When comparing Mr. Petosa's webpage from the Brielle school district to Ms. Hansen's, I noticed that both websites provide important information to students and parents, but Ms. Hansen takes hers above and beyond a typical teacher's site. There are no extra "bells and whistles" or unnecessary items to clutter up Ms. Hansen's page. She keeps it professional and uses the site as an extension of her classroom outside of the school. Comparing her two pages provided, I thought that the newer one was easier to navigate. Both provided a ton of important information, but the current one was more simple and better organized. The homepage was less cluttered and a "for parents" link was available on the side navigation bar, which the other site lacked. For purposes of this blog, I will be comparing Mr. Petosa's webpage from Brielle to Ms. Hansen's most current site.
I really liked how Ms. Hansen's contact information is the first item listed on the homepage, with a link to her email address. It makes contacting her very easy because it eliminates the process of searching and scrolling around for this information. Mr. Petosa has his contact information listed on the homepage, but the user will have to scroll down to the bottom to find it. A unique feature that Ms. Hansen uses is the color coordinated school calendar on the homepage. Using different colors, she lists the class schedule as well as Chinese holidays, which brings current events that are relevant to the information being taught into the classroom.
Both teachers have a parents link, but Ms. Hansen goes that extra step by giving the parents a brief background on what their children will be learning. A brief history of the Chinese language is given, as well as information on how to read and write it. The curricula by each grade level is also linked on the parent page so that parents are aware of what their children will be expected to learn by certain benchmark points. This facilitates parent involvement at home.
Not only does Ms. Hansen list assignments that are due, but she also adds study guides and links for additional online resources to help maximize student achievement on assessments. Also, there's a link to a Chinese dictionary and links for certain educational apps to download, which integrates cell phone and tablet usage with classroom activities. Other uniques features that caught my eye were the final exam countdown, a link to "engrade" so both the parents and students can access it, "how to study" tips, and online flash cards to aid with studying.
Both Ms. Hansen and Mr. Petosa's webpages provide useful information and tools to guide the learning process, but Ms. Hansen maximizes the technology that is available to help with her lessons. Her website is not just for contact and informational purposes, it's an easy to navigate, essential learning tool for both the students and the parents.
Below are links to the webpages that were compared:
Mr. Petosa
Ms. Hansen's current page
Ms. Hansen's previous class page
Hi Georgiana, I think it was interesting that you brought up Ms. Hansen did not have any extra clutter on here page. I think that some teachers may put too much on their website, overwhelming the students. Teachers may think the more they put on their website the better, but having unnecessary items just makes it messy and confusing. I also liked how Ms. Hansen discussed what they will be learning in the class. Parents then get an idea of what their child will be studying. Some teachers assume that the parents know what they are learning in the class simply by the name, such as "History". However, history is such a huge topic; it could be the history of the 1800's or it could be history of the 2000's, both entirely different. Lastly, how to study tips are always useful to students. Overall, I think that Ms. Hansen had a great website.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons why I hired her is that she understands the importance of objectives and communication of these objectives. She provides opportunities for students to take ownership for their learning. Great observations.
ReplyDeleteHi Georgina, i agree with you Ms. Hansen's page was uncluttered, there was nothing there that did not have a purpose. It was also more toned down that her previous page. Ms. Hansen's page was to the point and geared toward the students and the parents. I appreciated the fact that she gave very good explanations to the parents about the language and how to read/write it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your mention that Hansen's page is like 'an extension of her classroom'. That is a good way of putting it because on her sites, I felt like I could learn from them as if I was sitting in one of her classrooms! However, I had a thought when I was visiting Hansen's websites. I wonder if her thoroughness makes students more comfortable with the thought of missing class?
ReplyDeleteI have to second all the comments about Ms. Hansen's lack of clutter. But at the same time she still provides a ton of information for parents and students! It seems like it is somewhat of an art form to design a site that provides a tremendous amount of resources while still having a simple, clean and professional look.
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