Web Sites as Conduits for Teaching

I am a second generation teacher. My mother had no need for excessive technology in her day. I grew up seeing the movement from slide rule becoming obsolete to digital calculators becoming mainstream. Now my son has his own laptop and phones are as powerful as some of the first computers. The web is a valuable resource when used correctly. Creating your own website will allow you to guide your students into this resource.

ANYONE can make their own website, do not be afraid of technology. For those not as tech savvy, look into the predefined templates. Google sites has a classroom website template that is perfect for an elementary class and easily adapted to secondary school needs. I repeat ANYONE can make a site this way for FREE.

The best thing about Google Sites is that it has wonderful how to links and tips to guide you step by step or when you just get stuck. There is the ability for more complex html programming or you can stick to their basic page templates. If it is your first attempt at a site be sure to complete the tutorial first. Going through the tutorial will help minimize simple mistakes and save construction time.

I highly recommend building a site to interface with your students. This site can serve as a parent teacher interface, and an organizational tool for students and yourself. With a website and the availability of access to the web via phone, Internet driven businesses, public libraries, school computer labs, personal computers, and more your students could not pull the, "I didn't know that was due excuse." This is the electronic age. We can do a lot of thing paperless to accent our teaching. Teaching with technology is about increasing the paths and depths of learning in our students. What better way to do this than using the web and creating your own site. My demo site is a sample secondary school chemistry website created via google sites: http://sites.google.com/site/mkgbrookchemistry/.