Weblog 3 The Classroom Website

Within my content area, physical education, the emphasis has not been placed on creating a terrific website but to engage students to be physically active.  I do believe that having a high quality website can help to facilitate a successful physical education curriculum.  I would want my website to be very user friendly and have information that valuable.  For me personally, it is so frustrating when a website is not user friendly and if I cannot navigate my way through I will give up and try to find another source of information.

I am doing my student teaching at Horace Mann Elementary in Lakewood and at Fairview Park High School.  Both of my cooperating teachers have a website.  At the high school the physical education curriculum is posted and he also has a blog. In the blog he posts forms and other papers relative to the physical education class.  At the elementary school the website is the same, he also has links to websites that encourage physical activity like the NFL Play 60.  This website encourages young people to be physically active for 60 minutes a day.  He also did a website that explains the new grading standards that will be implemented next year for physical education.   

Within my website I would like to have a variety of features that will help to facilitate the learning process and make physical education a valuable experience.  A calender is the first thing that comes to mind.  I want the students to see the unit plan and what we will be doing each day.  In class we talked about a drop box, where students could drop assignments electronically.  While there is very little "homework" in PE, this would be essential to have.  Students don't always bring their school related materials to the gym and this way I am not collecting a bunch of papers.  I also like the idea of a communication or email system.  If a parent or student has a question they can email me through the website and I can answer them.  A grade book will be available as well, the high school posts grades on a weekly basis.  Each week there are 50 points possible.  At the elementary school, he did not do weekly grades.  I also like the idea of linking the website to some kind of discussion board.  I would like to somehow have Pinterst involved.  If there is something on the site you like, pin it.  I also thought of incorporating an overall theme of wellness.  I want to post recipes, exercise ideas, and games.