Lea Ann Robinson

SLM 521

Elective- Instructional

Teacher Made Web Sites

Kreul, Mary. 4K Richards Elementary School in Whitefish Bay, WI. 25 May 2005. http://www.mskreul.com/

Mary Kreul’s site for her 4^th grade classroom is an active resource for her parents and students. There are 24 pages linked to the home page in categories such as homework, parent sites, book reviews and newsletter. This site is a wonderful example of what a classroom website should be.

Commendations:

There is such a vast amount of information that is obviously kept up to date.

The use of student work helps the students feel that this is their site and also will increase the interest in the site.

The homework calendar is a great idea. This lets the parents check on the ability of their student to get the information correct in their assignment notebook or the student to get assignments if they are absent.

Recommendations:

Perhaps combine some of the links on the homepage so that it is not so busy and possibly overwhelming for the visitor. For example, include the Cool Site link in the Student Sites page.

Add a “Back to Home Page” link to each page.

Include the zip code and phone/fax number with the school’s address.

Newman, Brandy. Mrs. Newman’s Kindergarten. 1999. 25 May 2005. http://home.earthlink.net/~gbnewman/

As the title states, this is a kindergarten class web site. The teacher states in the first page that this page has been going for 6 years. She uses moving graphics and lots of color on each page of the site.

Commendations:

The ocean background is very attractive and eye catching.

Each page has a unique background and graphics that relates to the topic of that page.

The information is presented in a clear and easy to understand manner. This would be particularly helpful for the parent new to the school.

Recommendations:

The castle that is the entrance to the index for the page is a long ways down the home page. I would move this closer to the top of the page.

The colored text is sometimes difficult to read against the background, particularly the pink and red, so I would recommend changing those colors.

The pages in the site are all very long with lots of scrolling. I would find a way to shorten the pages by removing graphics, resizing, or making more pages within the site.