This was my first experience constructing a website. Although I use social media including Facebook, Twitter, etc., I hadn't constructed a .com page with different links and information.
I enjoyed designing my own page layout with a simple template for parents and students to navigate. I used bright colors for a welcoming feel but made sure it was not too busy as that can be overwhelming. My home page lets my readers know they can click any of the links to find information about my music class and the link to contact me. Constructing the various pages on our class websites wasn't too time consuming and I would recommend anyone to construct a website whether you are a teacher or own a business. Google sites is free! Uploading the PowerPoint and Picasa Album was so simple. The site makes it easy for me to show what tech projects we have worked on in TPTE class. One thing to be aware of is copyright issues. I had to make sure the border image I used for my website was off a site (not Google images)that allowed me to freely use the image.
Classroom websites are very beneficial to teachers. Not only is it fun for students to sign on the internet and see their projects they have completed, but the parents can access it to also see what is happening in class and know what their children are learning about. In addition, parents can see what materials are needed for class and use outside resource links to help their child learn. Many teachers have webpages through schools, but some are not utilized. Although my website is for a general music classroom, I could just as easily have one for an orchestra class where I could post a year calendar with outside of school rehearsal dates, festivals and concerts. It keeps the parents well informed without always having to send letters home (that may never get to them!)I have taken the advantage to make another google site for my personal violin studio. The html now is on my business cards so people have access to all information about myself, lessons, and gig services I offer. Thanks Google Sites!
https://sites.google.com/site/kabalenviolinstudio/
Although I love photography whether it is of my family, pets, friends, etc., I had never really had to re-size images from MB to KB and use them in Picasa. In addition, I rarely ever make specific folders for all my pictures which is why my laptop is so disorganized!
In this lesson, our special area (music) divided into two groups to set out on a scavenger hunt and collect photos to match our clues. Although our group took the longest time (after traveling across the street!) we successfully took photos in the iPad and transferred them using Dropbox. A lot of technological resources were used in this activity. After splitting up the photos via Dropbox, each person in our group edited specified photos by re-sizing them and saving them into a specific folder "Scavenger Hunt: Music". This of course was much easier because we had previously done the activity of finding our own images on the web through picsforlearning.com and re-sizing and saving into a folder. I am happy to know how to properly re-size images without distorting them.
Lastly, the most enjoyable part of our process, was the finished product of our slideshow presentations. These were saved through Google Drive (that saves documents automatically!) and then inserted on our webpage. Once you have done it once, it becomes easy to use.
You can see the slideshows on my class website here:
https://sites.google.com/site/mskabalensmusicclass/materials
This project would be very fun and insightful for a high school humanities course for students to collect photos of artwork from different time periods and such. I think it would be too much ot handle for younger students, however, this is a great teaching tool! Teachers can create slideshows to present in class, OR, teachers can post pictures of students artwork on the class webpage so that parents can see.
In this activity, the class basically divided into specialized area groups of education (music, elementary ed, high school English, etc) and collected resources (websites) to utilize in the future. I had never done this before and had only been to a couple sites for music regarding educational tools, games and such.
I enjoyed the activity to see the variety of music sites available for educators, students, performers, and parents. However, the music group had quite a bit of overlapping of websites probably because of our specialized area. One issue I found about completing the resources on the Wiki page was the "steal lock" key because everyone was trying to edit pages at the same time. This proved to be quite problematic. However, introducing the activity, I did think Google Drive was a neat source because it saves your document through your account without having to manually save it.
These sites are very beneficial for music teachers and students. There were resources for six different areas of Educators/Index, Musicology, Music Theory, Music Games, Symphony Orchestra, and WebQuests. My music students could access the Wiki page and click on a link to complete musical activities or research.
