Educational Blog- Beth's Thoughts

I visted the blog called Beth's Thought on Technology in the Classroom. This is an amazing blog. I had difficulty choosing which blog to comment on because all of her blogposts brought about critical thinking and discussion on various issues within the classroom. I decided to comment on the most recent blogpost called Parental Participation. In the blogpost, Beth asked these questions of the reader: How much do we welcome parents in our classrooms? Do we just want them back up our policies on homework and classroom rules? Do we want them discuss how their children learn or what strategies work best for them? Honestly do you welcome their comments and suggestions?

I learned that involving parents into the educational experience of their children can be difficult because as teachers, we feel that we are placed into a fish bowl where our every move is being watched. However, I also learned from the blogpost that a child's best educator for life is often their parents. This got me thinking, so I decided to join in on the conversation that had been taking place through the comments on the post.

This is a great topic to really think about. It is so important to involve parents in the classroom, even though we may be hestitant or fearful to involve them. There were 2 comments that had already been added to this post, and it was really neat to be a part of this educational discussion. Although I am only a young, barely-experienced teacher, I felt that I had enough wisdom to add to the topic of conversation. I hope to receive thoughtful comments regarding my own comment to keep the discussion going. I was able to address both comments as well as my own thoughts on the content of Beth's blogpost.

I encourage everyone to check out Beth's blog. It is a great way to actively involve yourself in educational discussion, and to increase your thinking on certain topics of teaching.

School Website- Fryelands Elementary School

I looked up the Fryelands Elementary School website because that is one of my top preferences for student teaching.

Features I like:

•  The border at the top of the web page is pictures of the students learning and at play in school. It creates a welcoming and inviting feel to the web page and offers a pleasant mood to viewers.
• At the top of the page it reads, "Monroe Public Schools...Learning for Life." I like the font that the motto is typed in because it looks creative, yet still professional.
• The website is offered in Spanish.
• The tabs and links on the web page are well organized, readable, and easily accessible.
• When you scroll your mouse over a link, subcategories for that link open up in a list form.
• There are links and tabs to event calendars, staff, school vision, contact information, new news, parents, class locations, sports, and much more.
• There is a search bar in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
• The address of the school, phone number, and fax number are centered at the bottom of the web page.

What's Confusing?

•  I found nothing on this site to be confusing for myself. Everything was very well organized and mapped out. The page is very simple, which makes it easy to navigate around, and if something were to be difficult to find, there is a search bar at the top of the website.
• One thing that may be confusing to others is that this website is a place for all Monroe public schools. Therefore, every school in the Monroe district will have a page that looks identical to another. In order to ensure that you are viewing the correct school, you must pay close attention to the title page. The border and header is the same for every web page in the Monroe public school district.

What's Missing?

• I honestly tried to find something that was missing, but I found everything that I would need to look for. I encourage you to go to the site to try to find something that you think is missing from the site. This school web page offers a multitude of information for all audiences.