I honestly kind of had a hard time finding class specific websites. I first tried visiting the websites for the elementary and middle schools that I attended, but I couldn't find any links that brought me to teacher websites, only links to teachers' emails. So then I just started searching Google and found a directory of teacher websites for an elementary school in Georgia. I found that most of the sites only had a teacher bio, but I did find one that stood out amongst the rest.
http://myschooldesk.net/clayton/teachersite.aspx#site.3794_pid.14432_mid.23482This website features the exact information that I was expecting to find on a public teacher website. It has an uplifting message from the teacher to the parents, the teacher's biography, a tidbit about the school, the school calendar, links for sites where kids can study math concepts in fun and interactive ways, and a syllabus for the class. The website is simple and well organized. I think this teacher did a great job creating a website from the template he and the rest of the teachers were given. He definitely went above and beyond the work of almost all of his colleagues.
Teacher Task Technologies
Of the software mentioned in the podcast, I'm sure the one I will use most is Microsoft Office. I already use Word and Powerpoint very often, and I'm sure that won't change once I transition from being a student to a teacher. I don't use Excel much currently, but I anticipate that I'll become more familiar with spreadsheets in my career. I imagine that e-mail will be a very close second to Microsoft Office as my most-used technological tool. Whether I'm using it to communicate with parents, administrators, or other teachers, it will be a main component of my teaching. The podcast also mentioned Diigo, which is a tool that I don't fully understand how to use yet since I haven't spent much time with it. The podcast gave a good description of it though, so I want to get more familiar with using this tool.
The book mentions Microsoft Access as a tool for managing databases. This is a program that I've actually never heard of before. It looks similar to Microsoft Excel, but I guess spreadsheet software is different than database management software. (I just looked up exactly what a spreadsheet is, and apparently it's defined as being used specifically for calculations -- I didn't realize this!) The book introduced me to the fact that there are specific softwares that are for classroom management responsibilities such as creating a roll and seating chart. I always assumed that teachers just did this in Word or something like that, but these programs sounds much more efficient! The book shows a program called ThinkWave, but also includes a "Teacher Task Software Evaluation Sheet" which I think will be very useful to download and keep. A handful of online tools and apps are mentioned in the book. Standards Toolbox and the 4Teachers Family of Tools are ones that I want to remember. The book brought up something called Appitics which I wanted to check out, but the site doesn't exist anymore. You now have to access that information through the iTunes Store in "Apple Distinguished Educators."
Web Evaluation Wiki Assignment
I enjoyed putting together a rubric for how to decide if a website is appropriate to present to your students (in my case, third graders), but I didn't really enjoy the part of the assignment where we had to set up a Wiki. The rubric my group and I came up with is something that I think I'll keep with me through my journey to becoming a teacher because I think we gathered a good list of things to look out for on various websites. As for the Wiki, I don't think that's something I would personally use again, especially not with my students since I'm aiming to teach younger kids and the site wasn't too simple to use. I also think the site was lacking aesthetically.
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