School Colonie Central School District News

Posted february 1, 2011

South Colonie Teachers Turn to Google Apps Classroom Web Sites to Heighten Home-School Communications

Home-School communications is certainly a lot different than it used to be.

Once upon a time, it was common practice for a teacher to hand a student a folded piece of paper and say: “Johnny, please take this note home to your mother.”

But in today’s modern world, communications between school and home is just a mouse click away as more and more teachers in the South Colonie Central School District are developing web sites of their own.

This growing practice is enabling parents and students of all grade levels to gather classroom information, homework assignments, music lesson schedules, library research tools and more - any time, any where.

“Having my own web site has given me a way to reach out to my students, develop lessons differently and update information in a timely manner,” said Shaker Road Elementary School Librarian Lisa Marinucci. “It is different than the district web site so it gives my students a more personalized feel.”

Marinucci was one of the first to introduce her own teacher web site using a South Colonie template created by the district’s Information Technology (IT) Department in a program called Google Apps. What makes Google Apps attractive over the many classroom information management systems on the market is that the web site creation software “is very user friendly” and the program is free, said District IT Director Jack Adams.

“Cost is always a factor, especially in these times when aid cuts to schools continue to dominate the headlines, Adams said. “But the product is very good and it has really taken off around here.”

IT began offering teacher web site training sessions in Google Apps last spring and today there are more than 120 teacher sites live and running in South Colonie. Instrumental in the South Colonie Google template/program creation and teacher training were IT staffers Darko Sedlar and Matthew Veino. Some more tech savvy educators have created classroom web sites in other design programs but use South Colonie’s Google Apps program to link to their sites. All of the teacher sites are now linked to the South Colonie district web site for easy access.

How are they being used?

South Colonie teachers are using their classroom web sites to post online homework assignments, classroom calendars, daily announcements, parent newsletters, photographs, student work and more. These teacher web sites are intended for use by South Colonie students, teachers and parents. To access a site, you must have a Google account with a username and password.

Some of the teacher web sites include:

• Mr. (Joel) Miller’s World of Brass. The Colonie Central High School band instructor features weekly assignments and music lesson calendars, concert schedules, news and online tips for student brass instrument players.

• Mrs. (Erin) Govel’s Universal Pre-K Connections at Roessleville Elementary School. Her site includes UPK news, educational things to do at home and a feature on Nursery Rhymes like Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill.

• Art with Miss (Kathryn) Chandler features student art galleries from Saddlewood, Roessleville and Shaker Road Elementary Schools and Sand Creek Middle School.

• Mrs. (Delynn) Wickham’s La Pagina de la Sra – eighth grade Spanish teacher for the Sand Creek Middle School Jedi Knights – features projects, videos and more in Spanish, of course!

The high school Technology Department has even used the Google Apps program to create a unique online curriculum guide it formally launched (as a link to the district web site) in January. The online web site complements the traditional paper course book distributed by the CCHS Guidance Department.

This was the project of Lisa Eichholzer, who has been teaching web design at the high school for the past 12 years. “Our department focuses on many hands-on activities to help students learn Technology, Math, Science and Communications concepts,” Eichholzer explained. “These things are more interesting when pictures and videos are able to be included in the presentation.”

The paper version of the curriculum guide is mostly text-based, she added, produced and printed once a year as a listing of all CCHS courses. The Technology Department’s online version is ever-evolving.

“This online guide will allow our department to post photos, videos, animated sequences and links of articles of interest for students and parents,” she said. “It will be a much richer experience for viewers/readers and help students/parents make more informed decisions on course choices.”

Other benefits of Google Apps

In addition to the web site creation program, Google Apps also offers South Colonie teachers free online software called Google Docs. Google Docs enables educators to create and share documents, spreadsheets, calendars and presentations in real time. The programs are accessible on any computer with Internet access.

With Google Docs, teachers can share documents with students and parents, comment on student work, grade students online, collaborate on assignments and lesson plans with other teachers, and post homework, handouts and student work to their classroom web sites. Students can also use Google Docs to keep track of their grades, collaborate with other students on projects and view homework, handouts and notes 24/7.