Sites

I can see how having a website personalized to the classroom could be of great benefit. If you want it to be, it can function as an online syllabus for parents to keep track of things going on in the classroom. I know for my own kids, I have pieces of paper all over the place with contact information, classroom calendars, newsletters and homework assignments.  This is a great resource to have all of those things handy in one spot.

When designing my page, I tried to make it as if I were a kindergarten teacher.   Obviously I did not have a real school to put links to, etc, so I just used some fun clip art (free clip art...although I know you still have to be careful about that.  I would not use it on a real site) and made up staff name for the contact information.  I used lavender and purple as my background colors because, well...that is my favorite color and since it is a make-beleive school, I chose what I liked.  However, if making a site for a real school, I would have used school colors and pictures of the school along with a link to the school website and school calendar as well as just my classroom calendar.

I used a Google calendar gadget for my widget.  I added a few pretend field trips and events to correlate with the announcements page.  I also used sidebars and multiple page formats to experiment with the different types.  On my contacts page, I wanted to put a box around the information in each column but could not figure out how.  So, the information is divided into columns but I think boxes would enhance the page and organize the information to be more visually pleasing.

I added in Google Drawings in a couple of places.  It took me quite a while to get them sized to fit where I wanted them to go, but finally got my book-a-pillar to fit!  (I drew the caterpillar from Google Drawings!!)

I also got to experiment with organizing the order of the pages on the site list.  I created pages as they came to mind and then had to go back under the manage tab and figure out how to reorganize them so they would flow.

I made a "birthday" column.  In a real class, I might use the first names of the students after getting permission from the parents.

Overall, I enjoyed making this site and hope to get to use it as a kindergarten teacher someday!!

Here is the link to my site:

https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbroaddusclassroom/