Since we have been creating these awesome sites in ED 689, and since I took this class so as to have done something "useful" as well as fulfilling my Master's requirements, I fully intend to launch and use my site this Fall (and "ever after").
I'm assuming I will need to get the school's approval to launch my site, and I have taken some steps to get this approval, I think. For one thing, I designed my website around the schools' colors, purple and gold. (See my site above, and the school website, just below it. They are both linked, so you can click on the label above the screen captures if you want to go see the sites.) And the core books and curriculum are clearly displayed on my site. And no inappropriate language, goodness no!
But in other news - I have a sense that they'll approve me because I am "one of those people" who they can trust to keep my site updated, and personal. Because I think if I ran a school, I would make the following criteria:
1) No teacher may have a website that they direct parent's and student's to, UNLESS they update it X times a week, or month, etc. (So, the time variable would have to be defined, and websites would be optional, but not approved by the school unless the teacher was actually going to use them. And, this would make a lot of sense if the school itself is paying for the domain, and didn't want it "wasted.")
OR, 2) All teachers MUST have a website that they update X times a week, a month, etc., and will have X minutes a day set aside (perhaps a planning period for it, or something, as provided by the school) to work on this. And of course, you'd need regular computer access. We all have desktops in our rooms now, to take attendance on and so on, so that'd be relatively easy.
Because realistically, these websites are completely useless as a classroom aid or tool if they are not updated regularly. In fact, I am planning to update mine EVERY day - that's right, every day - at least in the section where I will be posting HW. Or, I could do it every Sunday, because we have to submit lesson plans on a weekly basis, and I already know what the assignments for the week will be at that point. And, since I have a link to my email on my site, I'll continue checking that every day as I do now.
In doing this, parents will have an easily accessible answer to the "do you have any HW?" and "what is it?" questions. Do I think this will add to impersonality? No. For me at least, I kept the idea of technology sometimes being a very impersonal medium for communication in the back of my head as I was designing it. I think my site is currently rather "conversational," "happy," and very "me."
So, I would say that teacher-created websites are VERY useful, but only if the creator keeps their personality present on the site (in a respectable way), and updates their site with frequency.
***And random tip for all my newbie teachers out there: WHENEVER POSSIBLY, steer parents to communicating with you via email. Whether you teach kindergarten or 12th grade - it's about liability, conversations you did and didn't have, and what exactly was said. And in this day and age of IEPs, specialized instruction, and kids with way too many freedoms and not enough accountability (okay, I'm really not as cynical as I sound, but still) you'd be stupid not to.
