Last December, Automattic staff traveled to Boston, Massachusetts for the Modern Language Association’s annual conference. It was great to hear how educators are using WordPress.com to reach students and parents outside of the classroom. Today, we’d like to share some of the ways teachers are seamlessly integrating traditional and online learning to create new educational experiences.
The Paper-Free Class Experiment
My name is Hayes and I teach eighth grade Language Arts. I am a licensed teacher, but since last summer I have been really thinking about what I can do in my profession. This year I am trying a radically different approach to teaching, moving away from the traditional classroom and exploring what I can do online.
For The Paper-Free Class Experiment, Florida-based middle school teacher James Hayes built an incredibly robust site that includes lots of content for discussion questions, writing aids, test prep materials, and parent communications. Using the Morning After theme, the site is both informative and easy to navigate, with custom menus and sticky posts that highlight important information .
In addition to providing materials, assignments, and a place to continue class discussions, the Paper-Free Class Experiment also links to other online educational tools: students can create their own blogs on edublogs.com (an educational blogging platform powered by WordPress.org), join private chat rooms, log into their school’s portal to submit homework, and even follow class news on Twitter.
Not only is Mr. Hayes experimenting with education outside the classroom, he’s also helping prepare his students for the digital age.
English 250 @ Iowa State University
Professor Jackie Hoarman teaches an English class at Iowa State University called “English 250: Written, Oral, Visual and Digital Communication.” Not only does she use WordPress.com sites to enhance her classroom experience, but she also requires all her students to create their own sites and includes assessments of their online portfolios as part of their grades.
They use the Grisaille theme to create a clean, content-centric space. Blogs and Tweets keep the conversation going between classes, a custom contact form lets students submit assignments using Google Docs , and a ” Blogs You’re Following ” widget links to student portfolio sites and other recommended sites to make information discoverable.
For students who have never blogged before, Professor Arman even created a demo portfolio site to walk them through the process. Thanks to the online portion of the class, students will have a website to showcase their portfolio at the end of the semester.
CRS 5th Grade: For All Things Fifth Grade!
Massachusetts fifth-grade teachers Rachel Miller and Rachel Keller keep parents up to date on what’s happening in class so they can support their children at home. On their CRS 5th Grade site, posts about field trip plans and daily classroom happenings include photos and videos of their children’s activities.
They ‘re using a perfectly fitting theme called ” Suburbia ,” with a layout that allows them to highlight multiple posts on the homepage, giving parents a quick overview of a wide range of class activity. A custom background gives it a school feel, and there’s also a page where parents can read all the important happenings, like announcements of school closures and upcoming events.
Rachel’s two teachers aren’t the only ones using the site in elementary schools: Ms. Turcotte’s blog does something similar with her second grade class, and Mountain Brook Presbyterian Preschool and St. Joseph Indian School are some examples.
Many teachers are using the site in unique ways to innovate within their schools and districts, and the flexibility of WordPress.com makes this possible.
- The West Des Moines School District uses its blog to keep teachers up to date with the latest technology and explain how it can be used to improve their teaching and management.
- At Roding Valley High School , students use their blog to share information with each other about pedagogy and teaching tools.
- William Penn University provides useful information for students participating in their study abroad programs on their blog, which can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.
- Middle school teacher Gordon Lee shares information about the middle school marathon club he coaches on WordPress.com.
- Heritage Christian School in Canada brings together a variety of content on one site, from book recommendations to educational apps and even a school wiki .
There are many more sites out there, but we can’t list all of them here, as some have ” private mode ” that only parents, students, and teachers can access. If you don’t want to share your photos or information with anyone, this is a great option to use.
If you teach in your classroom or your child’s school and have a WordPress.com site or blog, let us know in the comments! We ‘ll be rolling out new features for educators soon, so stay tuned !
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