Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 20, 2012 Share Posted May 20, 2012 Does anyone do a class website with assignment reminders and grades to review for a coop class that they teach? I'm doing one of the high school introductory level courses next year and I'm wondering if this would be helpful and worth the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Lynx Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I've played around a bit with engrade (engrade.com). Also, my co-op uses a wiki (pbworks.com) on which all the teachers post homework and reminders. Does anyone do a class website with assignment reminders and grades to review for a coop class that they teach? I'm doing one of the high school introductory level courses next year and I'm wondering if this would be helpful and worth the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I used google sites for a class this past fall. It was very easy to set up. The only feature you mentioned that it doesn't have is a grade book. I used it in conjunction with noodle tools, which is a site that assists students in maintaining note cards, bibliography & outlines for papers. The drawback to this is that all students must have a gmail account to gain access to the site. It wasn't an issue for my students, but you never know what someone might think. I would like to one day use moodle, but I don't have a server and don't want to pay for hosting right now. I may do that in the future. It has a variety of features, including a grade book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Our co-op uses this service to provide overall info for our members: https://www.homeschool-life.com/ Each teacher then has the ability to create multiple pages which can only be accessed by member families. Typically, a teacher has a homepage with current week's information, and then possibly several pages for each individual class taught. In addition, our co-op subscribes to this service: JupiterGrades.com Parents and students each have their own password to access info about assignments, grades, upcoming events, etc. I plan to do some exploring this summer to better tap into all of the resources available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in FL Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 We had a tutor that used nicenet.org to provide discussion topics and post assignments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Our co-op uses this service to provide overall info for our members: https://www.homeschool-life.com/ Each teacher then has the ability to create multiple pages which can only be accessed by member families. Typically, a teacher has a homepage with current week's information, and then possibly several pages for each individual class taught. In addition, our co-op subscribes to this service: JupiterGrades.com Parents and students each have their own password to access info about assignments, grades, upcoming events, etc. I plan to do some exploring this summer to better tap into all of the resources available. Perfect, because we do already have a homeschool life site. We have a forum set up for each class, but I didn't realize I could do additional pages. I'll have to poke around with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Perfect, because we do already have a homeschool life site. We have a forum set up for each class, but I didn't realize I could do additional pages. I'll have to poke around with that. There may be different levels of subscription on homeschool life. I wasn't involved in setting that up. Here's what I have: I typically have my home page, where I make notes about the current week's activities. Then I have a page for each class that has my course syllabus, with class expectations, grading policy, etc. I also have a page for each class that has the homework schedule in a grid -- what to read, graded homework, tests, etc. You can either type the info into the page setup box, or have it post a file from your computer. By putting it on the website, I place the responsibility -- and cost -- of printing it out on the student. There is also a "links" option, where I put in URLs for pages I want the students to go to: the online components of our Geometry textbook, Physics Classroom website, online videos demonstrating current concepts, etc. There is a photo gallery option, which I don't use much. It is a convenience for the families, as they just need to logon to the co-op website, then navigate to each teacher's site to get the info needed. Much better than having a list of separate websites for each teacher! A note, though: we have had a couple of teachers who had trouble posting files when they used a particular browser. I didn't have any trouble when I was using IE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) In a similar manner to the other poster, I've used the Google Docs facility and really enjoyed the capability it has given me. It's rudimentary and free, but I've used it creatively with good results. I think you saw that I had used its Pow er point capability in a very crude manner to give my students access to a short story that I didn't want to copy on paper or to email out individually. I also use it for traditional presentations on occasion. My kids like the multimedia feel for a bit of variety. It also has Ex cel capability that I use for grading. I have one spreadsheet for the entire class that my paper-grading mom and I have access to, and each student has their own spreadsheet with private access. I've set the permissions on these to view only. Each student also has their own google doc (we call it their workspace) that only s/he and I have access to, so they can paste in drafts of essays or any other work that we need to look at during the week. This solves the problem of my only seeing them once a week and not having contact or access to exchange work during the week. They always post the newest work at the top, so we've only opened new documents for each semester. Each week I open a new Teachers Notes doc. They know to check in twice during the week on set days. (I've told them to think of it as our additional class periods. ; ) ) I use that space to link information like videos, post pictures, and teach things that I didn't get to in class or to clarify concepts, based on homework they turned in on class day. I set permissions on these to edit, so they can comment or ask questions if they want, but it has been rare for them to do that. The best part has been that it gives me the ability to communicate with my students during the week, overcoming a downside to the once-a-week co-op class format. It is interactive in away that a website wouldn't be. That only downside is that it isn't our own webpage with eye-catching graphics. ***** Someone else IRL told me they have used Dropbox. I have no idea what the capabilities are. Edited May 21, 2012 by Valerie(TX) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anne1456 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Some of the teachers at our co-op just set up a facebook group for their class. You can make the group closed, and it has the advantage that most of the kids are on there frequently anyway. They use it to list homework assignments and videos to watch. Obviously it won't work for grading. I have a server and hosting, so I am going to try to set up a moodle for my class for next year. Hopefully it isn't too complicated to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisandsheri Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I use haikulearning.com for my Challenge class. It has great features that are simple to use. They offer a teacher edition, which is free for one class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Would it work to set up a blog for the class? You could post info, link info and carry on discussions via the comment area in a post. There might be ways to limit the group allowed to access the site and easy to rip down at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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