Most of their work was done independently. They worked their way through a simple online tutorial, Creating a New Web Page, on the use of Composer, the free web editor within the Netscape browser. . After they completed this tutorial, they worked their way through another online tutorial that was a bit more advanced, Designing Web Pages with Netscape Composer. Every week they got together to share new ideas and questions that had emerged.

Lessons from the Classroom

Tama Forth used her homepage to organize each unit. She simply created a page for each unit during the year and added useful links. She included each of the instructional models that she had used in her classroom: Internet Workshop, Internet Project, Internet Inquiry, and WebQuest.

The nice thing about a webpage was that she could reuse the units the following year without much additional effort. Setting up organized sets of links in this fashion also assisted her Internet safety program.

Tama always had a writing project for each thematic unit. These projects went through each phase of the writing process. In the final phase, students published their work on the classroom homepage so that everyone in the class could read it and so that others around the world might see their wonderful writing. The most avid readers of the website, Tama discovered, were the students themselves and their parents.

Home–school relationships are also strengthened when you develop a classroom homepage. While not all families have immediate access to the Internet, this is rapidly changing as increasing numbers of families are coming online or using Internet connections at your school or local library. Having a homepage allows your parents to view their children’s work and all the fine things you are doing in the classroom. It also provides an opportunity for parents and guardians to drop you an email message when they have a question. Putting up a homepage, displaying your students’ work, and inviting parents into your electronic classroom displays the many talents we all have as teachers.

E-MAIL FOR YOU From: Doug Crosby Subject:  Using the Internet in First Grade Greetings! Our school had recently posted a homepage on the Internet so we decided to publish our field trip report for all the world to see.  We snapped away with our camera; there were the aquatic insects, the stream, the microscopes, and of course the big log where we all sat to eat lunch! After returning to school, we all sat around the computer to view the photos and within a short time we had come up with a whole class report, which was typed directly on the screen. We have had a lot of fun reading email from people around the world who have come across our report and just dropped a note to say well done. This has been a wonderful experience for my first graders in electronic publishing and a great introduction into the world of their futures. Doug: The Kiwi at Cherry Cherry Valley School Polson, Montana http://www.polson.k12.mt.us/cherry/teachers/crosby/crosby.site/index.html

Examples of Classroom Home Pages

You can find many homepages by doing a search with Google or another search engine. Simply do a search for the terms that often appear on classroom homepages. These include one item from each set of items below:

• Ms., Mr., or Mrs.
• classroom
• homepage or home page

If you are looking for examples of classroom homepages for a particular grade level, just add an additional keyword for that grade level: sixth grade, kindergarten, fourth grade, and so on. If you are looking for a classroom homepage for a particular subject at the middle or high school level, just add a keyword for the subject area: earth science, biology, geometry, American history, physics, and so on.

Preschool or Kindergarten Class Home Pages

Your search at the preschool or kindergarten level may yield classroom homepages such as Ms. Kristine’s Class Page. This is a preschool site and you will see how images of students at work and play dominate the site, informing parents of the exciting experiences their children are having. Or, you may find the kindergarten classroom homepage at Mrs. Emmons Kindergarten .

Elementary Level Class Home Pages

At the elementary level, classroom homepages include many more links to curriculum resources on the Internet. There is a greater focus on using information on the Internet for units of study.  In addition, elementary pages often include student work and information for parents.  An example of a classroom homepage at the elementary level is Mrs. Bogucki’s Third Grade Class. Here you will find all kinds of great links for study at the third grade level. You will also find published student work as well as information for parents.

Weblogs

Weblogs are beginning to appear at some classroom homepages, keeping the world informed about the events taking place in a class on a daily basis. You can find examples of class weblogs by searching for classroom homepages as you did above but also adding the word weblog or blog as a keyword.  In some cases weblogs (blogs) are beginning to replace classroom homepages, providing a more interactive experience for visitors.

Take a look at these locations to see the emergence of the new literacies of blogs appearing at classroom homepages:

• Mary Kreul’s 4th Grade Blog
• Blogging with Partners: Mrs. Contner’s 4th Grade Blog
• Mainville Elementary Blog
• Using Weblogs in Literature Circles

Middle and High School Level Pages

Generally, homepages at this level focus more directly on the content that is expected to be mastered. As a result, you will find lecture and study notes for classes, assignments, and sometimes even an online grade book. Since teachers at this level often teach several classes, they will often have a main page with links to each of the classes that they teach. A nice example of a classroom homepage for middle or high school levels may be seen at Ms. B’s Home Page. (Ms. Blauner teaches physics.)

Other exceptional examples include:

• Mr. Patch’s Quilt Club
• Palo Alto High School Spanish
• Chemistry Geek.com
• Mr. M’s Grade 8 Page
• Mrs. Adams’ High School English

Creating Your Own Classroom Homepage

To develop a homepage, all you really need to know is how to type with a word processor.  Today, knowing programming language is not as necessary as it once was.  If you also know how to copy and paste graphics, that is an added bonus. We will show you how to make a classroom homepage in just 30 minutes! Maybe less.

HTML is the programming language used most often to design homepages on the Internet. Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Safari read this code and turn it into what you see on your screen.  To demonstrate this, all you have to do is to open up any page on the Web with your browser and, if you know how, you can view the HTML code used to develop that page. Each browser has a slightly different procedure to view the underlying HTML code.

Follow these directions:

• In Netscape Navigator, go to the menu item called “View” and select the item “page source.” This will open up the HTML file used to create the page you were just viewing.

• In Internet Explorer, go to the menu item called “View” and select the item “source.”

• In Safari, go to the menu item called “View” and select the item “View source.”

The easiest way to develop a homepage for your classroom is to independently explore the features of any simple web editor. A web editor allows you to develop your page using a program similar to a word processor. The program will automatically convert the pages you type into HTML code and you will never even see the code.  All you do is type up your classroom page until it looks the way you wish it to appear. During the process, the HTML code will always be there, behind the scenes, even though you may never see it.

If you are using Netscape 4.0 or higher your program comes with a free web editor already built in called Netscape Composer. To access this web editor, you simply click on the pencil icon in the bottom of the software window. This launches Composer, a web editor. Like all web editors, Composer requires little explanation.  Just begin typing away in the window for Composer and explore the formatting tools that allow you to design your page the way you wish it to look. You can type text, format text, insert a graphic, make a link to another page, set text to blink on and off, add color, and use many additional functions as you design your page.

Others will not be able to view your home page since it only resides on your hard drive. To make your homepage available to everyone else out on the Internet, you need to move it to a server and obtain a URL (uniform resource locator; a www address) for its location. Your district may have a server you can use. You should check with your technical support to see if this is available to you and what procedures are required to place your homepage on the district’s server. If you have a separate Internet Service Provider (ISP) at a home account, it is likely that they also provide server space for any webpages that you develop.

Spend a little time going through one of several fine tutorials on the Internet that will teach you how to create a webpage. There are many that exist. You may wish to begin with one of these:

• Creating a New Web Page
• Designing Web Pages with Netscape Composer
• Netscape Tutorial Introduction
• Netscape Composer Introduction—Basics 101

These take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to develop a webpage.

Which Elements Should I Include in my Classroom Homepage?

The design elements you include in your classroom homepage will reflect your grade level, your teaching style, and the culture of your classroom. You may, however, wish to consider elements such as the following:

•a location where parents and others can send you and your class an email message;
•a location where students may publish their work;
•a location where due dates for major assignments are posted;
•a location for organizing links to sites in various units; and
•a location where you or your students can publish a newspaper of classroom events and opinions.

It is important to think of your homepage as a window through which the rest of the world may see your class. Thus, you will want to provide an opportunity for others to communicate with you and your students. You can quickly make a link that will open up an email message window containing your address. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Using a web editor, type your name on your webpage.
2. Highlight your name.
3. Select the “make a link” function.
4. Type in the “mailto:” command followed by your email address when you create the link (e.g., mailto:  donald.leu@uconn.edu).
5. Save the webpage. 

Now, whenever someone clicks on your name, a message window containing your address will appear. This makes it easy for parents and others to get in touch with you and your students.  You should also consider using your homepage as a location where students may publish their work. It makes material and information available for others to read and enjoy.  Your homepage will provide countless opportunities to allow your students to show off their best writing and art.

Here are a few examples:

• The Fourth Grade Times
• Fred Roemer’s Daily Log

You might also wish to have a bulletin board listing due dates for major classroom assignments. Often, parents appreciate knowing when assignments are due. This is especially important in the older grades. Another important function for your homepage may be to organize links on the Web for the various units you cover during the year. You can save students much time by placing these at a single location where they are easy to access.

Visting the Classroom: Heather Renz’s Fourth Grade Class in Oregon

A tour of Mrs. Renz’s 4th Grade Class will provide you with an exceptional picture of all that takes place in her classroom: from their web buddies (other classrooms at the fourth grade level who are also online and exchange information with her class) to the Word of the Day site, to the daily schedule, to the parent corner, and to many other exciting resources. You can even take a photo tour through her classroom to see how it is organized.   We know a visit to this class will give you many new ideas for your own classroom.

The New Literacies of a Classroom Homepage

Creating a classroom homepages permits you to communicate with your students, the parents of your students, and the rest of the world. It says: This is who I am and this is what we do. It is, we believe, one of the most profound statements that you can make about the important work that you accomplish every day in your classroom. A classroom homepage demonstrates to the world all of the new literacies that you have acquired and are passing along to your students.

The End of Your Journey

No. This isn’t the end of your journey. It is really just the beginning as you discover additional new literacies, new resources on the web, new friends from around the world, and new sources of inspiration for the important work that you do with the students in your classroom.

Each of us will be challenged to thoughtfully guide students’ learning about new literacies within information environments that are richer and more complex than traditional print media, presenting new and more powerful learning opportunities for both you and your students. We hope you have found the ideas we have shared useful in the important work you do to prepare children for all of their tomorrows.

Best wishes on your journey!