My goal today was to create a classroom website that my students could use to easily access classes, homework, projects, assignments, and announcements. I started with Google Sites, a program that is easily accessible through Gmail, by using the ‘Apps’ then ‘More’ then ‘Sites’. After spending about 3-4 hours, I had this:
A fully-functioning, super cute website with attachment pages for each class, each class period, each class’ homework assignments and announcements, and pages for both Mrs. Stanton and I with short blurbs about ourselves.
However, as I started thinking about adding information to the website and updating it with content for each specific class… I realized that this website might not be as functional as I wanted it to be. So then I started looking in to Google Classroom.
Google Classroom is under Gmail as well. Go to Gmail –> ‘Apps,’ ‘Classroom’ (if your school has signed up for the service). It is extremely user-friendly and you can create classes for each period. [To read more about Google Classroom and how to use, click here]. This is the one I created for the Fall 2015 semester:
Each class I have is made and given a different theme (you can customize this very easily!) Then all you need to do is share the code with the students (left-hand side when you click on the class) for them to join! Once students have joined, they will get updates on homework, announcements, questions–any post that you, the teacher, makes!
I figured this was way more effective and functional. I can share links and videos with the kids. I can also post specific information to individual classes with ease. Though I love my website, I think I’m going to use Google Classrooms this semester.
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