A Class Website- A Look into the Future

Our ICT class was given an assignment that had me really thinking about how my future classroom would run. We were asked to create a class website for the future and hopefully our classes for the 2014-2015 school year. (Cross your fingers)  As we browsed through some examples of classroom websites that are in use we discussed what each of them had, what was important and what made it a "good website." All I could think when looking at all the sites was "Yup that one is good. I'd have all of that on my site!" and "Yup, that looks awesome, that must have taken a lot of time." So now that I know that mine would never live up to those expectations I chose the simplest and most user friendly site which was a weebly and began creating and designing. I thought well it can't be that hard to create a skeleton website for my classroom, you chose a theme, add some headings and VOILA! PRESTO! a classroom website. BUT as it turns out you can change things a hundred times, and still things aren't quite right.

It turns out a good website is one that does take time. And after reading some articles about why a classroom website can be useful I came to the realization that you can use this website to make your life as a teacher a lot easier. If the students know the website you can send them there and have all your links available through one page. This also helps, so that parents can check out what was happening in the classroom that day. Students can post various items and parents know where to find it and it is user friendly for those parents who aren't as tech savvy as their offspring. A class website is a great idea! I am a promoter and I have seen it work in classroom.

As teachers we must be aware of what we can and cannot post, what is appropriate and what is not.This could be a lesson in itself to our students about online safety and using the web for its intended purpose. Websites and blogs are a great medium for teachers, students and parents. I am excited to use a website to its potential especially in the classroom setting.

PS. I am still polishing up my site, but I'll post a link of it in the coming days! ALSO I hope to post some links of my peers websites as well! Stay tuned!