Wonderful World of Technology!

What a week in technology! We are talking about e-portfolios and building websites and I have my own website underway, which is very exciting! Now I have never made my own website before so this is a learning experience. I am still figuring out the ins and outs of how it is all done.

We were given a list of different sites that we could use to make websites with:

-Yola

-Weebly

-Google Websites

As much as I wanted to keep everything under my Google account, you saw how much I like all of it in my last blog, I chose to use Weebly because it seemed user friendly and the templates were sleek and professional looking (not to mention it was also free! Win-Win!!), sorry Google.

Isn't it pretty? I have already seen a few teacher websites so I have a pretty good idea of what I want to include on my classroom website, but first I want to talk about why it is a good thing to have a website for your classroom. 

We are in a world of technology, it is around us everywhere, and if we can incorporate it properly into the classroom it can not only make our lives as teachers easier but make things much easier for our students and their parents as well. For students we can include deadlines of assignments, this is great because students can forget to write deadlines down in their agendas or forget them at school. By having these features on the website students will be able to access page numbers, question numbers, and due dates via website.

Students will also be able to access any resources that you may have used in class such as websites or articles. If you provide these links to your students they will have them available to them always. This also avoids nagging questions to the teacher such as "what was that website?" "I can't find that website anymore!", this encourages independence in students.

This is also a great resource for parents because they have access to what their kids are doing in the classroom, they can see deadlines and schedules themselves. Another great resource for parents is to provide them with forms that you may be sending home with students. Sometimes these forms don't make it home, get ripped or ruined, accidentally thrown out, or lost once they get home. This gives parents the opportunity to print out these forms a second time or find out more about where you may be taking the kids or what you are doing with them. If you are going on field trips you can provide links to websites, maps, and other various information that is on the website that maybe wasn't included in a descriptive handout. You can also provide parents with examples of students work by taking pictures and posting them on the website, or pictures of the classroom so parents can see what students have been doing.

Another great feature to have on your website is to create a teacher profile, you can include your e-portfolio or just include a picture and a short description of yourself. This may give parents some ease at knowing who their children are spending their days with. This will build a good relationship between parent and teacher which is important in our students education. The learning process includes a triangular relationship between student, teacher, and parent.

These are only a few of the great opportunities that having a website provides to the classroom and is another great way to incorporate technology! I can't wait until my website is up and running, even if I don't have my own classroom to use it with yet, I see possibilities in using it while student teaching!

I'll leave you now with a super cute video from Kid Snippets!

Cheers!