Teacher Made Websites
March 2, 2003
I will
investigate and evaluate two elementary teacher websites to help me prepare to
create my own website. I have focused on fourth and fifth grade, since I teach
fifth grade. I hope to find information that will help me in teaching my class.
1. Haygood’s
Habitat. Retrieved
February 25, 2003, from
http://myschoolonline.com/site/0,1876,49057-160347-51-61419,00.html
This site was created by a 5th grade teacher like myself. This site was created as a resource for Ms. Haygood’s students and their parents. It also offers resources for other teachers to use in their classroom.
Commendations
•The site
has a lot of information. It includes many links to sites for parents,
teachers, and kids. Let’s start with the kid links. These links have
activities that go with different science topics that they are studying. The
teacher information includes lesson plans and a link which offers a variety of
sites for teachers. There are links for parents to help their children with
homework and study methods.
•The
teacher includes a weekly newsletter. This is a great way to keep everyone
informed and saves paper. She updates it regularly.
•I also
thought that it was nice that she included a homework calendar. The calendar
includes the subject, assignment, and date due. This is a great way to get the
students to become responsible, but also allows the parents to keep track of
what is going on.
Recommendations
•The first
thing I would recommend is to get the site more kid friendly. I am a big clip
art and picture person, which this site is lacking. I feel clip art makes a
page more appealing.
•I liked
the space between each item, but because of that the links and activities
required much scrolling. I think it would be nicer to keep the links together
so the reader can see more at one glance; this also makes it more appealing.
•Along with
the recommendation above, I think the list needs to be better organized. The
teacher information is mixed with the student information. My recommendation
would be to organize the topics under headings, such as students, teachers,
parents.
2. Mrs. Schumer’s Web Page.
Retrieved February 25, 2003, from http://www.kildeer.district96.k12.il.us/fourth/SCHUMER/SCHUMER.HTML
This site is colorful and
creative. It was written by a
fourth grade teacher. The site includes the general subject areas, homework
section, projects that have been completed, what the students are studying, and
a newsletter.
Three Commendations:
•The background page is
eye catching but not overwhelming and makes me want to browse the site.
•The site is well
organized with boxes and lists, and is easy to navigate because of its
organization.
•Because of the format,
you don’t spend time needlessly looking for information that might not be
covered. This is what I really liked about the site.
Three Recommendations:
• I would like to see
sites that parents and children could go to for help with math or reading!
• He needs to check all
the photos that he uploaded, when you click to see them nothing appears.
• It needs to be
updated. It doesn’t look like there is any homework listed and the topics
that they are studying seem to be out dated.