more math. I appreciate the survey you did with your PD participants, a great was to access your goal. I so look forward to a continued professional sharing over the years to come. Great job Elizabeth. Thank you~ Joni
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