Start Pages: A Super TimeSaver

When I first began using technology in my classroom, it consisted of a computer that had AR installed but was not connected to any network, or even the internet. A few years later when I got a cord that connected my computer to the TV, I thought it couldn't get any better than that!  Boy, was I wrong.  We have so many neat tools at our disposal now to engage our students with. But I have often found it challenging to use technology efficiently with kids. One area particularly frustrating for me was getting the kids who were at the computer to do what I wanted them to do without me having to stand over them the entire time.  A few years ago, I had three classroom computers for my students to use, and I just couldn't figure out how to make it "easy" to use them. Writing down long website addresses was too difficult, and most of the time it took them their whole alloted time to get on the website. Saving it as a favorite was an option, but after a few weeks the favorites list was soooo long. I finally discovered a couple of easy ways, both with  pros/cons, to make this easy. One way is a start page, another way is a classroom blog (post about that later). A start page is available free, and you can save it as your home page when you start your web browser. So, when the kids double click to get on the internet, the start page comes up. You can add the websites you want your students to use. You can group them in separate boxes. I used computers as a reading center, and set up a box for each of my groups. I had a red/blue/yellow box for my groups with several links to games for skills practice. Each group had several links that were the same, but I could add websites for remediation/enrichment for individual groups. I added a box for "indoor recess" for when we went to the computer lab. The kids knew exactly what to do at the computers. I demonstrated how to use the websites on the smartboard at the beginning of the week and the websites remained for the whole week. I also added a box for use at home, and sent home the startpage address to parents. I added special websites for skills practice they could do at home, and some "just for fun" sites, too.  I was also a computer lab teacher at a school with 28 K classes. I can't imagine how I would have managed without  a startpage. Some of the teachers used it as their homepage as well, so when their kids had classroom computer time, they knew what websites they could go to and how to use them. I just can't say enough good things about a startpage!!  I use PROTOPAGE because it is free and user-friendly. Here is a link to my startpage, which doesn't really have anything there yet, but it is coming soon. Another good startpage is Symbaloo, but it is often blocked through school filters so check and make sure it isn't blocked before you set one up. Here is a link to a great article by Matt Gomez on how he uses Symbaloo with his students. I really want to learn to use Symbaloo, but that is a project for another day!  And one final tip:  make sure to uncheck the box for "open in a new window" in your settings. It will make your life a whole lot easier, trust me!