Information Communication Website

When I was in elementary school, none of the teachers, that I knew of, had a website that was directed towards their class. Now more and more teachers have a website that their students, parents, faculty, and even the public can reach and see. As I was searching other elementary teachers websites to get an idea of what mine should look like, I came across many that had the same content, such as meet the teacher, a parents page, and homework links. I scanned over many teachers websites all the way from 1st grade to the 5th grade to see how they collaborate their sites to make it student and parent friendly. Finally, I had the ideas and points I thought were important and started working on the class website.
When I started, I used the mind mapping to get all my ideas out on paper. This helped me because I was able to create my website from there and could edit in or out more details if I needed to. Mind mapping is a good way to get all ideas out before working on the final product. It is almost like a outline, but in web form. From there I started on my site. I knew I wanted to have something so when anyone who visited would remember it. I chose to use bright and cheerful colors that were inviting to not only the parents and students, but other teachers in the building also. I used images that reflected on what was being said on a specific page that would grab the readers attention. Some people are more visual readers than actually word readers, so I figured putting visual aids on each page would help others see what they were about to read about.
All and all I was excited about creating this website. Once I got going and knew how to work with the site, I sat and worked on it for hours. I think it is a great idea to have a website like one of these to share with students, parents, and the faculty of your school. It is a good way to get ahold of the teacher, see announcements, and just be updated with new information whether it be about a student or what is going on in the school for that week or month. When I finally have my own classroom, I will defiently have some sort of site like the one I have just made.