As+the+Sharepoint+World+Turns+...



The year after my introduction to digital stories, teachers in our school who were interested in pursuing the creation of classroom websites were introduced to **__Sharepoint website creation software__**. I jumped at the chance to get my class online, at least my class' homework and announcements of special events. I envisioned it being a great tool to communicate with parents and show them what the class was learning throughout the year. Little did I anticipate the hours of learning and re-learning the tedious and multiple steps to add a few lines of text to the website. I think mastering nuclear physics might have been less time-consuming for me! In the 2 or 3 years since my baby steps with it, Sharepoint has gone through several revisions which have made some of the processes less tedious and I can honestly say that I feel considerably more confident and able to use many of the features Sharepoint offers. I use my site for several purposes:
 * 1) to communicate with parents - announcements, upcoming events, etc.
 * 2) to give students and parents access to internet links they can use to enhance learning and complete assignments
 * 3) to host wikis students are using to write group stories
 * 4) to show photos and videos of class activities
 * 5) to communicate with students when I am absent from school due to illness or other reason

[|Here is the site.]

My students and I have embarked on a project using wikis on our Sharepoint site to write stories which they will then develop into digital stories with sound and photos. I made a PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate this strategy. [|Teaching Story-Writing in a Grade 4 Class.pptx] Here are some examples of how I use my Sharepoint site to enhance learning. media type="custom" key="3880163"