A few years ago some of my good friends at proteacher inspired me to create a website for my students and their parents. I spent hours that summer scouring the Internet, choosing the right site, and creating my web page. My students loved it! It was a dream come true. Unfortunately like most things the enthusiasm died down 2nd semester and by the end of the year we were no longer using the site.
Then I was switched from history to math - man I switch a lot! I never changed my website. Let's just say that particular group of students did not create a desire in my to go above and beyond the call of duty. This past year when I wanted to get up and running again it had for some reason become a blocked site at school. That is when I chose to use Edmodo.
I became pumped about Edmodo. It was going to be the perfect alternative. Turns out, it wasn't. My students LOVED it, but there were just things about it that drove me crazy. They viewed it more as getting to use facebook at school than as an educational tool. I just never got passed that with them. We had stopped using it by Christmas break.
Our technology person as since unblocked my original website and I'm spending yet another summer working on it getting it ready for my students. And I can't wait!! I'm already writing wonderful blog post in my head for them to respond to. I really believe it is going to be a great tool for teaching ELA. Determined to not let the fizzle die, I'm trying to come up with things to add as the year goes on so that there is constantly something new and exciting for students to explore.
Though it is still very much so a work in progress, I wanted to share the site with you. If you don't have a class webpage and are looking for something easy to use, I strongly suggest weebly. It has been extremely simple for me to create and for my students to navigate.
If you have a moment, check out www.weaversclass.weebly.com and let me know what you think. If you have a class web page already, I love to peruse your site as well. Let's share our ideas. After all, isn't that what we teachers do best?
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I love the site (including the "states visited" map!!) Last summer I created a Weebly site, but was then so overwhelmed with my first year of teaching, I never actually got it up and running. I'm hoping to complete it and share the URL with my classes in the near future!
ReplyDeleteI really wish that we could use sites like Weebly for our class websites! Our tech department requires us to use the pages that are set up on the school/district website. And in terms of creativity, they stink. Which I'm pretty sure is the reason why I'm the only one in our builiding that actually USES it. It does have some useful features, but it's not horribly user-friendly and it's definitely not pretty.
ReplyDeleteBut, if you'd like to check it out, here's the URL:
http://www.dps61.org/page/4552
Laura
Will Grade For Coffee
As I website possessor I believe the written content here is really excellent , thanks for your efforts.
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