Do you find that this is helpful for students? I made one for one of my classes in college last year, and I can see where it would be a good idea. For those who have them, what site do you use?
Well, I teach 1st, so my website is primarily for the parents. I do, however, think a website for older students is beneficial. When I taught HS English, I used to go to Jim Burke's site a lot because he posted things for his students that I would use. I created a new website this year using google sites. If you are pretty knowledgeable in creating websites, I recommend it. Some parts are bit confusing at first.
I also taught first and like TamiJ, my website was geared more toward the parents however, some of my students liked to use it to get to their favorite links. Even if no one ever looked at it - and trust me, sometimes you will feel like this is the case - I would continue to maintain it. It showcases just one of the methods I use for communication. Some teachers complain that no one ever checks their website so why bother... well, you can't control whether or not they check it but you can show that you have created an additional source of communication. I use Microsoft Expression Web to create my website and I've used Smartlogic, Fat Cow and iPage to host them. You can get good deals when you sign up with most hosting services for the first time. Also, most of my parents checked my website at the beginning of the year mostly to get a feel for me. Some parents shared that they were impressed with my site and felt more at ease. I also utilize forums (message boards) for the day-to-day stuff.
My students use mine. But, all of my students have a laptop at school and can take home (1:1 laptop environment). I am using education.weebly.com this year.
I think it is helpful for students & parents. It's a great way to showcase your classroom. I have tabs for each subject I teach so students/ parents can navigate to the right subject. On my band & choir pages I have handouts & recordings of the songs. Many of my students listen to them & play along. I've also had several parents print out forms from the site that their children "misplaced." I also have a photo gallery tab pictures from my classroom & concerts. I post projects that my general music students do on their page. They love to listen to themselves! We have to sue Adobe Contribute. I'm not a huge fan of it b-c I used Schoolworld before & loved it. For privacy reasons I don't want to post my link here, but I'm willing to send it via PM if you're interested.
I made a website for my classes on Weebly.com (the education version), and now most of the other teachers in my grade level are using it as well. I had some cheap business cards made on Vista Print with the web address to give out at back to school night. It has been helpful to both students and parents, and we have gotten a lot of positive feedback. I highly recommend it!
We use Your Class Page district-wide. I don't care for the format, but they're paying for it, not me. I supplement my site at Webs, and I also have a Yahoo! group to post daily updates.
If you have a knowledge of HTML, use a host like apisnetworks, if you contact them before purchasing and tell them you are a teacher, they will probably give you a discount.
My students use mine, and like KU, all of my students have laptops so it's easy for them to access it. Also like KU (surprise), I'm moving to weebly this year.
I ddi a 30 day free trial, and let it lapse, (though I did copy down what I had, in the event that I want to re-start.) I'm simply not sure that I see any benefit. I had nothing there that they couldn't get in class. I don't see any point in having a webpage unless the information is updated very frequently, and that's another layer of work for me to do. I don't know, I'm on the fence about whether this is worth the investment of time and energy.
I have a class website on Webnode right now...it's free and VERY easy to use. I've been playing around making one on weebly because it looks interesting and fun to play with and I'll be able to do a few more things than I can on webnode. My parents tend to use the website more so than students. I post my weekly newsletters, helpful links, and pictures of what's going on in the class.
I have my website on teacherweb. The parents mainly look at it at the beginning of the year. But the kids will use it all year. If nothing else, it has the links to the games they like to play. We also maintain a class blog embedded in the website.
I created a class website using Webs.com and my students definitely use it! I have a page for parents as well. For students, I created a page with activities that coincide with each of the stories in our basal reader so that when they are in computer station they simply go to our class website, click on "computer station," and find the story we are currently reading- then they have a choice of several links to follow that will allow them to gain more information about the story, the author, or the topic, or practice the grammar/reading skills we are emphasizing for the week. Also, I have a page for Math and a page for Language Arts so when we are in the computer lab I might assign a section for the students to go to practice specific skills.
