Teacher Sites Elective
The first page I visited was a fifth
grade teacher’s website. The page
contains primarily scientific information/projects, but is changed throughout
the year to reflect the focus of the class.
The teacher’s name is Erin Turner, and must have a large contingent of
Hispanic students, because her website is bilingual. A description from the page that linked me to
this one stated that she uses the site throughout the year, and has her students
learn to use it in conjunction with their projects. Here is the link to the site:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/4334/
Some commendations:
1. I like the bilingual aspect of the page; she does a good job of this. The Spanish words are the same size and prominence as the English ones, giving a greater feeling of equality between the two cultures.
2. Another appealing aspect of the course is the link to students’ research projects. She even includes pictures that they have drawn for these projects. I feel this really gives the students a sense of importance and belonging within the class; it allows them to truly be participants in the learning environment.
3. In addition to posting student’s research projects, the teacher has also created an extensive list of links to go for further information regarding the research projects. In this list she has written some of her own information as well as linking professional science web sites such as discovery.com and others.
Some recommendations:
1. On the home page, Ms. Turner needs to explain a little better who she is, and what the purpose of the web page is. Some introduction and/or background would be helpful. Without the page before hers that I linked from, I would not have known the purpose of Ms. Turner’s page.
2. Some technical issues need to be addressed. Every time you click on a link or go back to the homepage, run time errors are experienced. Along with this, some design elements such as pictures and diagrams should be added to enhance the viewers experience and to clarify points.
3. Some of the areas content could be presented better. A few are lacking content, such as the environment link-this is just a vocabulary list. Many times it feels as though Ms. Turner is presenting a personal viewpoint when it would be more valid to cite sources and examples. Many of the links should be updated, because many would not work and were most likely out of date.
The second
web site I visited was an eighth grade science teacher’s website, Ms. Diana
García Hoelscher. The website seems very
useful for the intended audience, her students.
She includes many pictures of her classes, which is a good idea for her
grade level because it makes viewing the page more fun for her students. The link to her page is here:
http://www.georgetown.txed.net/faculty/benold/hoelscherd/index.htm
Some commendations:
1. Again, I really like the use of the pictures in the website; this keeps students interested, and shows outsiders that the class is both fun and educational.
2. Ms. Hoelscher does a nice job on the home page laying out the content of the site, and includes important information such as the classes she teaches and contact numbers. This makes the site easy to navigate and understand.
3. There is one week’s worth of assignments listed on the “assignments” web page. I like that she uses the web as a medium of communication with her students rather than only using a syllabus or writing on the board.
Some recommendations:
1.
While
the pictures are great, and I’m sure very interesting for students, they could
be made a little smaller; some don’t fit in the browser window, and are hard to
see because they are so large. Also, it
is a little confusing when opening a page and the only item visible is a huge
picture-they should be smaller and have some more text between them to convey
meaning.
2. The link page should have a button menu similar to the other pages at the top to provide continuity throughout the site, and also contain more links. Some links to pertinent web sites that deal with the classroom topics would be great.
3. The projects page should also include some written information about the projects, maybe with links to in-depth descriptions, rather than just pictures. Ms. Hoelscher tends to use the pictures to convey the stories rather than illustrate them.