Or do you have a regular routine of tending websites to make sure the information is current?
Who do you enlist in your tending process? Or do you make the decisions by yourself with regard to how to prune the pages to make them as user friendly and up-to-date as possible?
Website maintenance should be an ongoing endeavor. For school personnel, this process can take on a routine that stays ahead of the school year routine.
Here's how I develop and maintain my teaching/learning websites:
- Each spring and summer, I update the general classroom websites to reflect the new teaching/learning year to come. Those websites include the following:
- Class Website: the "reference book" for the classroom.
- Math Website
- Science Website
- ePortfolio: serves as a portfolio, resume, and evaluation resource.
- During the summer months, I also create the following new websites:
- Teaching Team Website: a website that includes class data lists, IEP plans, weekly schedules. This website supports the teaching team.
- Class Newsletter Website: A website that hosts the weekly newsletters and essentially serves as the year's storybook.
- During the summer and also during the year, I update specific websites and website pages related to curriculum units and standards. About a month before a unit, I'll review the webpage or website as well as blog posts about the unit. I'll think about what we'll keep from the previous year and what needs revision. Then I'll research, collaborate, and revise the page prior to teaching and as the teaching occurs. I've added a couple examples of these pages or websites below.
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| The Teaching Team Website is a one-stop spot for all classroom data and other information that helps us to teach children well. |
The websites are available to the entire learning team including students, family members, colleagues, leaders, and community members as a way to access the curriculum program 24-7. Also as I read and study, if I learn something new that pertains to a particular website or web page, I'll readily add the link or information to upgrade the page. I typically share links to web pages and websites in weekly newsletters, on home study pages, and in reflective blog posts. I welcome critique and conversation about the websites in order to develop the work with the learners' interests as the primary focus.
How do you tend your websites? What website structure and format do you find easiest to navigate and use for your learning/teaching endeavor? These are good questions for a learning team conversation as we can learn and grow from each others' experience and vantage point.
Deepening the process involved in website development and care, will help to deepen the work do to help every child succeed as well.
