Artifact 12

First Grade FUN is a web page that I created in order to effectively communicate with parents, integrate technology into my classroom, and simply to have a new way for students to look at school.

Context
I created this web page using Netscape Composer and Internet Explorer. I also used a scanner and digital camera. I began work on this page during my student teaching experience in the Spring of 2002 at Bethel Elementary School under the supervision of Dr. Pamela Schram and Mrs. Carla Greene.

Impact
This web page is intended to be used for the community and parents to look at what their children are working on and learning in school in a new light. The general goal of this web page is to foster a successful relationship between parents and myself, as well as to use technological developments beyond word processing and surfing the net for information in my classroom. Rather than sending home a newsletter every two weeks, I would prefer to have the children help me in updating the web site periodically.

Alignment
A web page such as this will encourage students to think about the items they would like to add to our site and give them the opportunity to use media in ways they might have never imagined possible. The students will be able to use the site to refer back to what they did this year as well as have the chance to write about how they feel it has helped, or not helped our learning environment. Our class will even have whole group brainstorming sessions on what we would like to add to take away from our site. These activities would further promote their verbal, nonverbal and media communication skills at a very young age (INTASC 6).

Teachers must foster healthy relationships with parents. One simple way to communicate with parents is through the use of a web page. One such as this includes photographs of the children at work and posed. Also, included are quotes and samples of work. With permission, the Internet is a fantastic way to communicate with parents quickly and efficiently. Not only is a web page about our class effective with parent communication, my colleagues can check out the site and see what my class is doing. Other first grade classes around the world could see our site, which could possibly cultivate more enthusiasm for school-to-school communication (INTASC 10).