Blog # 7

 

School Website

I chose to review Amos P. Godby High School located right here in Tallahassee, Florida since I am a 1984 alumni. There was no school webpage when I attended high school as this technology was about 10 years away. The manner in which teachers connected with students and parents was either by U.S. mail or papers were sent home via the student.  

Godby is the home of the Cougars and is located at 1717 West Tharpe Street. It was established in 1966. The website has a lot going on and is very busy. It has rotating pictures near the top, drop down menus that seem logical however, you have to look at a lot of different pages to get to some basic information. It needs a better design as it does not flow very easily for the viewer. I had a difficult time navigating to search teacher names. The alignment was off on a few teacher listing pages. Godby High / Homepage (leonschools.net) 

My Vision For Using Technology

I envision utilizing the teaching technology that is already available through the school at least in the beginning. I have to admit, I'm a little apprehensive about using their technology at least for the first year of teaching. I do have a comfort level with several tools such as Diigo, Twitter, and Blogging. I have used CANVA during several of my projects while at F.S.U. I have this nightmare that I will try to use something that I am not really comfortable with and I fail miserably at it. I am a "paper person" and enjoy making lists and making things look really cute and aesthetically pleasing. I have to take that aspect of my creativity and put my trust in a digital technology tool that is also functional. The most important aspect is the efficiency and ease of the technology once the comfort level evens out.

Twitter Days of the Week Challenge

I had a lot of fun with this challenge. I did two challenges. I participated in the Meme Monday and attached a clip of the 1982 classic high school memory of Fast Times at Ridgemont High of the character, Spiccoli (actor Sean Penn) having a pizza delivered to him during his history class. Mr. Hand, his teacher was not amused. This is a very irreverent yet accurate depiction of what high school was like during my era. 

I did the Throwback Thursday challenge and showed a picture of a boombox and mentioned that this was what EarPods looked like when I was in high school. The boxes were enormous, and you could barely lift them on your shoulders. Comparing this to today's EarPods, you have the same result with less to carry around. 

This challenge allows you to have some fun and gets you eager to see what the next day's challenge is. The challenge could be a fun challenge or a competitive challenge for the students. You could have a question from the day's class and see how many students get the correct answer and give them a prize the next day. I would definitely do these types of challenges on my teacher Twitter page.