My 1st Project - A Google Site

PROJECT SELECTION CHOICE
For my first project, I chose to do a website. I knew as soon as I heard we were having a technology class that my single, most important goal was to create a website by its end, and low-and-behold I now have a fully functioning site located here.

I knew that creating a website would be the most beneficial decision for me, because it seems that every time we have a technology in-service at school we are looking at all the cool websites teachers in cyberspace are using and some lecturer is trying to convince us to make one of our own. However, I felt that I have never had enough training to create one that I would be proud enough of to put on the World Wide Web for everyone to see.

My intended audience is my students and their parents. I have designed this website so that it is user-friendly and simply laid out. I think this simple layout will benefit the parents more than the students, because most students are pretty savvy when it comes to surfing the web, but a lot of parents are not. The idea of my website is for it to be a "hub" for information that my students and their parents may be in search of. For example, I included a lot of information for the school district such as the calendar and lunch menu even though it can be found on the district's website, because I'd like to make my website a sort of "one stop shop". I also created pages for every major category of communication I use throughout the year, be it newsletters, the online grade book, or information about the Ohio Achievement Test. In addition to the regular communication tools I have posted on my site, I have also included some fun pages such as one honoring the students' birthdays, Reading and Writing resource pages, pictures of the 08-09 school year, and a bunch of gadgets.


PROJECT RESEARCH
The first article I read included support for creating a class website and using it to aid in lessons. It encouraged the teacher to create websites with simple text. I found this very informative, as I am typically one who would change the font and font color on every single page and I can now see why that bothers some people and why it is considered "too busy" to be professional. Another important point the article I read made was that it is important to limit the amount of text on each page of your website. I had to keep referring to this statement since, as you can tell, I'm typically a very verbose writer. It makes sense that a web-surfer does not want to read through a ton of paragraphs in order to find a simple answer to his or her question. I believe that you will agree that I have many pages, but they are each limited in the amount of writing on them. Finally, the article discussed the importance of hyperlinks, which allow browsers to connect quickly to other pages which refer to the original site. As you can see, I have put in a number of hyperlinks in order to best assist my students and their parents as they search my site.


CONTENT DESIGN
My primary objective was to keep my website simple for people who are not familiar with using computers. Although the people who aren't familiar with computers are probably the ones that will NEVER check my website, I wanted to be able to present it at Open House so perhaps I could convince EVERY parent to check the website at least periodically. The only way I was going to convince all of my parents to check it out would be if I kept it simple. I placed all of the links to my pages on the side bar so they are handy at all times. I also put the pages in alphabetical order. This seemed to make the most sense to me as I looked at the site from a "viewers" perspective, rather than as the designer. Obviously if I would have done the page for ME I would have made some changes. For example, I might have ordered the pages according to use or importance or I might have grouped them so that similar pages (i.e. OAT Resources, Reading Resources, and Writing Resources) were right by one another. Yet I kept going back to my research article to remind myself that this page is NOT supposed to be designed to fit my needs; it's about the viewers' needs. Furthermore, since I didn't want this to be a page that required prerequisite knowledge I had to focus on making it simple to navigate. So, as Chris likes to say, I had to remind myself over and over to "KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!"


MEDIA DESIGN
As I mentioned before, I wanted my layout to be simple. However, I also wanted it to be attractive. For example, I am REALLY into digital photography and I take way too many pictures so I had to include some fun ones from last school year on my site. The students all sign a waver saying they permit their pictures to be online, so I know I have permission to use them. I think my former students will be elated to see they are "famous" on my site, but sadly for them they will soon be replaced with pictures of my NEW eighth graders once school starts. I liked the background I chose because it's fun and spunky, kind of like my classroom. I debated on whether or not I should use it since it's pink, but I figured what the heck? It's bubbly, and who doesn't like bubbles? I chose a simple font and simple colors, which like I mentioned before was REALLY hard for me because I usually like to mix in all sorts of fonts and colors, and I think that keeps the site looking rather professional. The graphics I used on this site were all taken with credit from Discovery Education's free Clip Art website. I got this website off of Chris' Wiki page and it has been SO helpful for me. I have used it for both of my projects. Thanks, Chris! :-)


LEARNING
I am ever so grateful to Chris and ETPT 5980 for giving me the opportunity to create this Google site. Not only did I learn how to make a Google site, I also learned how to help a fellow student with some of her questions. This is going to benefit me in the future because after I shared my site with my principal, she responded by asking me to present Google Sites to my colleagues during one of our staff meetings. I guess soon enough I'll be the "lecturer trying to convince" people to make a site of their own. Haha! I also learned not to over-do the site. I have learned that I am a little over the top in a lot of technological ways (my PowerPoints are always set up so every single slide looks different - I thought this would help keep the students' attention, but I guess it could be more distracting in the long run) and I am going to make some changes in some of the programs and documents I've created throughout the past few years. One of the most beneficial things I learned while creating this site was how to convert a Word Document into a PDF file on a P.C. Chris showed me a free downloadable converter for my P.C. and it was a Godsend. I was very concerned about attaching my Word Documents on my site, because I feared some malicious child would change my letters to parents or Classroom Expectations and use them against me. It would be an easy thing to do, and since most of my documents have a pretty formal Otsego Letterhead look to them I bet the student could make a pretty convincing argument that I had written what he or she had actually changed in a Word Document with my name on it. I know this seems like I don't trust the students, but I have had a few student generated on-line experiences that have made me this way and I am just trying to take every necessary precaution that I can. So when I found out I could change my documents into PDF files, I was RELIEVED. This means that my students cannot tamper with my files, but they still have the ability to print them from home in case they forget their papers at school.


FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
There will be a lot of changes on my site as the new school year gets underway. I haven't been able to include all of the information I wish to include, since school is out for the summer. For example, I can't get the lunch menu, birthdays, or our 8th grade TEAM homework information until school starts. I am also planning on adding links under the very bare "Writing Resources" once I am back in my classroom, because we had an awesome technology in-service last year that left me with about 100 great writing websites and I don't have any of them bookmarked on my personal computer. I am also planning on updating our library page when the library situation gets figured out at our school. Right now, it seems like we are not going to have library every week anymore because our beloved librarian is now the only librarian for the K-12 district. :-( Finally, I will post more updated pictures when I take them of my new students! I am also going to add my school picture on here, because it looks more professional than the silly one of my playing the boy/old man in The Giving Tree, but I am not going to replace the silly picture because that's who I am ... a silly teacher!

Overall, I am VERY proud of the final product I have created in my Google site and I am anxious to show my colleagues how simple this program is to use. I think the students will be excited to know I am staying "hip" with their technology, and now I don't feel so much older than my age. After all, according to Beth's article my birth date (March '81) proves that my brain should be thinking like the brains of my students, rather technologically. :-)