To search for teachers' sites, I
used search engines that I profiled in my Search
Engine Activity.
Searches:
First Search Engine: www.kartoo.com
-Query: "social studies class"
-Results: 9,280 sites
-Just from my glancing through the results, I found about fifteen
teachers' sites for their classes.
Second Search Engine: www.google.com
-Query: "teacher sites"
-Results: 257,000 Sites, mostly institutional sites
(www.lessonplanz.com, and others)
-2nd Query: "sites made by teachers"
-Results: 23 sites, mostly link pages that generally list "sites made
by teachers and more!"
-3rd Query: "algebra class"
-Results:128,000 sites, I spotted a few sites that were made by
teachers for their classes
Best Search Strategy:
I've concluded that the best method to search for
teacher made sites is to search for the individual subject itself, such
as "algebra class", "geography class", "history class", etc. I
chose two sites to review, one from my kartoo.com search, and one from
my 3rd google search (since I am a bit rusty on my algebra,
I think that I will be able to see an algebra teacher's site similar to
how a student would see it).
Mr.
Riordan's Site
This site was created by a 6th
grade Social Studies teacher at Saint Mary's Hall in San Antonio,
Texas.
The website is divided into the four quarters of the year, with the
subjects that will be studied in each quarter listed. Clicking on the
quarters' takes you to the calendar for that quarter. The calendars are
very informative; they tell what will be taught each day, what will be
assigned for homework, and what days are holidays or inservices.
Site Strengths:
* The calendars contain links to
web-based activities, maps, and further research. It also creates links
to the assignments themselves, for students who may have lost the
handout!
* The teacher has posted the
students' work on the website, giving the students a sense of
"ownership" of the site
* At the bottom of the site, he
includes links to a large amount of websites related to each of the
cultures within the unit
Room for Improvement:
*The index page contains no
information on the teacher's school, subject, or location. I had to
search through the student work to
figure out what school this site
was for!
*There is no way to get to
activities without going through the calendar. This isn't such a
problem, but I wonder how he keeps track of all of the sites!
*He offers no information on how
to reach him with questions or comments (I think this is important for
students and parents to know)
10/13/05 - http://www.rickriordan.com/Social%20studies%20home.htm
Mr.
Hetzel's Algebra Site
This site was created by an 8th
grade Math Teacher for his algebra class at O'Keefe Middle School in
Madison, WI. It contains links to the calendar of assignments, an
online gradebook for students (by ID numbers, so it is confidential),
and a description of the class assignments, materials, and evaluations.
The site also includes a link back to the school's main Math website.
Site Strengths:
*The site contains links to the school's webpage, and the main webpage
for the Math Department,which would be helpful for parents
*Mr. Hetzel includes his contact information at the bottom, as well as
a note to parents/guardians about the course expectations and his
grading
policies.
*I really like that he includes the grading information on the site. It
allows the students to track their progress in the class.
*He lists the date of the last update on the page, so students know
when he last updated the grades and assignments.
Room for Improvement:
*The site is all on one page. Perhaps he could break up the different
parts (calendar, gradebook, and course information) into different
pages, to strengthen his students' experiences with internet browsing.
I like the site either way!
*The site could have bigger type and more colorful formatting; it is a
bit boring! I think adding some graphics and using bigger font would
make the site more pleasing to the students.
*As of this page's creation, he had not posted information for the most
recent week's assignments. It may not be a problem to the students,
because they see him daily, but for parents it may be confusing. If he
isn't going to enter information for a given week, he should list a
reason (for example, "Fall Break" or "No Assignments") so parents know
there is definitely not homework assigned. Otherwise they may worry
there is homework he just didn't post.
10/12/05 -
http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/okeeffe/math/algclass.htm#Course%20Description