Teaching Tip Linky Party

Well awhile back (actually two weeks) I saw a Teaching Tip Linky Party all about providing teaching tips. I thought this was a great idea and planned to link up later in the week and then completely forgot about it.  Tonight I finally remembered, and I know I'm late to the game, but I thought I would link up anyways with Miss Kindergarten (what a fun blog name!). Now since I have been a teacher for only a short while, I feel a bit silly giving out tips but I guess I'll give it a try. I feel like as I get more experience, I see what does work and what definitely does not work and I learn a lot of this (mostly good) by observing more senior teachers. I have not had time to read through all the teaching tip links so I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, and I fully realize that this tip is not original by I still feel like it deserves mention. So here goes. My wonderous, mind-blowing tip is . . .

Have a class website.

I am in no ways a tech expert but I have seen how beneficial this can be for students, parents, and teachers.

I feel like I am in a point form mood, so that's how the rest of this post is going to go.

Benefits:

1) Students are able to take responsibility for their learning. They can no longer go home and say they don't know if they have homework, if there is something due the next day, etc. because they can be sent to the computer to check those things.

2) Busy parents can keep up to date on the classroom happenings on their own schedule.

3) Busy teachers can refer students/parents to the website for basic classroom happenings.

Must-Haves:

1) Basic classroom schedule (important especially if this changes from day to day).
2) Homework/Assignments.
3) Upcoming Field Trips/Special Events + any important information about them.
4) Contact information for the teacher and school.

Obviously classroom websites can be anything from basic to complicated, with fantastic daily updates of classroom happenings, but the important thing is to KEEP THEM UPDATED. I am sure there is nothing more frustrating for a parent/student to check for updates and find a site that is weeks (or months) out of date.

So that is my fantastic, mind-blowing, never-before-heard teaching tip for the day. I look forward to reading all the other teaching tips and learning some new stuff!