Website Workshop- Professional Development 2

Yesterday I had my second professional development on how to create a class website. I planned a one-hour workshop that was just introduction to doing this and how to get started. First, the plan was to discuss why the teachers were interested in creating a class website. This went great. The teachers all had ideas of why they wanted to make a website. The reasons were communicating with parents, creating web quests, and showing student work. Next, I showed off my class website. I use my website to communicate with the parents what the students are doing and to show off the students’ projects. After that we got a little off topic because a teacher questioned the legal aspects of putting student work and pictures on the web. I explained to them that I do not put any last names , student pictures without parent permission, and my website does not say where the school. After that discussion, we got back on track with my plan. I passed out the directions that I made to create a website on Google, and I instructed them to go to the internet. This is where the problem occurred. Over half of the participants could not get an internet connection. The network administrator was trying to get everyone connected quickly, but it was not working! Therefore, I ended up showing them the basics on how to set up the account and setting up their website on my Mimio (interactive whiteboard). I wanted the teachers to do it themselves, but it did not work out. However, since they had their handout and my demonstration (including how to use the help feature) I feel good about their ability to go set up their sites on their own. When they left, they all seemed confident too. Overall, I think the workshop was a success.