TEACHER MADE WEBSITES

This page provides two examples of teacher-made or constructed web pages. Both of the pages discussed include some examples of what many teachers can produce for use by their students and fellow educators in the community. I have also listed three commendations and three recommendations for each site.

1. Mr. Gambill’s Social Studies Page: This web page was created by a high school history teacher from the North Iredell High School in North Carolina. It provides useful links to sites that can be used by his students to further their understanding of what material is going to be discussed in his classes. It is more useful as a starting point for what a high school teacher might want to include on their own web page than as an example of a model site.

http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/nihs/lgambill/index.html

(Commendations):

a. The page had pictures of many subjects that are covered in his history classes from several different time periods. Everything from King Tut to the World Trade Center attacks is presented.

b. Links to lists of classes, district curriculum guides, and educational goals were easily found and accessed on the page.

c. Other useful links on the page provide students a chance to examine Civil War maps and American Presidents.org, which is the home page for PBS’s documentary series on the history of the U.S. Presidents.

(Recommendations):

a. The list of links is simply a list of topics such as “American Presidents” that don’t describe to students where the link will exactly take them. Maybe he should have included a sentence or two telling visitors about what can be found on the links.

b. The majority of the links are to web sites that were created by the district or by other entities. Mr. Gambill might want to “personalize” the school districts’ requirements for the classes he teaches for his students to make the site more interesting.

c. The exact requirements of the classes need to be “fleshed out” a little more. The students might benefit if Mr. Gambill describes in depth what assignments the students are expected to complete for the district’s educational standards to be met.

2. Mrs. Reider’s Social Studies Homepage: This is a web page designed by a middle school Social Studies teacher from the Palos Verde Peninsula Unified School District in California. It is meant to serve as an online source for her students in the Sixth and Seventh Grades. It is fairly useful as a model for what teachers at the middle school level might want to include on a web page that will be accessed by their students.

http://www.pvpusd.k12.ca.us/teachweb/reidere/index.htm

(Commendations):

a. Each subject heading is contained in its own colorful box with a related picture. The page is laid out in a very easily navigable manner.

b. Mrs. Reider provides a link in which students may easily email her at any time. This provides a way to communicate with her students away from the classroom if needed.

c. The site has a useful list of links to classroom procedures, schedules, and web sites for student research.

(Recommendations):

a. The list of required assignments for her classes might be described in more depth than they are online.

b. The links are listed by their URLs. Since not all of the URLs accurately describe what a site provides, she might want to list the links by the web site title or home page.

c. Some of the course guidelines are not fully explained. For example, some are merely hints on what needs to be done in the class with no specific list of assignments to be completed or how to go about them.