Teacher uses Orbs.com to organize her class

“This is so exciting; I can’t wait for school to start!” This was what I incredibly said on June 30, 2010. It was the last day of school, and I was at the orbs launch. This was the type of thing I really needed to jumpstart my 2010 school year, but summer had just begun. Needless to say, I was shocked when those words came out of my mouth. That night, I created an orbs site for my class.

Over the next few weeks, I added more information on my classroom orbs site: supplies lists, classroom expectations and rules and many more. I am so excited about this because I can’t wait to see the reaction of my students in September when they find out about the site. I can post all the project criteria on it, and all the homework assignments. I’m sure that their parents would like the site as well. Not only will this be paperless, it will also help parents be more aware of what are the expectations in my classroom. There will surely be no more “I didn’t know it was due today because I forgot to write it in my agenda” excuse as it will be on the website for all to access.

Furthermore, I can even post notes that we discussed in class as we discuss it. I can definitely find ways to integrate the orbs site into my teaching. I’ve had a couple of other ideas for some sites for my classroom:

• Homework helper site – This is where students can post questions on their homework assignments and other students can help them by posting their solutions to the problems.
• Project / Poetry / Writing site – This is where students can post their research projects and writing for their peers to view.
• Daily Journal site – This is where a couple of students can post the important ideas of what we explored each day so that their parents can view them. (Hopefully, it will help students communicate their learning to their parents at the end of each day. No more: “What did you do at school today?” “Nothing.” “Did you learn anything new?” [Grunt.] Instead, parents can focus on certain areas of our study and use that as a launching pad for discussion with their children -- i.e. “I saw on the orbs site that you learned about the different 3 Dimensional shapes today. Did you know that when I was 20, I went to Egypt and saw the pyramids there?”)

I would love to see what ideas my students may have for the site as well.

-Elaine O., Elementary School Teacher