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Theory Behind a Good Classroom Website
- Start small and work your way up. I've been working on my teacher website since January 2007. You can check out that first blog HERE. Most of my fundamentals are still the same, but I've been able to build up over the past seven years. Don't feel like you can, or should, try a whole lot of things at once.
- Be flexible. Sometimes free online tools change, or are eliminated. Be flexible and understanding, and open to new tools as technology evolves.
- Make it accessible from school from a student's point of view. Sometimes the sites you can visit from your teacher computer (YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Dropbox) are blocked to students when they log in from a student computer, or through district wi-fi. Be aware of this when making resources available online.
- Keep it updated. Always. Nothing is more frustrating than a website than hasn't changed since 2011. Choose a platform that you can easily update on either a daily or weekly basis, and then be true to your word when you tell students that your site will be updated daily or weekly. Dreamweaver was awesome when we used it to create teacher websites 12 years ago. There is nothing awesome or dreamy about Dreamweaver in 2014.
- When a kid comes to you and says, “I was absent yesterday. What did we do?” go immediately to your website and show them. I will often ask, "Do you have internet access at home, or would you like me to print the agenda out for you?" 99% of the time, they will say they can get it at home.
- Reduce common parent questions - A great website will reduce the amount of parent phone calls and e-mails you receive. What do parents ask you the most via e-mail? Figure that out and put it on your website. Use Infinite Campus mass e-mails to introduce your website to parents during the first week of the semester.
- Test links before you “go live.” Just because you can read it with your login on your computer doesn't mean your students will be able to see it in the same way (or at all). If sharing something from Google Docs/Google Drive, is it properly shared or published? Ever click a link someone has sent you in Google Drive, only to get this message: "You do not have permission to view this file"? If your kids get this message, some of them will click the "Request Permission" button. Others will say, "Eh, forget this." and not do their work. If you are sending or posting a link to a document, form, folder, whatever, open it in a separate browser first. Make sure that browser is NOT logged into any of your accounts. That way you are viewing your content as students would view it.
- Excuses, excuses. A good website reduces the excuses. "I was absent. I didn't know what the homework was. I didn't know the test was today." I love taking a photo of my whiteboard to show students and parents that the notice of the test actually existed for several days prior to the test. A good website with all the resources means no excuses.
- Don't bite off more than you can chew. Only add tech to your classroom that you can easily manage. Get good at that before moving on. The worst thing you can do is introduce some new amazing thing that you can't maintain because it's too complicated or time-consuming for your life right now.
- Just another part of the room. Make your website a natural extension of your physical classroom. I have gotten to the point where I frequently will use my own website to look back on what we learned the day or week before. I also use it to help create assessments. Finally, when studying or reviewing with students, I will pull the website up on my projector and show them (several times) how to access all my online resources so there is no confusion. The website becomes a go-to resource just like the bookshelf or the pencil sharpener. Except, I use my site more often than either the bookshelf or the pencil sharpener.
Links and Resources We Talked About Today
Blogger - The site I use and recommend for my classroom blog. It's from Google and it's totally free.
Google Sites - Also totally free from Google. Google Sites has some very powerful web-building tools.
Weebly - Weebly is becoming increasingly popular with teachers. There is a free version, plus premium versions available with additional features.
Edublogs - The basic version is free, and a more powerful version is available for about $3/month.
j.mp (bitly) - This is the tool I use for URL shortening. With it, you can take really long links and shorten them down so they are easier to read, manage, and fit within a website or message.
Google Calendar - I not only use Google Calendar to manage school calendars, but I also use it to manage my personal and professional appointments as well. I always say that one of the best things that could have happened to my marriage is Google Calendar.
Celly and Remind101 - Both of these are powerful, secure tools for connecting to both students and parents via text message. Celly is great for two-way communication between teacher and students (one-way and group chat options also available), and Remind101 is a super simple way to send one-way broadcast messages out to students and parents. For a comparison chart of features that I have created, click HERE.
Teacher websites
Mr. Ippolito - http://www.MrIppolito.com
Mr. Pumar - https://sites.google.com/site/pumarmath/
Mr. Manalastas - http://wranatomyclass.weebly.com/
Coach Collins - http://collinsmodciv.blogspot.com/
Ms. Kontis - http://kontishistory8.edublogs.org/
Mr. Sheridan - http://sheridanhistory.pbworks.com/
Final Thoughts
With all online content, ask yourself:
- Would my principal be OK with this?
- Would parents be OK with this?
- Is this positively engaging students?
- Do all students have access?
- What could possibly go wrong?
And ultimately bear this in mind:
What you put online can teach just as much about your character as it can about your curriculum.
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