Why teacher websites are important
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Teacher websites are important for organizing class calendars and homework assignments, archiving lesson plans and materials to help students who missed class, meeting accessibility needs for students with IEPs or 504 plans, facilitating parent communication about assignments and events, and sharing classroom activities and student work through photos and stories. They can also provide educational resources and homework help links for students as well as ways for teachers, students, and parents to give feedback and make global connections.
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Why teacher websites are important
- 1. Why are Teacher Websites Important? Melissa White Oakland Schools 2017
- 2. Classroom Organization Calendar Homework assignments
- 3. Creating an Archive of Your Class Post your lesson plans Post information and links to your lesson plans
- 4. Meeting the Needs of Students With IEP and 504 Plans Provide students with special needs – from Autism to hearing and vision difficulty Access to notes Clear instructions Review materials Specific assignment details Voice recordings Close captioned videos
- 5. Students Know What They Missed Post handouts you created Links to quizzes – ProProfs, Quizlet, Quizizz, Socrative Store copyrighted materials under a password protected site like Dropbox
- 6. Parent Communication Assignments Parent letters Field trip forms Lost and found pictures Twitter Feed
- 7. Show Off! Post photos of things the students are doing in class Post samples of the work that have been created in class Share stories from the classroom
- 8. Links to Resources Hyperlinks to educational resources Links to what the students are studying in class Homework help links Michigan eLibrary databases
- 9. Feedback Contact Form Email address Blog option
- 10. Global Connections Connect with other teachers Connect with other classrooms Share ideas
- 11. Make it Engaging! Easy to navigate Photos
Editor's Notes
- Students and parents will appreciate how organized your classroom is on the web. You can post a calendar with what is going on in your classroom. You can post the homework assignment or the to-dos for the day.
- This can be your own archive so that you can easily see what you did the year before. If you don’t want to post the lesson plan to be accessed by everyone, you can just write a short note summarizing what you did that day. You can also put all your lessons in Google Docs and then just link to the Doc and only have it accessible to yourself or those that you have shared it with.
- It is very important to meet the needs of students with IEPs and 504 Plans. Students should have access to notes, clear instructions, review materials and specific assignment details. Voice recordings can be provided with text for visually impaired students. Close captioning should be included on any videos that you create. If you upload the video to YouTube, it will create close captions for your video under the Video Manager settings. You should also be careful with your font and colors to meet the needs of students who are color blind. Avoid red text and make sure you choose a very clear font type and size. It is actually now the law for school webpages to be ADA compliant for special needs students.
- Students will inevitably miss class for various reasons. Save time and post the assignments and make them take the initiative to complete the homework on time. You can also link to a number of quiz taking sites for formative or summative assessments. If you have created the handout yourself, there is no issue to post it on your website. You should put a copyright in the footer so that others know who created it and seek permission to use it from you. If you are using copyrighted materials from others, these need to be hidden away under a password protected site like Dropbox. You will give your students a password to access the resources.
- Parent communication is so important. They will know what you are working on in class so they can assist their own children at home. Posting assignment or lessons will be helpful. You can still opt to send parents letters home on paper, but posting on the web will help if the parent loses it or it never reaches home. Field trip forms or other permission slips can be posted online for easy access. A neat idea is to post pictures of the lost and found items so parents can easily identify the item.
- Let others know about the neat things you and your students are doing in the classroom. No one is else is going to toot your horn and you should be proud of the accomplishments and show them off. It is great for public relations in the community to see the good things that go on in the classroom.
- It is easier for students to all be in the same place on the web, if you have posted the links on your website for them to click on. They will not misspell the link and land on an inappropriate site. You can post the links on a resource like Symbaloo and then just post the link to Symbaloo. Parents will often request sites for their children to practice at home. You can find educational sites to send them to and also link them to the Michigan eLibrary,
- Posting your email can sometimes cause you to receive spam. You can add a contact form to your site which will be sent to your email. You can also add a blog option where parents and students are allowed to comment on your posts. Having a website does allow for two way communication between you and others.
- Your website can also connect you to others. You can connect with other teachers to collaborate on projects. Classrooms can connect so that students can work together. Your ideas and projects will also be beneficial to other teachers.
- A successful website will be engaging! It will be easy to navigate and not be too busy. It should be aesthetically pleasing. Photos should be low enough in resolution so that the website loads quickly. Resources should be easily accessible.