A Productive School Year

A WebQuest for EDIT 6150

Introduction

You've gotten your first teaching job! You're in your dream school teaching the grade and subject you'd hoped for. You spent all summer planning exciting lessons that incorporate all of the great technology you learned about in your EDIT class. You just finished loading your stapler and you decide to walk down to the teachers' lounge and grab something from the vending machine, after all, you're ready for the first day of school and you still have 4 days of preplanning left!

You enter the lounge and you notice a line of teachers waiting for the copy machine. Since you plan to NEVER use a worksheet -- or the textbook, you've had no need for the copier all week. You see your mentor teacher near the end of the line and you ask him what he's copying. Once you're revived after hearing his reply, you decide you need to get to work.

Task

You realize that it's not just lessons that you've got to get ready for the first week of school. There are all kinds of materials and handouts that need to be prepared for Open House and the first day of school. According to your mentor teacher, you'll need brochures, letters, certificates, seating charts, and more to be prepared for classes to begin. Thank goodness for your EDIT class -- you know about productivity tools and how they can help you get things done. You'd planned to use them to work with students, but had forgotten all about how helpful they could be to you. You've got a big task ahead of you though, you need to create a packet of materials for Open House and the first day of school.

Process

Your mentor teacher has given you a list of things you should have available for parents during Open House (see evaluation below). The list also includes items to make your classes more "student-friendly" on the first day of school. You'll use it as a checklist to make sure you have everything.

You remember learning about some templates for productivity tools from your EDIT class. Thank goodness you do not have to create all of these items from scratch! There are templates to create all of the items needed except for the Excel Gradebook and Attendance. You send a quick email to your instructor to find out where these templates are on the web. Your instructor replied and gave you the following websites:

Once you create all of your materials, you'll be ready for open house and the rest of your first year!

Evaluation

Criteria	Satisfactory	Outstanding	Suggested Program	Student Example	Points
Tri-fold Brochure	You could have put more effort into the brochure. The information could be more informative. You are missing Word Art, Clip Art and a table. Spelling errors are present.	It is clear that you spent time on your classroom brochure. The information is informative and you have incorporated Word Art, Clip Art, use of bullets and/or numbering, and at least one table.	Word	Brochure	15
Calendar	Calendar is missing some events or the Clip Art	Calendar for January with Clip Art or a Picture and at least five events/holidays	Word	Calendar	15
Attendance and Grade Record	Missing formulas, missing some students and the workbook sheets are not labeled.	An attendance sheet for 8 students calculating the number of absences for a two week period. A grade sheet for the same 8 students calculating their grade average for five assignments. Both of the sheets need to alphabetized by the last name. The workbook sheet tabs must be labled.	Excel	Grades and Attendance	20
Seating Chart	Missing a few desks, the teacher work area, the computers, or furniture.	Layout of classroom, including: 20 desks, teacher work area, 3 computers, other classroom furniture.	PowerPoint	Seating Chart	15
Back to School Presentation	You are missing some slides and you have not made changes to some of the slides.	Your presentation has at least seven slides. You have made changes to the slides. Changed the pictures, the font, the text. Your presentation needs to be personalized.	PowerPoint	Back to School	15
Business Cards or Student Name Tags	You are missing some of this section.	Professional Business cards with contact information for parents or Colorful nametags(3)	Word	Business Cards Student Name Tags	5
Certificate/ Hall Pass	You are missing some of this section.	Colorful certificates or hall passes (2)	Word/PowerPoint	Certificate Hall Pass	5
Plan Book Page	You are missing some of this section.	1 plan page book for a week (lesson plans not included) Once you find a template that you would like to use to make weekly plans, you will download it to your computer. You do not have to make any changes to this one!!	Word	Planning Template	5
Worksheet	You are missing some of this section.	Worksheet or subject specific crossword puzzle for the first day of school created with web-based productivity tool	Worksheet Generator or Puzzle Maker	First Day	5
Total Points - 100

Conclusion

You've got your interview suit on and you're ready for Open House -- thanks to a timely trip into the teachers' lounge and some help from your mentor teacher. Productivity tools are great for students to use for learning, and they're really helpful to you for teaching.

How do you plan to use productivity tools to help improve student learning?

What productivity tools are most applicable to your grade level and content area?

What Georgia Technology Integration QCC objectives for your grade level address productivity tools?

Credits & References

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Last updated on August 30, 2006. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page