Cynthia Vaskis

SLM521 Spring 2004

Teacher Sites

4/25/04

File: e8tchrst.htm

 

Teacher Web Sites

 

 

 

First Teacher’s Web Page Review - “A Definitive English Teacher’s and Middle Schooler’s Web Site” by Robert Zogby

 

This middle school English teacher’s top web page had links to many reading categories and the atmosphere was fun loving and gregarious.  See the link http://pittsford.monroe.edu/pittsfordmiddle/staff/rzogby/zogby/  titled “A Definitive English Teacher’s and Middle Schooler’s Web Site”.  It has links to “Worksheets and Handouts” for students to get additional “worksheets, notes, handouts and other informational material essential to class.”  There is a lot of moving activity (animated cartoons) on the page which keeps your eyes going and you definitely won’t fall asleep looking at this page. 

 

Just above where he lists different types of literature that the students could explore, he has put a “Super Man” dancing figure that is a little distracting but for the middle school students it probably grabs their attention so that they look and see the English literature categories below it.  There is also a Comic book link beside the Super Man and the words “Click to take an adventure!”  Because it is a fun loving, light hearted approach to literature it is probably very effective with the middle school grades. 

 

The teacher’s name, by his email address, is Robert Zogby and he states that his site is for middle school English students as well as the young at heart.  He also says that it is not a site full of “stuffy literary” information but has links to pop culture, technology, literature, music, instructional books for English teachers, summer fun and to things that would be interesting to middle school students.

 

My positive comments are that he is grabbing the attention of the students very well and probably keeping them reading through comic books.  On the other hand, I wonder how many of them bother to look at the other more traditional literature links when they see “Super Man” dancing around and a Frankenstein picture (probably himself in a costume) also beside the literature links.  Sometimes too much entertaining can get the students off focus.  I might email him and ask what success he has had at anyone looking at anything beyond the cartoons.  Also, he listed the literature categories in a very small font, hardly readable, and in blue which does not stand out as much as black.  My impression is that he is trying to be popular with the students more than trusting that they will be interested enough in the literature to seek it out on its own merit.

 

The background is also very distracting when you are trying to read what has been written on the page.  The background is a pattern of gray lines that outline the shape of books but it intrudes into the text completely and confuses the reader while your eyes are trying to stay on the correct line as they move across the page.  My impression is that this teacher probably has a passion for literature, and like he said “pop culture”, but he is trying to attract students to be interested in literature not by standing on the merits of those who created it but by having the students stumble onto those links because they were really there to look at the comics. 

 

I am not opposed to comics though and am a very visual mathematician.  I once was an Art major for two years (going into Architecture) and spent almost all of my fourteen years as a computer programmer designing Man-Machine Interfaces for Expert Systems which are not unlike a good Web site that points you to valuable information.  The Web site just doesn’t talk back to you as an Expert System does but they both point you to useable information for a particular topic.

 

My second son, now 11 years old in fifth grade, was not reading at his grade level in third grade.  I started buying Archie comic books and his older brother, just one year ahead of him, who was way beyond his grade level in reading, helped my younger son read as they both enjoyed the comic books.  This improved my younger son’s reading level by a full grade within a half a year.  My comments about the Web page’s appearance come from an artist’s and programmer’s point of view that it is better to keep it simple for the eyes to find the important stuff.  Here, the literature categories are so hidden it is as if he is saying they are not important.

 

Now having said all of that, I used a link on this page to find his real homework student information page which does not seem to have much on it working yet.  He mentioned that he was still making it recently.  It had a calendar with assignments due but the resource link was not active.  I think he just had the initial page to grab the attention of the students so that they would eventually find their way to the homework schedule page.  The only helpful thing besides the calendar was his email pop-up window.

 

Commendations

 

1.  The “Click Here for handouts” and the “take an adventure arrow” led you to an extensively, well organized grouping of literary works.  It is just not so apparent that it was even there from the top level.  A student could easily just walk away and not know about the underlying resources.

 

2.  The cartoon reading page, which he expressed was good as valid literature, was another means to grab the attention of the students and is probably very effective.  I finally found his real web page which did have a useable calendar/schedule and email address to get his help. 

 

3.  I also liked his patriotic tribute page to the victims of 9/11.  He consistently provided the links (even though obscure at times) to the vast amount of literature listed there.

 

Recommendations

 

1.  Change the grayed book outlines on the background as they make it hard to read across the page to something that doesn’t cross your path of eye movement so abruptly and makes it easier to follow visually.

 

2.  Make it clearer from the top level page that there is such a good resource of information buried at lower page levels.  It almost makes you think that he feels he needs to provide a “hook” to get the student interested in classic literature.  Maybe you do need that “hook” at that grade level.  I would prefer to appeal to the student’s intellect to be able to appreciate good literature when it is presented with the background, struggles and philosophies of the writers who created it.  Maybe the students could role play and become one of the famous authors for a day.  That way they would have to look into their lives to find out why they wrote what they did and that would inspire the students to read more of what that author wrote.

 

3.  Improve and finish the actual web site at the school which was kind of boring compared to what you saw trying to get there.  Maybe the school would let him “spruce” it up a bit.  It was sort of a let down because not much worked on it yet but with his creativity I’m sure it will hold the attention of the students eventually.  I did not find any information there for parents either but this area is still in development.

 

Overall, the web site was well organized and appears to be extremely useful as well as “attention getting” for his middle school students.  He just needs some time to polish the actual school’s web site for his class information and schedule.

 

Second Teacher’s Web Page Review of “Mr. Jackson’s Web Page” (a science biology teacher at Bandera High School, Bandera, TX)

 

URL: http://www.banderaisd.net/TeacherWebPages/BHS/jackson.htm

 

Mr. Jackson’s web page is for his high school biology students and is minimally useful.  He has the basic assignments, daily class schedule, and activities sections with only four resource listings.  It lacks in creativity to list other types of extra curricular biology activities such as possible class field trips to museums or wildlife preserves.  There could have been more variety in the resource listings which could be used in his biology lessons or to spark an interest in students to research some aspect of biology on their own.

 

Commendations

 

  1. Mr. Jackson’s web site is very clearly organized and provides a quick overview of its content.

 

  1. He lists his educational background and where he attended college and the degrees he received which is helpful to know whether he is qualified to teach high school science.

 

  1. He lists his own personal daily schedule probably for the benefit of any student trying to locate him.

 

  1. There are locations for homework assignment postings and links to additional resource materials of interest in the area of biology and high school level academic decathlon competitions for his students to browse and possibly participate in them.

 

  1. He lists an email address to reach him, campus phone and FAX numbers, and his office hours is case someone wants to reach him.

 

Recommendations

 

  1. Even though the page is well organized it is sparse and there are only a few resource listings.  He could do much more with the page to interest students to study biology such as have Virtual Tours to learn about different insects or plant life somewhere around the world like the Amazon’s rainforest.

 

  1. There was no mention of a calendar for mention of test schedules or upcoming events or activities planned for the classroom.  He could at least list the areas of biology that he was going to cover so that students could start thinking about it.

 

  1. There was no personalization of the page except for an excerpt from George Bernard Shaw about holding a torch instead of a candle.  He could personalize the page more so that his students could know him better.  The feeling of the page was one of disassociation from his students.  He may not actually be that way but the Web page doesn’t give any personal information about him other than his educational accomplishments and where he worked before coming to this school.  He could let the students know why he wants to teach biology and, by his enthusiasm, he could spark the some interest in his students for the subject.

 

  1. Also, some of the links on his page did not work.  The top of the page has links to things further down on the page and some did not work.  It shows a lack of concern about the web page and the students will probably not want to spend anytime there.

 

In summary, his Web page only holds the bare minimum of information that the student needs and there is no significant indication that he enjoys teaching or is even keenly interested in the subject.  The page is devoid of personality except for the mention of a candle being a torch for him in a quote.  So much more could be done as we have learned in this class.