Teacher Web Page

A teacher web page is a self-maintained hypertext document on the World Wide Web that is set up by a teacher or educational organization to further assist in teaching and student’s learning through a variety of helpful, online resources; including, but not limited to, text, graphics, video, sound, links, and so forth. Teacher web pages vary greatly in style and purpose depending on the school district, facilities, teacher, and students. Students, parents, other faculty, and the community should have access to view a teacher’s web page. Many schools today are now adopting and requiring teachers to provide a teacher web page to be included on their school’s main website.

Most likely, wherever I teach and by the time I graduate from college in this technology-frenzy generation, I will be required to set up a teacher web page. I know that my school district back at home requires the high school teachers to do just this (http://metuchenschools.org/mhs/Academics/TeacherWeb.com%20Sites/) I most likely would not complicate my teacher web page, nor would I spend too much time preparing it; however, some of the components I may include on my teacher web page would be the following: Classroom Rules, About the Teacher, Goals of the Course, Class Roster’s, Teacher’s Daily Schedule/Times of Classes, Additional Links that may include handouts and interesting information that may be useful for students to have access to, Due Dates, Monthly Assignments (sketches, paintings, and other such related information), and Track Results. I think I would set up the page in the summer and make the necessary adjustments throughout the year (once a month, unless in track season when results need to be posted). Who knows, I may even put music on my web page to shake things up a bit like my high school biology teacher/track coach—Marty Holleran.

Like so many other things in life, there are both pros and cons to teacher web pages. Pros include: access for students, family, faculty, and community to be connected with the classroom even outside the school walls, parents being able to keep up with what their children are learning, students being able to possibly collect missed assignments or material if they happen to miss class, rules and other resources being available for students when the teacher is not present for assistance, and stronger relational growth between students and teachers as they continue to interact through the safe use of technology. Nevertheless, cons include: some students maybe not having access to a computer outside of school, students and/or parents feeling overwhelmed with yet another responsibility to keep up with a teacher’s web page, teacher error (lack of clarity) on their web page which may cause confusion for viewers, and many students may never check the web page. There are many websites that further elaborate on these pros and cons; likewise, there are many websites that further help teachers set up their own web pages and give them advice on what they should and should not do on their web pages. I have provided some of these sites below.

http://www.teacherwebsite.com/
http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=5742
http://www.schoolandteacher.com/