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.