Knowing How to Read is Not Enough

Thanks, Carmen! I couldn't have said it better myself! The demands of today's society require students to not only be skilled at reading and comprehension but to also be confident gatherers of information who can evaluate, analyze, synthesize, apply and share that information in authentic ways. This learning magic happens when teachers and media specialists collaborate to provide meaningful lessons that naturally blend content area curriculum with information literacy skills.

Top Ten Tips for Creating Classroom Websites

Recently I spent quite a bit of time researching classroom and media center web pages from various surrounding county schools in hopes of improving my own media center web page. I wanted to find out how I could make the most use of our online presence to promote the media center and all it has to offer. As an outsider who is unfamiliar with these particular schools, I was able to test the sites' user friendliness and see if the over all layout made sense to the average user. It didn't take long before I began to notice trends among the most outstanding websites. I used this experience to make my Top Ten Tips for Creating Classroom Websites:

1. Consider your reason for having a classroom website. What information do you want to share and why? Write this down. It is your overall goal for the website and will help shape how you proceed from here.
2. Consider who will be your target audience / users for the classroom website. Parents? Students? The community? All of the above? Keep this in mind as you create and maintain your website.
3. Keep it simple! You don't need to be a web designer to make your site look good. I recommend using a website creator such as Weebly.com that is user friendly and guides you through the process. The great thing about Weebly is that it is free, easy to use and set up to help you succeed in creating a sharp looking website. 
4. Consider how you want to break up the information on your website. Use tabs and pages within the website to organize your information in a way that will make sense to your audience / users. Take a look at other class webpages for ideas that work well.
5. Images speak louder than words. Take pictures of your classroom, school events and students at work and add them to your website where appropriate. Weebly allows you to add slide shows, videos and photo galleries in a matter of minutes.
6. Leave the 1990's clip art and flashing, animated backgrounds in the 1990's. You wouldn't want your viewer's to get a headache just looking at the website. 
7. Cut the clutter. Ask coworkers, family and friends to take a look at your site before you publish it. Ask for honest feedback on what you should keep and what should be cut. Remember clean and simple is much more eye-appealing and user friendly than busy and cluttered. 
8. Set aside a regular time to update and maintain your website with current information.
9. Use it! This is your space to showcase what students are learning in the classroom. Also, think about the information that you are frequently having to copy for students or parents. Can that info be incorporated into your website for easy access?  
10. Get your student's involved! Once you feel comfortable with the overall management of your website, involve your students in certain features of your website by having them write book reviews, class blog entries, news stories, or serve as class photographers for the week.

Cool Tools for the Classroom: Voki

Voki is a free web tool that allows the user to create avatars. You can customize how your avatar looks, the background, what they say and how they say it. You can see my example on the sidebar to the right. With easy to use elements created especially for educators, Voki can be used in the classroom to grab students' attention for a new unit or to spark student creativity for sharing what they've learned. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Have students create vokis to highlight some of their research findings about animals, famous Americans, places around the world, or events in history. 
• Voki can be used to present the math word problem of the week in a way that is sure to grab students' attention. 
• Use voki in foreign language class to showcase new conversational skills. Check out Voki for Education to get started. 
• Voki can be used for book promotions or to share a joke or fun announcement in your homeroom class or next staff meeting. 

You just can't make this stuff up... or can you?

CNN recently featured a story about Donald Leu, a University of Connecticut professor, who was able to convince students that an imaginary creature was in fact real. After directing his students to a website that features the pacific northwest tree octopus, students accepted that the creature was indeed real. Some even argued that the tree octopus was real even after he told them that it was all made up. After all, they saw photos of it on the internet, right? The University of Connecticut professor noted the need for students to be taught "online reading comprehension skills" and critical evaluation of sources. He went on to say that he did not feel the problem was necessarily a generational one, but that more critical evaluation skills are needed across generations. 

As a media specialist with experience as a classroom teacher and reading teacher, I consider the task of teaching critical evaluation and transliteracy skills (literacy skills across different forms of print and media including the internet and technology tools) one that should be shared amongst classroom teachers, special area teachers and the media specialist... with the media specialist leading the way. It is a huge task, but a manageable one if we are intentional about it.