Jamie Nestor, Dean of Student Life & Latin Teacher
TWT2013-A Day in the Life: A Sample of Cloud-Based Technology at Work in the Classroom
NYSAIS Teaching with Technology Conference Presentation
http://neit.wikispaces.com/TWT2013-Day+in+the+Life
Our
school manages communication through the Google Apps suite; one of
those applications is Google Sites. Google Sites allows you to easily
create a website with little to no web development experience. It’s
intuitive while allowing for creativity.
At the start of the year, I walk my students step by step through how to use the site
Here is a screenshot of my middle school Latin homepage. It’s very basic. I put up only my contact info on the first screen. They use the sidebar on the left to navigate the site easily.
.
You can see up there there’s a link to our assignments page, class docs, links like news articles or videos, and a link for a flashcard program that my students use.
One of the most used functions on the site is my homework calendar. I teach four sections of the same course, and each meets on different days of the week. Their classes are differentiated with color. If they’re absent from class, forget to copy down the work, or have a question about an assignment specific, they check our assignment calendar. What this actually is a spreadsheet that I’ve embedded into the site. When I update the spreadsheet, changes are automatically reflected here. In addition to embedding spreadsheets, you can do lots of different stuff – embed videos, images, audio, etc.
Another function of my website is the document repository, aka the “file cabinet.” Here, I can upload worksheets, photos of notes from the board, audio files of me singing Latin declensions, etc.
For my upper school classes, I use this site for posting video lectures. You can organize your files by date, file type, whatever you want.
Students can even comment on each other’s posts – and they often do. Communicating this constructive way is not only good classroom behavior, but it’s a great lesson in digital citizenship, as well. Yes, I do talk to them about what’s appropriate and what’s not before we begin sharing pieces of our selves on the internet, even if it is a Latin class website.
At the start of the year, I walk my students step by step through how to use the site
Here is a screenshot of my middle school Latin homepage. It’s very basic. I put up only my contact info on the first screen. They use the sidebar on the left to navigate the site easily.
.
You can see up there there’s a link to our assignments page, class docs, links like news articles or videos, and a link for a flashcard program that my students use.
One of the most used functions on the site is my homework calendar. I teach four sections of the same course, and each meets on different days of the week. Their classes are differentiated with color. If they’re absent from class, forget to copy down the work, or have a question about an assignment specific, they check our assignment calendar. What this actually is a spreadsheet that I’ve embedded into the site. When I update the spreadsheet, changes are automatically reflected here. In addition to embedding spreadsheets, you can do lots of different stuff – embed videos, images, audio, etc.
Another function of my website is the document repository, aka the “file cabinet.” Here, I can upload worksheets, photos of notes from the board, audio files of me singing Latin declensions, etc.
For my upper school classes, I use this site for posting video lectures. You can organize your files by date, file type, whatever you want.
Students can even comment on each other’s posts – and they often do. Communicating this constructive way is not only good classroom behavior, but it’s a great lesson in digital citizenship, as well. Yes, I do talk to them about what’s appropriate and what’s not before we begin sharing pieces of our selves on the internet, even if it is a Latin class website.
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