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Google Sites - Is this your missing link? (Summer 2017)


This post was created to be used in one of our summer courses. Feel free to use it as a reference as you create with Google Sites.

Introduction
Sites is a quick way for you and your students to create a website. The site can be limited to people within the district or published to allow anyone with the link to view the site. You can also add additional editors to the site allowing many people to collaborate on the same site.

Is this your missing link? Is this the thing that might just tie all of your student work together into one place? One portfolio? See Classroom Ideas #3 to see how it happened for one kindergarten class.


overview video
Demo
At this point in the class we opened Sites and created most of a site in a few minutes. 

Challenge!
(This is just a mock challenge, you are not really building a public site for Moore.)
Your team is tasked with creating an informative site based around the Moore Leadership Center. The site will be used by those within the district and the public. 

You have 75 minutes to create your site.

Your site must contain:
     1. Multiple pages and at least one nested page.
     2. Text.
     3. Images that show off the property.
     4. Video(s).
     5. Header image.
     6. A short URL to make easy to type.
     7. Link(s) to external site(s).
     8. Embed a minimum of one Google product.

Getting Started
We would recommend using a whiteboard, paper and Post-It notes to lay the site out before you start creating. This method will help you create an organized structure before you create it electronically, in the end this saves a ton of time.

Examples
     1. Nested Pages - hover your mouse over the Products tab at the top. Each of these sub pages is directly tied to the parent page. This is a great way to tie lots of pages together.
     2. Embedded Elements - scrolling down the first page you will twitter, Google Calendar and images embedded into the main page. Also check out Students - After School Enrichment. While the embedded docs are not visible you can vision what it might look like.
     3. Tabs - the tabs across the top of the screen help you navigate very quickly to what you need. Scroll down the main page, the layout is very nice.
     4. Links - the list of information and external sites is more informative than some of the other examples we came across. This might be a good way to introduce sites and resources to viewers.
     5. Random! - a random page we came across. We added because the layout of some of the pages was pretty interesting.

The Pitch
Each team will demonstrate their site to the class.

Reflection
What did you learn about Sites while participating in the challenge?

Resources
Below are resources you can use to help create your Sites.

Classroom Ideas
     1. Sites can be used for large projects as well as tiny ones. Think small, grow big.
     2. Google Sites Reminders - a few ideas on how you could use it and some ways the students could use Sites.
     3. Using Sites to Build Portfolios in Kindergarten - I was seriously impressed with this idea. I can see this happening at the middle schools with student lead conferences. The idea of the checklist is pretty sweet, she included a link for it if you want to use it.
     4. Classroom Apps You'll Want to Try - this site lists a number of apps you might want to try in the classroom, while that is neat look beyond that. Think of this site as something you create, or some kids, and it lays out a whole unit or chapter. What if they created a site that was all about a certain math idea, some character in history or highlighted some literature?

External Help Sites
     1. Google Sites Help Center - official help page by Google.
     2Google Sites Help Forum - a user generated forum. Pretty helpful when you are stuck.
     3. 7 Hidden Tips for Google Sites - Alice Keeler's post. 

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