I really loved the idea of having a class blog. A place where students can get online accessibility to course information and updates and a place where parents can see what their children are learning, utilize a school and class calendar and most importantly view their child’s work. This is my mock home page for an exploratory art class aimed at middle school aged students. Here students can find all kinds of important information pertaining to the class, study materials, class calendar, display their work, check their grades and participate in online discussions. This powerpoint will help you navigate the features of my mock class blog. To make my website more user friendly I will use audio options via screen readers and the ability to navigate my site using arrow keys, enter and escape keys rather than a mouse will be available as well. It will also be a touch screen friendly site.

Let’s start with the about me feature. By clicking on my photo or arrowing to it and hitting enter the student will be presented with this pop up. This will be a helpful tool for students and especially parents to get to know a little more about me and also find resources they can use to contact me.

Next the calendar feature: By clicking on the calendar on the homepage this more detailed calendar will pop up. This calendar includes school events listed in black text such as PTA meetings and holidays. The blue pencil indicates that there is home work due that day. By clicking on the blue pencil a detailed description of that days homework will appear on the right side of the page. By clicking on the events a description of events for that day will also appear on the right including details such as time, location and any additional information needed.

The next location will contain class material and links to study help. By clicking the game links students will link to these online game links. By clinking on “class notes” a link to my Google Docs word document with updated class notes. Lastly by clicking on class syllabus it will also link you to my Google Docs Document with the current years class syllabus. These links will be constantly updated as the course move throughout the year and updates will be noted in class as well as on the blog.

Student portfolios are one of most important parts of my blog. By clicking on the student portfolio box on the home page students and parents will be presented with this pop-up. By click a specific name they can view each students work. The name of the current work displayed will be bolded as shown here. (All work posted on the blog will be pre- approved by the students) By using the tab left and right arrows you can view each art work on its own. This tool will help parents get a sense of what their students are learning and it will help students share their work with others and take a sense of pride in what they have created.

The links at the bottom footer are designed to link to the following: My contact information The library’s home page The school’s homepage These quick easy links will make navigation easy for parents and web surfers, to get quick contact information or navigate back to the school’s website.

To view grades online each student will have a Student ID number and a password. By typing in their ID number and passwords students can log into their class grades. Grades will be listed by assignment; displaying points possible, points received total class points and overall class grade. Parents will also be able to access this information. This tool will help students be aware of where their class standing and it will help parents be more involved. Rather than finding out at the end of the quarter that their student is struggling parents will be able to view grade updates weekly and thus be able to better support their students study habits and over all classroom success.

Each week I will feature a contemporary artist. Some will be famous and some just up and coming. By clicking on the link “Contemporary Artists of the Week” students will be able to view a sample of the art chosen, read a brief bio on the artists and be presented with aspects of the artist’s work to contemplate throughout the week and hopefully inspire them as they create on their own.

Each week I will also select an artist of the past famous for utilizing a specific element or principle of art that we are studying for the week. Like the contemporary artist by clicking on the “Legacy Artists of the Week” box the pop-up will provide a brief bio of the artist, a sample of their work and some contemplative questions and observations for the week. Students will be encouraged to research and view these artists beyond the information I provide.

Last but not least each week I will post a blog post explaining what we learned that week. My posts will consist of the following: Pictures; To share images taken in the class, (with parent and student permission) Links: To artists’ blogs, videos, games, and other online resources Questions: For students and parents to leave comments on (all comments will be viewed by me before they are published on the blog) Last students and parents will be able to leave comments by clicking “Add a comment”.