Classroom Interactive Websites for Teachers, Parents, and Students


In the world of education today it is a common thing to see that each school has a website that provides the necessary information. These websites provide parents, faculty, and staff information going on at school, upcoming events, lunch menus, and contact information. These websites are great tools for parents to continue to stay informed on what is happening at their child’s school throughout the year. Throughout my field placements, I have also seen a new type of website used for schools, interactive classroom websites provided by the classroom teachers. Interactive classroom websites are teacher created websites that allow for information, calendars, announcements, and can even contain assessments, homework drop boxes, and direct link to email. These websites are created by teachers for students and parents.

An interactive classroom website has many functions and benefits to a classroom. The primary use of a website created by teachers is to provide another form of communication tool to use between themselves, parents, and students. A teacher interactive classroom website can be used in numerous ways. One way that it can be used for is as a site for information. On this type of website, teachers can update daily reminders, schedules, homework assignments, lunch menus, and any other type of information useful to parents. Another type of interactive classroom website can be used to perform classroom activities on it such as assessments for students (quizzes) and provided places, drop boxes, for students to turn in assignments via the internet. This type of website helps to reduce the over consumption of paper used in the classroom.

With these types of websites there are both benefits and contain their own setbacks. Some benefits to teachers creating and using their own websites for their classrooms is it provides person information to their students parents. It allows them to communicate their needs and wants for help in the classroom. Like stated earlier, these websites cut the production of paper newsletters, calendars, and unannounced announcements sent home from the school and teacher. One of the biggest benefits to this is that the more informed student’s parents are better informed and involved then both teachers and students prosper more. As well as there are many benefits, there are also a few disadvantages. These disadvantages come when the entire computer or computer system fails and is down. When this happens it closes off the communication that is there and you waste time creating last minutes letters to send out. Another disadvantage is that when assignments and quizzes are submitted, there is always the possibility that the computer can read answer incorrectly or that students may not understand exactly how to work. No matter the advantages and disadvantages, interactive classroom websites are always a positive tool in a classroom for easy communication between teachers, students, and parents.

I believe this tool to be useful in all the different ways listed above. In early grades the best type o f website is those that provide information. One great thing that I have found is when homework is listed on the website nightly. If a student forgets their homework, forgot to writ e it down, or any other unfortunate circumstance, having a website that provides this information allows the student to complete their homework and not be penalized for not having or forgetting the assignment. This tool in a classroom is an important key to success in my eyes. The use of classroom websites again, allows for parents to be informed and when they are more informed they are more willing to be more involved in their child’s learning.



Helpful Websites that I have found

· SchoolFusion – This website provides information on the uses of classroom websites. It is place that also provides teachers the tools and space to use and create their own websites through this site. It also has helpful guides in using different contents on your webpage.

· 30-Minute Website for Teachers – This website is a tool in helping teachers create their own websites for their individual classrooms. It also provides a list of options that each website can contain with a vivid description of each.

· Mr. Bennett’s Classroom Website – This is an example of a teachers website directed towards parents and students. On his website he includes his calendar, homework, announcements, and more. Check it out!