Previous to this past week's class, I had no idea that creating a classroom website could be so fun and easy! I've always admired the elaborate teacher websites with links to their daily classroom activities, homework, calendar, and classroom photos. However, I figured that once I have my own classroom I probably would not have my own website because they are difficult to maintain and you must pay for them. Wrong!
There are lots of easy-to-use free website creators online now. Those who have a Gmail account can create a Google web page through their already established Google account. There are also other sites, such as Weebly, which are very user-friendly. I used Weebly to create my "class" website, http://missdietrichsclassroom.weebly.com/. This was my first time ever creating a website and I found it to be extremely easy and fun to use. There are a lot of templates to choose from which you can personalize with photos, text, font, and the overall layout. I will definitely use Weebly again to create any future websites.
The only downsides to using these website creators, such as Weebly, is that eventually, if you have a lot of content and multimedia (i.e. photos and video), you must upgrade your account and pay a fee to maintain your website. In addition, since teachers are so busy with all of their other responsibilities, websites are often neglected. Failing to maintain my classroom website is my biggest fear when creating a website. If the content is not up-to-date and relevant then it is almost pointless to have a website. Therefore, once I have my own classroom and design my own website, I will need to develop my own system/schedule for maintaining my website. If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment!
I couldn't agree more! I thought it would take the entire semester to create the website when I saw that on the syllabus. I was so surprised to have it done within a single class session!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that as teachers, most schools give us a website so we don't have to worry about how much content is on there, but we do have to remember to keep it up to date. As a parent, I look to the websites so that I don't over burden the teacher with emails, calls, etc.