Week 7

This week I worked on finishing up some loose ends on my website and making everything flow throughout.  I figured out how to get the Adobe Reader icon to link to the Adobe webpage so visitors can download the software if they do not have it on their computer.  I think it is essential to have that link if I am going to convert all my word documents to PDF so they are visible on all types of computers.

Another thing that I added to my webpage for my two class pages were embedded Google calendars with assignments listed on the days throughout the calendar.  I tried to figure out how to embed a calendar that I could add hyperlinks to using go2web20.net, but couldn't really find one that fit my needs.  The one that I was most interested in using ended up going to a dead link.  I currently have a webpage that is essential only a calendar with hyperlinks to assignments and power points that my chemistry students actively use.  I showed my chemistry classes the page that I made for their class on my new website to get some student feedback.  The kids were pretty receptive to the set up of their page.  I had several students like that the documents are in PDF and accessible via a mac. 

Something else that I decided to change throughout the page was to make the hyperlinks throughout the website in the normal blue color and keep the underlining.  I felt that since most people look for hyperlinks in the normal blue font that I would keep to the norm and make them easy to spot.

Finally, I finished my homepage this week.  I think a homepage should not have too much information on it since you have so many other pages with information.  I have a short welcome and links to my two most important pages, classes and Beta Club.  I also thought it was important to list my class schedule on the page so that parents and students are aware if they are trying to get a hold of me either through phone, email, or locate me during my plan. 

Week 6

This week I worked on my two class pages on my website.  I added important documents/homework to each page for the current unit that we are studying in class.  This way students can have access to these documents at home.  If a student were to misplace their homework, they could find the document and either print and complete or write on a piece of paper.  Ideally I would like to find a way to embed a calendar on to the page and be able to put the documents on a calendar so there would be no question about which document are assigned on which class dates.  I know that Google has a calendar function but they have not added the feature where you can add documents to their calendar yet.  These class pages would be changing throughout the year to have current updated content available on them. 

On my Integrated Science 2 page, I added a simulation activity that I like to do during our Earth Space Unit.  This simulation takes them through the way the sun, moon, Earth, and satellites orbit around each other and allows them to see the attraction of gravity between the different bodies of mass.  There is a link to the simulation and the corresponding exercise that goes along with it on the page. 

One thing that I could not figure out how to do on my website was to add a button for Adobe Reader to be downloaded.  I went to Adobe's website and read through how to add a button to a website, but then couldn't figure out how to get it on my website.  I thought it would be good to have the button since all my files on my site are in pdf format.

I looked at the website cooltext.com to see if I could use some of the buttons on their site instead of the ones offered on Weebly.  I liked some of the options for the buttons, but didn't like that it advertised for their website directly below the button.  I found it distracting as a viewer to see their advertisement and I think it took away from the look of their buttons. 

Week 5

This week was a bit of a challenge for me.  I just recently got a new computer with Windows 8 installed on it.  Everything about it is so different from my old computer so I had a difficult time figuring out how to resize the pictures to make them smaller.  I ended up using a program called Photo Gallery and had to click a button called "edit, organize, or share" which finally took me to a place where I could resize my pictures. 

The pictures I resized and put on my website where related to the Beta Club which I sponsor.  I added the pictures under the Beta Club drop down since they were directly related to the club.  I feel that is a better place to put them than have a link in the navigation menu for photos. 

Also this week I decided to add a page for important links that I use often in my classroom and share with my students.  I noticed when I use the hyperlink function in Weebly that it does not put a line under the words to indicate that there is a hyperlink.  You have to hoover over the words to see the link come up.  I decided to make it more obvious that the words were hyperlinks by underlining the words myself. 

One thing that still frustrates me about Weebly is the white space that is on their pages.  I know that the website designers did that so people wouldn't try to overfill their pages and make it difficult to read, but I would like to be able to have more freedom.  The text boxes can't be resized or moved around and there is still a large white space gap between my embedded footer text box and the place an actual footer would go.  I also don't like the limited number of colors for buttons and the text on the buttons.  I find them hard to read and keep playing with which color combination looks best. 

Week 4

This week I worked on the Beta Club pages on my website.  These pages I plan on trying to start using in the next few weeks or at least use some things I developed for the pages.  Also since it is spring break, some things that I would want to put on my subject pages are on my computer at school. 

The first week of the class, Dr. Gibson had us fill out a Google document and then showed us what the results looked like.  We use Google documents at school to do monitoring data for IEPs each week.  I always have found them easy to use, but had never seen what the results look like or how to make them.  My husband uses Google documents all the time at work so I asked him to supervise we as I developed some documents for my Beta Club.  We have sign ups for Beta Club outside my door at school constantly for service events, but the kids always complain that they have a difficult time getting to my classroom to sign up for events.  By developing a Google document for an event, they can sign up online at home and not have to worry about getting to my classroom.  I plan on starting to use my Google document starting this week with the kids, but email the links out instead of using my webpage. 

I have encountered some things that frustrate me slightly with Weebly.  First, my copyright/email/modification line leaves a white box between where it is located and where a footer should actually be.  I have tried to no success to move it down further, but that white box stays like it is part of my embedded code. Secondly, I have pages across the top and I added two sub pages to my Beta Club page.  I wish that you didn't have to develop a page when you clicked on the name Beta Club, but only to have sub pages that could be clicked on.

I thought the article on security for Facebook, Five Facebook problems you need to fix right now, was an interesting read.  When I was an undergrad and Facebook was released, I thought it was so great and easy to connect with people from high school, college, etc.  Now 10 years later, Facebook scares me.  People put such private information on the internet for anyone to see without thinking such as pictures of their kids in bathtubs, travel plans for vacations, and even complaints about their employer.   I think it is essential in this digital age to really edit and contemplate what to put on the internet before you do it.

Week 3

This week I decided to use Weebly as the platform for my website.  There were several factors in this decision.  First, since Dr. Gibson will be using Weebly for her website, it allows for me to easily ask her questions and watch as her website changes.  Secondly, Wix does not easily change from one layout/format to another so if I decided I didn't like my website later, I would have to start over from scratch.  With Weebly, I can easily rearrange things and change the way it looks later.  That is great as I change classes and content each year.  Thirdly, I got on the Wix and Weebly editing pages and found that Weebly was pretty easy to use.

After choosing a platform, I completed the About and Contact Me pages.  I am not sold on if I like the background of my page, but I do find green a calming color.  I don't know if I should add more to my About page.  I don't know how much information I want out there about me, but the page looks rather blank.  Also I struggled with finding a picture of my alone.  So often I am the one taking the picture or I am with either my husband or baby in a picture.  I guess the one I have will do for now even though there is a large pool in the background.  I guess it emphasizes my hidden love for swimming.

Social bookmarking sites still remain to be a bit of a puzzle to me.  When I like a website, I just tend to favorite it on my browser and if I want to use it on another computer, just email the link to myself.  I guess that is a little archaic in these days when you can link it on a website and then access that website later.  Which one is more work?  That is undecided for now.  I guess an advantage of social bookmarking sites is the social part of it and being able to share your sites with others.  This would probably work really well in the world of education, but I am sure that most of my peers have never used these sites.

I really liked thinking about whether websites are good resources or not.  I have run across tons of sites that my kids will use as resources when they write papers that have zero credibility.  I am looking forward to teaching about how to evaluate a website the next time we do a research based writing project.  Kids are just notorious for searching on Google and using the first site that comes up and when I tell them they need to dig deeper, they just don't get it.

Week 2

This week creating a wireframe and a sitemap was some what challenging.  It is difficult to make decisions on what kind of pages you want on your website and really focusing on the information that needs to be out there for students and parents to be able to access.  I think this was much more challenging that I anticipated because I have been on maternity leave the last 8 weeks and haven't put much thought into what students and parents need to know lately.  The good thing about my first wireframe and sitemap is that I can always change them once I begin creating my web page.  As I transition back to being in the classroom, I think that I will be able to be more in tune to the needs of my audience. 

I looked at some of the websites that I thought were the best and the worst from last week and used them as models for my wireframe and sitemap.  I think it is important to not have an unnecessary frame on the left side of the page or have tons of links to other pages on your homepage.  You want your website to be streamlined and easy for people to read.  Reading the article Bottom - Up Design really helped me to think about what links I wanted at the top as categories and then what things fell into those categories to be in the drop down area.

While looking at various platforms for my website, I came to a few conclusions.  I definitely think Weebly has emerged as one of the easiest user friendly sites.  I think Wix can look really cool based on the ones that I have looked at.  I found the article Wix vs Weebly that helps breakdown the differences and similarities of the two. I have also seen really good sites done on WordPress and Edmodo.

I don't think I would use Wikispace because that is not really the aim of my website to allow people to contribute to the page.  I also think using a blog would limit some features that I would want to include such as a place for parents to access assignments, due dates, and syllabus in one location.  A blog would make people have to search for the entry where I included that information which would require searching different pages.  I am sure I will revisit the article above again and do a bit more research before I make a final decision about which platform to use.  

Question for the week: Reading over the document Using Word and DropBox for your site, it referenced a power point that I could not find.  Am I supposed to use Word to create my web page?

Week 1

This week I visited numerous science teacher websites to start getting ideas for my future website.  My district unfortunately promotes the use of a tool called ischool for their teacher websites.  This platform does not allow teachers to add creativity to their web page by adding color, background, or graphics.  This platform also does not have a calendar feature that is easily readable for students to see assignments and due dates.  This platform simply allows teachers to organize documents used in their classroom into unit folders.  Kind of boring in my opinion.

I visited the websites of some teachers that I work with that do not use ischool but have found other platforms for their websites.  I can't say that I was overly impressed with any of these teacher's web pages.  Most of them simply used calendar features to let students know about assignments, due dates, and possibly had hyperlinks to documents or power points.  There were a few sites that did have good external links to resource sites that would be beneficial to students who struggle with concepts.  Something that I need to remember to put on my site would be good links

The best websites I visited would be Messer's Science Class and Mrs. Mac's Classes .  Both teachers used weebly as their platform for their website which allowed them to change the background, have tabs, and include clip art.  Both websites caught my eye and more importantly were mostly up to date and easy to navigate.  These websites will be ones that I will reference again in the future as I begin to create my own website. I think weebly would be a viable option for a platform for my site.

After looking at all these websites I can easily seem some pitfalls that I need to avoid as I create my own site.  Looking at the article 10 Tips for an A+ Classroom Website, I think it is extremely important to review those tips as I create my site and make it user friendly. Looking at the list, those were all things that I was looking at when I was evaluating other teacher web pages.  Also I looked at the website World's Worst Website and found all the things to not include in my future website.  That page is a hilarious combination of everything you would never want your website to look like.