Teacher Pages Are an Awesome New Addition to SOCS Website
by Michael Pickman
September 02, 2009
The SOCS web service that the district uses developed and released a new feature this summer called Teacher Pages, which provides many positive features for first time and veteran users.
The teacher pages come with pre-designed articles called Teacher Pages that cover many informative areas. All the teacher has to do is fill in the blanks and accept the page, as simple as that. Examples include a course schedule table, lesson plan and assignment templates, syllabus templates, and so much more of the information parents would love to access and students can utilize as well.
The other benefit is the ease in organization. Instead of a bunch of loose articles in a teacher's location, the Teacher pages come with a Main Page like in the picture. The main teacher page becomes the front page and all other articles become teacher pages that you insert links to. Now the articles exist in the background and viewers can more easily navigate to content.
Teacher pages also create a blog (short for web log) site for the teacher that can be designed to be open for class posts and information about current studies, displays of work, articles, resources, and you can create discussion topics and open pathways for parent, student, and community feedback, all powerful tools to help guide instruction and build relationships.
I have used the teacher pages to organize my content. Now I can create weekly lesson plan articles with links to all my material. Parents and students can go to my weekly lesson plans and assignments section of the main teacher page and find the date they want. This then opens up a new window to the lesson plans. Then when the window is closed, viewers are right back to my home page.
Currently, as far as I know, you have to send a help desk or contact your administrator to gain access to the teacher pages. A simple and quick process. Then you will see Teacher Pages, Blog, and Feedback buttons appear in the Editor menu. I encourage everyone to go check out my Main Page (click here to go to my Main Page) and experience what I'm talking about. I would also love to hear feedback and suggestions on other content to include or how other teachers would use it. The link to my e mail is on my Main Page.
There are tutorials on the SOCS homepage, or if anyone would like, I would love to come and help anyone set up the pages. I think the web is a great resource to help communicate the great learning experiences with the community and get feedback in order to create partnerships. I have found it to be a large reward for such a little amount of time.
I'll end with this story: a student lost his notes sheet and had to study for a test. He accessed my lesson plans, clicked on the link for the notes and the accompanying PowerPoint and studied. He received points for the assignment, did well on the test, and felt empowered at his ability to problem solve rather than foolish for losing his material and upset at his failing grade.
Please let me know if I can help.
