Second Edition of Classroom Website

I have just "launched" my second edition of our classroom website! When I created the initial edition, it was quite a learning curve! I first needed to understand how to use Weebly. Luckily, it was quite user-friendly, as it resembled using a simplified Microsoft Office Word program. I did find that there were some 'glitches' (things I really didn't understand how to resolve :)), but for the most part, it just took lots of time. One thing I still can't quite figure out is how some things look just fine in the 'edit' mode, but once it is published, things change or shift around. Oh, well, can't be perfect!

Creating the videos was probably the most creative element. I found that using Windows Movie Maker worked nicely, and I eventually got the hang of it the more I used it. Adding my own choice of copyrighted music added to the challenge of getting it uploaded and viewable. I fortunately had the help of our school technology teacher, who steered me to Vimeo, rather than YouTube, which had an issue with the copyrighted tune I had chosen. Vimeo worked just great, and it had a password protection option that I used, to put parents' minds at ease.

Speaking of making videos, I found a whole new appreciation for movie makers! The decisions that have to be made as to shooting footage (angle, action, etc.), along with the editing choices (what to keep, what to throw away), made for time-consuming projects. I ended up editing the majority of my footage, to capture the essence of the moment, or stay true to the message of the video. The first edition of my website included a video with a song I loved, but little did I know about the copyright issue! I had the video length and content just the way I liked it, and so I was very reluctant to try and find copyright free music to accompany it! Live and learn. In the second edition, I took advice of others who steered me toward the freeplaymusic site, and after searching for quite a while, found two songs that would work for my two videos. I tended to look at both the style of music and the length of the MP3 files, to determine which songs to choose. It certainly cut down on my personal choices for music, as I liked being able to choose a familiar song that seemed to perfectly fit the mood of the video. But, beggars can't be choosers!

I also found it a challenge to find appropriate websites for kindergarten students on my second edition, as I wanted to offer all new options. Many had tons of ads, which seemed to diminish the educational emphasis :). I did want to try and choose websites that had some relevance to the website edition's content, and I lucked out with a few of those. I will probably have to search other teachers' websites for their top choices, as they have probably had some experience with them.

So, I feel that the website experience has been worth it. I'm glad that the parents are enjoying it. One told me today that she loves the site, and that her preschool son especially loves the videos. Nice to hear that from such a youngster! Well, on to the next project :).