How To Create Your Own Spanish Class Website for Your Students to Access
Nowadays, it’s so easy to create and publish a website online that you should consider creating one for your Spanish class.
The benefits are many as I will show you, and the downside of having your own Spanish website is minimal as you can limit its use and scope to achieve specific goals.
Keep reading if you’re wondering if more technology is good or bad for your students or about ways on how you can improve your Spanish classes by using different tech tools. I’m discussing these topics below, as well as explaining how you can create your own Spanish website, and sharing some strategies on how to better use it.
Is Technology Good or Bad for Learning?
That is the question, right? Because on one side of the debate I’m sure you’ve heard all these arguments pointing out how screen time is not good for kids. Then, on the other hand, there are many signs that show that using electronic devices enhance learning outcomes.
How do you know as a teacher which side of the argument to take? You know the requirements of modern life and how technology is all around us, but the concern about the dangers of unlimited screen time for kids it’s also real.
Using a Balanced Approach
I’ve been at the center of that discussion myself. A couple of years ago our school required that all middle school students had to bring a tablet or laptop to work in the classroom. From the academic point of view it made a lot of sense for all the teachers involved, however several parents expressed their worries about the increased screen time their kids were getting.
At the end, we solved the issue with a series of measures that guaranteed that students would only use their devices for academic purposes and on a limited basis. A balanced approach that made a smart use of the benefits of technology in learning environments, while acknowledging the need to limit our students’ exposure to it and educating them about the risks and dangers of relying too much on their devices.
How To Improve Your Spanish Class Using Different Tech Tools
Truth is that in these pandemic times, it’s almost impossible not to make use of the different tech tools available for education. We all witnessed the incredible rise of Zoom usage for educational purposes during the first phases of the pandemic. So, why not consider having a Zoom Spanish class?
In my classes I made use of a wide variety of different tech tools that enrich the learning experience of my students. One day I may prepare a PowerPoint presentation, the next one we may engage in a competitive game of Kahoot, or I give my students a quiz created through Google Forms. The list of tech tools available to enrich your Spanish class is endless, let’s focus today in creating a Spanish website.
Creating a Spanish Website for Your Class
These aren’t the 1990s anymore, creating a website isn’t that hard and the benefits for your Spanish class are many and varied. Think of it as a place where you can upload all the information needed for a specific unit, or visualize it as an ePortfolio where your students can display their projects.
The uses you can give to your own Spanish website are diverse and depend on what you want to achieve with it. So, let’s start from the beginning: how to create a website for your own Spanish class?
How To Create Your Spanish Website?
Here, you have many options and perhaps one of the most well-known is Wix. This platform has been in the market for several years now and it’s very popular due to its website-creation for dummies approach. Basically, there are a few templates to choose from and all you have to do is to add your own content and voilá! You have your own Spanish website onlite.
However, I’d like to call your attention to a different tool for website creation which is less known, but that I’ve found more useful for my Spanish websites for students: Google Sites. It works in a similar way to Wix, as it offers a wide array of templates specifically designed for education, and all you have to do is to add your own content and press on the publish button once it’s ready to go online.
There are different types of Google Sites (webpage, dashboard, file cabinet, announcements, list) and before creating one, you need to define the use you plan to give to your Spanish website in order to choose the right type of page for your class.
A good thing about Google Sites, besides the fact that it’s completely free, is that you can keep your Spanish website private, and only share it with your students, their parents, or whoever you decide.
How To Use It?
Depending on the type of page you chose for your Spanish website, there are different ways to make the most of it and use it to enhance your classes.
Here are some ideas:
Bulletin Board
Use your Spanish website as a bulletin board on which you can post homeworks, assignments, study guides, challenges, announcements, and class events. Having a Spanish website for reading online means that everybody can access all this important information.
File Cabinet
This is one of the main uses I give to my Spanish website. As I keep advancing on my course with my students, I upload reading materials, rubrics, worksheets, and all kinds of PDF files that may serve a purpose for our Spanish class.
Wiki
I find this option one of the most interesting ones, although to be honest I haven’t tried it myself. You can use your Spanish website allowing your students to work collaboratively on their assignments and edit the content of the page according to the requirements of a specific task or project you give them in advance.
ePortfolio
As mentioned before, students can use the website of their Spanish class online as an ePortfolio onto which they’ll keep uploading their projects, feature their work, and keep a register of their different assignments. This is very useful when you open your Spanish websites for kids and want to keep track of their work.
Peer-Review Tool
Your students can also use your Spanish website to present their findings on a specific research, include videos they found or recorded themselves to explain a particular Spanish topic, and let their findings be reviewed by their peers. As a tool for collaborative work and positive feedback, I think this is a great idea!
Create Your Website and Improve Your Spanish Class for Kids!
The creation of a website for your Spanish class opens a lot of possibilities to improve the learning experience of your students. It’s up to you how you use it to make the most of this smart tech tool that gets the Spanish language closer to your students.
Remember that while children are young, they have an impressive ability to gain fluency fast. The earlier you begin adopting new and exciting technologies to enrich their Spanish learning process, the easier it will be for them to learn them and start using them to their advantage.
Do you need support in your classroom? Homeschool Spanish Academy provides 1-on-1 or 2-on-1 online Spanish classes for K-12 students. We can help alleviate the difficulty of having many students of varying levels of performance. Sign up for a free class to give us a try today!
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