School Websites

Lately there are an abundance of school websites in which the teachers have their own individual sites. I have one at the school I teach at. It's a great resource and communication tool for parents. I am able to upload pictures, our weekly skills agenda, a calendar, and links to educational websites. I can also post discussion boards like we have in this class. I posted one at the beginning of the year on book recommendations (with only 1 response). I spend a lot of time on the website so that students and parents can stay as informed as possible. I have had some frustration with it though. Many of my parents have never visited the site (we can track users). It's disappointing to put in all of my time and effort to not have this resource being used to its fullest. Also, some parents have tried to visit it, but have had difficulties logging in. It's a private site with a login, but many of the logins don't seem to work properly. I enjoy the privacy, but think that if there wasn't a login I would have much more participation. I think at the higher grade levels it's probably a much more appreciated tool because it can be more independently used by the students without having to have as much parent involvement. It is a convenience for me in the classroom too. This way all of my favorite links are in one place and I don't have to bookmark them on all of the computers and we can easily access them in the lab without having to type them in (which is time consuming for 2nd graders). I hope that as more school systems get teacher websites and parents/teachers become more comfortable with their use, we'll see increased participation!