This site is no longer active or maintained. It is an archive of trainings 2013-2019 at Pu'u Kukui Elementary School.
Do I Want a Classroom Website?
Web design has come a long way in the last 25 years. We've moved beyond the point in time where you needed to use and understand code in order to create a website. Now we have free drag and drop web based applications that will help you get up and running quickly if you want to create your own website. Let's take a few minutes to consider why you might want to create a website for your classroom.
- Communicate with families and community members - How do you currently communicate with parents? What type of information do you communicate? How often do you communicate?
- Explain what is happening in your classroom - How do you share expectations? How do you let parents know about what their children need in order to be successful in your classroom? How do you let parents know what is happening in your classroom - curriculum, field trips, special events, homework?
- Facilitate learning for your students - What resources are available for your students? When are they available? How are you differentiating and personalizing learning for your students?
- Foster collaboration between students and specialists - Are your students limited to local resources or are they able to engage in global collaboration?
- Facilitate teaching, learning, and productivity for yourself - Do you have access to a variety of resources to enhance your lessons? Are you able to quickly locate information to use with your students?
- Document what is happening in your classroom - Do you have an archive or a portfolio of each year's learning opportunities?
Before you begin - Ask yourself these questions:
- Who will be your audience?
- How will the site be used?
- What will you be trying to communicate?
- What do you want your website to look like?
- Where will you get your graphics?
- How much time do you have available on a weekly basis to work on your website?
- What information can be static and what information needs to be dynamic?
- Will you do the work yourself or pay someone to do it for you?
- What do you know about creating a website?
Gathering Resources
Before you actually begin building your site you want to have a plan drawn out along with a list of resources that you need to gather. Since this website will be shared globally via the Internet you need to carefully consider copyright laws and student privacy laws before you include photos or images on your website. Gather, photograph, and/or create everything that you want to have on your website. Try to have resources in place before you begin building your website.
Building your Site
This is where all your planning will pay off. Websites are hierarchical structures but not everyone enters your website on the page you think they'll enter so you need to keep this in mind. As you build your site you'll be making decisions about what your site theme will be, where you'll place navigation, and how long to make your pages. Search the Internet for examples of class websites that you like and learn from their design. What works? What doesn't work?
The more time you spend planning, the faster your site will go together. Keep in mind that your site needs to keep people returning to it, so make sure that you identify the content that will be static and the content that you'll change on a regular basis. When you're starting out, less is best. Make sure that you have content for your pages. Nobody wants to go to websites that are under construction.
Maintaining and Updating your site
After the excitement of creating a new site goes away you are left with a website that you need to keep fresh and up to date. Keep this in mind as you're planning. Make sure that you have time to maintain and update your site - especially if you have directed parents and students to the site.
Free website creators for you and your students
Google Suite - You can easily publish any document to the web with Google Docs, Slides and Sheets.
With both Weebly and Google Sites you and your students are able to create their own websites.
Weebly - https://education.weebly.com/ed-features.php - information on how to get started with Weebly. You can sign up for a free account for up to 40 students.
Google Sites - set up time to talk with Debi about using Google Sites for you and/or your students.
DOE Web 2.0 guidelines - from the Intranet
Beyond communicating - facilitating learning
You have your website up and running and you're effectively communicating with your students and their families. What's next? How can you use your website to facilitate learning for your students. An early pioneer of teaching with the web is Tom March. He has spent years helping teachers move learning experiences from traditional to web-based. Hereʻs some suggestions and examples (below) from Tom for getting started using webpages to excite your students about learning.
You have your website up and running and you're effectively communicating with your students and their families. What's next? How can you use your website to facilitate learning for your students. An early pioneer of teaching with the web is Tom March. He has spent years helping teachers move learning experiences from traditional to web-based. Hereʻs some suggestions and examples (below) from Tom for getting started using webpages to excite your students about learning.
If you’re new to the Web or think students merely need additional resources, gather links into a Hotlist or Scrapbook. If you’re ready to take the next step of incorporating learning activities into a Webpage, then choose one of the three formats based upon what might be missing in your present curriculum. For example, if learners need to gain more knowledge about the subject, inform them with a Treasure Hunt. If they come out of a current unit apathetic, hook them with a Subject Sampler. If they learn enough knowledge and like the topic, but don’t engage in higher-level thinking, challenge them with a WebQuest. - Tom March - http://tommarch.com/writings/theory/
Thereʻs a lot to think about when you consider creating and using a class website. The tips above are some things to think about before you get started. If you decide you don't want a class website, please remember that you can create and publish to the web using applications like Google Docs and Google Slides. For example, if you were working on a unit about Insects with your students, you could create a Google Doc that listed links to the websites that you wanted your students to visit. You can publish that document to the web and then bookmark student computers with the link to the document. Doing this can keep your students focused on information that you've already identified as being appropriate and useful for your students.
If you're interested in learning more about creating a class website, please join us on November 20, 2018 for our website development hands-on session.
If you're interested in learning more about creating a class website, please join us on November 20, 2018 for our website development hands-on session.