What's in a Website?

     The Internet is an amazing thing. We can search anything on the Internet. We can post anything on the Internet. One of the best things about the Internet is its impact on education. For me, being able to express myself and my opinion about various topics gives an amazing sense of freedom. Recently, I started working on my Master's degree in Early Childhood Education. While some will say I am crazy for doing it in addition to raising two children, co-running a cente (which I ran alone this week, hence my 39.5 hours and I still have one day left), being married to a man who works two jobs, I know the decision to do this is what will ultimately help my family. One of the assignments for my class is to research various teacher websites and discuss these websites. What's funny about this is I just finished working on the webpage for my center (http://www.rogys.com/locations/kays-drive-center-profile/) so the last thing I wanted to do was work on this.  Once I started researching, however, I found some amazing websites by teachers you can tell absolutely love their jobs. 

     When I searched for sites, it took me a bit to find any preschool sites.  I looked locally; however, a lot of the sites were outdated.  Then I came across the webpage http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2011/04/pre-k-blogs.html.  This website directed me to a plethora of websites specifically geared toward teachers.  The first site I checked out was "The Crazy Pre-K Classroom" by Christine O'Donnell (http://www.thecrazypre-kclassroom.blogspot.com/).  When I first reached the website, I was greeted by a very attractive and colorful page.  I started scrolling through her page and was instantly met with wonderful pictures of activities going on in her classroom.  One of my favorites was a sorting activity where she purchased plastic chip/dip plates and put various colors of pony beads in the middle for the children to pick up using plastic kid-friendly tweezers.  This was an excellent activity for color recognition and small motor, and it kept the kids busy for a long time.  She also has labels, which are subjects you can click on and it will take you to whatever she has on her website that has to do with the subject you chose.  Another aspect I loved was her links to other teachers' webpages.  So, I thought since her webpage was so gorgeous I would check out other webpages.  This is when I came across Ms. Amanda's webpage.

     Ms. Amanda is a teacher at a hospital.  She teaches preschool children with severe physical or speech disabilities, and the site is titled "A Special Kind of Class" (http://www.aspecialkindofclass.blogspot.com).  I feel quite fortunate to have found this site.  It is already a challenge to have activities for children that keeps them interested and engaged more than 2 minutes due to video games and other electronic toys.  To also have lessons tailored to a child's physical and linguistic needs is that much more challenging.  Ms. Amanda has amazing information and appropriate activities.  Like Ms. Christine, she, too, has a lot of pictures showing the children participating in activities.  Many of her activities are sensory based, as this seems to be the most appropriate for her classroom.  One aspect of her blog I loved was her tags at the end labled, "You might also like:" which is a play on websites that pick up on other items of clothing, furniture, etc. you like related to the original item you clicked on.  Overall, I really enjoyed the many things Ms. Amanda offered to those following her blog.  After Ms. Amanda's site, I went back to Ms. Christine's to see if she had any sites meeting the K-3 requirement, which she did.

     I chose a Kindergarten teacher names Ms. Caitlin, whose site is titled "Kindergarten Smiles" (http://kindergartensmiles.blogspot.com/).  This is another site that just screams HAPPY! I loved her site.  She offered a ton of pictures for anyone to look into.  Also, she offered some real honesty about teaching.  She discussed how she has an activity she really wanted to use, but she was not sure her class would be able to handle it.  Well, she tried it anyway and she couldn't believe she had doubted their abilities in the first place.  After looking at her site, I went on to check out a site titled "Third Grade Bookworm" (http://thirdgradebookworm.blogspot.com/) by Ms. Abby.

     Ms. Abby does not offer a ton of pictures of her classroom; however, her writing style draws you in so you can imagine what is going on in her classroom.  She does give a lot of free worksheets and theme ideas.  One thing I loved, as I did with Ms. Caitlin, is her honesty about some of the things that drive her crazy at the beginning of the year, but she also offers solutions for herself.  I also loved that she plans her lessons for language arts, but she has other teachers look it over to help her tweak things.  That shows an amazing amount of trust on her part of the people that she works with to help her create activities that are only going to make her classroom that much more wonderful. 

     After viewing these websites, I checked out two of my classmates' sites to see who they liked.  The first was Heather Brand's reviews.  She checked out Teacher Tom.  I have to say that I love Teacher Tom!  First of all, his picture of himself as a superhero if fantastic.  I also like that he not only discusses his job as a teacher, but he also discusses his life as an adult in a profession.  In addition, Heather brings up an excellent point that he offers some insight in a field that is primarily flooded with women.  It's nice to have that perspective.  She also looked at another site by Deborah Stewart.  Her site was amazing as well.  It was extremely well organized, and I love how I can look to the left of the screen and click on "Creative Art" and there it is!  The site was very professional and easy to navigate to find what you wanted.  Katie King's site was very attention-grabbing.  I really enjoyed what she had to offer as well, especially in regard to her use of technology.  Finally, Heather included a site by Miss Snowden, a first grade teacher.  I love her idea of "The Happy Teacher Box"!  What I loved most about Heather's reviews of the webpages was she picked one aspect of each site to specifically highlight such as a male perspective (diversity), multiple activities, technology, and centers.  I thought that was very clever of her to do.

     The other classmate I chose to check out was Angel Cahue's site.  First of all, I really love how she did a blog entry for each teacher she reviewed.  It made it much easier to read and focus on specific teachers.  Of all of the sites she chose, my favorite one was www.busyteacherscafe.com.  I loved how I could check out strategies and themes for teaching, and then they were broken down by subject.  It was a beautiful site.  I have to say, though, that my least favorite was the teachingyourtoddler.com.  I was very distracted by all of the advertising, so I found it a little harder to navigate.  Don't get me wrong!  The information offered was wonderful and is a great resource that I will definitely be tuning my teachers into; however, I would go to click somewhere and if my Internet was off or slow, I would accidentally click on an ad.  The other two sites were great as well; however, The Busy Teacher Cafe was just amazing to me.

Website Title	Site Address	Age Group	The best thing about this site is…
The Crazy Pre-K Classroom	http://www.thecrazypre-kclassroom.blogspot.com/	Pre-K	The labels to be able to click on any topic and you’re there!
A Special Kind of Class	http://www.aspecialkindofclass.blogspot.com	Pre-K	The activities tailored to special needs children.
Kindergarten Smiles	http://kindergartensmiles.blogspot.com/	Kindergarten	The bright colors and cheeriness of the site draw you in and then you see her amazing activities.
The Third Grade Bookworm	http://thirdgradebookworm.blogspot.com/	3rd Grade	Her honesty about being a teacher is fantastic.  However, her collaboration with professionals within her field who also use technology to discuss their profession is what I liked.