Monday, September 14, 2020

Technology Spotlight: Google Sites

I have been using Google Sites since back when there was the old sites. I will start off by saying with the "new" Google Sites you do not need ANY web design experience. It is extremely easy to use and build.

While everyone was going crazy with their bitmoji craze (don't get me wrong they are super cute, but I like to be practical and sites does some things that that doesn't), I decided to go with Google Sites for my 5th graders.

First of all I like how sites makes it easy to add new pages or subpages and then they are already in the menu, you don't have to worry about linking anything to the correct slide.

Secondly, I like that I can upload a document, presentation, etc. from Google Drive. It shows a preview of that item and even updates automatically. So if you make a change on a presentation, it will automatically show up in Google Sites. For presentations when you post them, the visitors are able to just scroll through the presentation without having to open it.

Third, I like the organization of the sites. It is easy to navigate with one click.

This is my welcome/landing page. The menu bar at the top allows for navigation of the sites. I also added the four icons, they also take the students to pages for each of the items.


The schedule page allows the kids to click on their homeroom teacher name and it takes them to the weekly schedule that we created with hyperlinks to their Google Classrooms, independent tasks, Zoom links, etc.
See my post about weekly schedule here.


The assignments page allows the kids to click on their homeroom teacher name and it takes them directly to the classwork page on their Google Classroom.


The resources page is something that I am still working on to figure out exactly what I am going to include. Our math curriculum comes with family letters, so that is definitely one category. I also started my Tech Support page. I have a feeling this will grow as I discover the needs of my parents and students. I am also thinking of including other things as well. Maybe resources for supporting students at home or other website they could visit that could be fun to practice more math. Any ideas, drop them in the comments below.


The last page (for now) is all about the teacher. It is always nice to share information about yourself with your students and parents. They like to know where you came from, how long you've been teaching, among other things. It helps build that relationship, especially if they realize they have something in common with you.



I am not going to include a link to my school Google site since it has links just for the kids, but I will share my personal site here where I house many of my technology support items. I am also going to include the presentation I put together previously for how to get started with Google Sites.



Instagram: @mrspotterstyle
Twitter: @apotter730


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