April 1998 — Features
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Classroom Homepage Connections
Unlock the door and invite the world into your classroom. Give your computer the key it needs to show the amazing things that are happening in your classroom. This key is a classroom homepage. Although the computer can bring a global audience to your classroom, you have to do some of the legwork. Is the time and effort really worthwhile? Why should a teacher create a homepage for his or her classroom? Discover these valid reasons and you're well on your way to achieving some spectacular results.
A classroom homepage is an avenue you can use to inform the community about your school. Parents, students, other teachers or principals can view information about your classroom 24 hours a day. For example, perhaps you normally send home a newsletter at the beginning of the year or semester that tells about your discipline procedures, homework and grading policies, and extra credit options. Including this newsletter as part of your homepage will give students and parents access to the information at any time.
In addition, a teacher's classroom goals and objectives for the year can be available for all to see. Therefore, parents can locate answers to questions such as, "What d'es the curriculum cover and what themes will be studied?" Students will be anxious to check the homepage to find out about upcoming projects and field trips. Receiving feedback about what you are doing in your classroom is convenient and easy using a classroom homepage. E-mail allows for immediate communication. However, teachers may want to make it clear on their homepage whether they prefer parents to ask questions about children through e-mail or by note and telephone. Handling lots of e-mail about individual students could become problematic and very time consuming.
Classroom homepages can point users to outside Internet resources that are curriculum related. This is an excellent way to supplement your curriculum with materials that support what you teach. Students who visit your site can investigate other sites that will complement what they are learning. There are many sites that can provide students with reinforcement and practice on the subject before them. Other educators visiting your site can also find links to resources and get ideas for projects. Furthermore, many informative and helpful resources are available for parents. A classroom homepage also allows you to publish your students' work in front of a worldwide audience. It is exciting for students to know that their story, p'em, drawing, report or multimedia project may be seen by people in distant places.
Getting Students Involved
Creating a classroom homepage is a perfect opportunity to get your students involved in learning. After all, this is their classroom too. Students can locate and gather Internet resource sites. Or, if you choose the sites, then you might allow them to decide which ones they would like to be added as links. Also, they should be able to express how these links can be used by teachers, parents, students or other viewers. For instance, how would a link to a kid's online magazine be useful to students in a social studies class? Is the magazine content appropriate to the subject?
Students can even personally contribute some of the information that you put on the homepage. Consider linking the homepage to a classroom newspage created by the students containing their opinions and reports. In addition, the Internet is a good place for users to have fun with scavenger hunts. Give students the opportunity to create a scavenger hunt pertinent to the class subject to put up on the classroom homepage.
