GAIN, 5-19-2015,

To be honest, I had the most fun with this assignment. I have always wanted to design my own web page, but I always thought it costed money so I never explored deeper into it. So needless to say, I was excited to start this one. I figured I would create a site about history. Now that sounds boring because history is one of the more hated subjects, but that's why I want to teach it. History has been taught incorrectly by most teachers, but by no fault of their own mostly. "Teaching for the test" is the new style, and it produces results, but sadly, that means a lot of name and date cramming. I want to teach in such a way that makes the subject fun and informative at the same time, covering all the name and date stuff while introducing themes and connecting the dots.

But enough about that. So I started with a blank template and went from there. I watched a few AtomicLearning videos, but after a while, it all just became natural to me. After having used many of the Google Apps, creating, editing, and formatting were a breeze. I made several pages that students and parents can go to. One was a "This Day in History" page so students can learn about what happened on this day years ago. I also have another page with links to great websites that are educational, practical, and not boring at all (to me at least), so in case students want to research a topic further or learn about something. I also included a mission statement-like page explaining why I do what I do, so students and parents can have a background on my methods. Lastly, I created a page with a link to Google Maps so they can explore the world from the comfort of wherever they are. I know Google Earth would be better, but there was no link to that, so I chose the easy way out.

I will most definitely use this and add to it in the future. Having a website is a good place for students to go for information (I plan on adding an assignment page in the future), and for parents to go to so they can see what their child is doing in class. Instead of giving out assignments and telling them links to go to while in class, I can do it all through managing a classroom web page. This is an AWESOME resource.

Click Here to check out my website!