Google Sites

Have you ever felt the urge to create your own website or use a website for your classroom? Websites can be used for many reasons including;a new business venture, a place to bring your style and information to the world, or even as an online portfolio for yourself or students. As an educator there can be a lot of benefits to creating and using a website in your classroom. Students can also create their own site that can be used for an online portfolio.The solution to these desires can be met for free with Google Sites.

The good thing about Google sites is that you can instantly add files, links, and resources that you already have on Google. Presentations from Google Slides, surveys from Google Forms, and documents from Google Docs can easily be embedded, linked and added to your Google Site. I have found that Google sites can be hard to navigate around the first time you use it. It is something that you will have to play around with in order to find what settings, templates, and gadgets you will add to your site. The editing feature is nice in the way that it auto saves. 

As usual the first thing I did when I discovered Google Sites I went to Youtube to look for a quick tutorial on how to create and use a Google Site. 

Per usual Youtube offered many videos and a lot of these videos are very complex and discussed the marketing aspect of creating your own website. After looking at many videos I found two good videos that will give resources to create an organized website. The first is the basics for how to create a Google Site. This video will give you a step by step tutorial on how to create a website, find the right template, and add resources to your website. The second video is a more advanced tutorial. This video focuses more on creating a template that can be used for an online portfolio. The teacher used a portfolio with her students and creates a template that the students will then use on their own created website. Both videos were very helpful. 

1. Beginners

2. Portfolio and Templates

I have created my own website but I have not tried creating my own template. I will be looking at using a portfolio since I will be teaching APUSH next year. An online portfolio will be a great way for my students to create and show their process of the essential questions to help students see their understanding of material as we go on. The website that I created can be seen here.

For whatever reasons you can think of for creating a website using Google Sites will undoubtedly be a good resource for you. As I have mentioned at numerous times Google has so many resources for teachers to use in the classroom and Google Sites can be uses in many ways. No matter what age you teach a website can enhance your classroom and be a way to give students the opportunity to create information and show their knowledge.