Internet Safety & Classroom Rules Reflection

In making the Netiquette Flyer and the Classroom Rules PowerPoint I learned to incorporate two different methods of communication classroom and state guidelines to students and their parents/guardians. The netiquette flyer served to notify students and parents of the guidelines to be followed while using the internet in the classroom, while the classroom rules ppt was more of an interactive, in-class guide that could also be accessed by students and parents at home. Most rules in any setting arise from a problem. Since I don't have a class, or problems (yet!), I had to draw my rules from what I experienced in high school, and make some up I thought would come in handy. I learned that communication of these rules, especially the netiquette rules, is extremely important for students to feel and act safe and for parents to feel rest-assured.

I think the way I communicated the rules of my class via PowerPoint worked well. I used a humorous theme (which was also a reference to the most popular piece of literature, The Bible) to get students' attention and I felt that the rules I provided were appropriate for the grade level and subject. I even offered a solution to the plagiarism problem by attaching a link to an MLA guide website. In the netiquette flyer I directed towards the parents, I provided links to sites I believe would be helpful if any parent should have concerns not covered in my letter regarding internet safety. I also provided them with my phone number and email address. I think these elements worked rather well.

While I feel as though my creations were overall effective, I believe some elements didn't work as well as I had planned. In my classroom rules ppt, I provided a link to the OWL @ Purdue. I think this site is a great resource for students (I use it as a reference for nearly every paper I write). I only wish I had found more sites to give students to use as great resources. I could have offered alternative research sites to Wikipedia or I could have showed them the numerous "plagiarism-check" sites to which teachers have access. I feel as though there was more information I could have provided for my students. On my netiquette flyer, I don't think many elements worked against me. The only problem I have with this document is the overall layout. I think my spacing is off and I have an extra page I just can't seem to get rid of! I'm concerned that if I tried to print the page, it might not turn out right. This is all a matter of tweaking and improving my Word skills, however.

In these documents I showed my ability to use different programs for communicating class rules and guidelines. My PowerPoint contains an external link, slide themes, transitions, and images. My netiquette flyer incorporates images, borders, lines, and different texts/text boxes.