Blog Journal 7

    The first class website I examined was for a high school English teacher. The site host four pages total, one for each, class: AP Literature, English Honors II, English II, and a home page.  Unfortunately, it seems the AP Literature page was the only one up at this time (or available without log-in). The information included on the AP Literature class site is very similar to a syllabus, that is it includes information about what books the class will be reading and important assignment deadlines. Additionally, there are a few class resources such as reading annotation guides and instructions to help students. At the bottom of the page, there is a link to printable documents that students will need throughout the semester. I think this is particularly useful for lost physical copies of assignments or rubrics, because students can easily access them online in those cases. Website Link: https://sites.google.com/a/mypolkschools.net/maurer-ap/ap-literature

    I could envision using technology similar to these class websites. The goal of the class website appears to be distributing important information to the students in an accessible and reliable manner. Some feature of I noticed on class websites that I liked were: a link to electronic copies of important assignments and providing resources for the students to apply to their work. For instance, the AP Literature class site included information for annotating and close-reading. Some of my favorite teacher productivity tools as a student has been google drive, because it has a lot of useful programs, and Kahoot! because it creates a fun and competitive class environment that can be a nice mix up from traditional class sessions. 

    I did enjoy my experience working with PB Works. I found the website builder very practical and surprisingly intuitive. Before using PB Works, I had only ever tried building a website with weebly (excluding this blog of course). Although I think weebly provides better aesthetic decisions, PB Works was very easy to learn. I figured out how to accomplish most of the website building needed for the assignment just by clicking around for a while. In that regard, I think it is very intelligently designed and a great tool for designing wikis. The only thing I felt lacking from PB Works' website building was aesthetic choice.