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  INTRODUCTION: Before I start to give you ideas abou t
how to make homepages with your students I would like to introduce
to you Nattawud Daoruang. If you have ever searched for
information about life in Thailand you probably would have come
across his homepage. About half a million people from 120 countries
around the world already have! Yes, this teenager who has been
working on his homepage since he was 12 years old, has attracted
a lot of attention and has often been featured in newspaper articles.
His homepage receives about 2000 visitors every day which is
pretty amazing as he started with such a humble web site much
the same as my students are doing today. Before you continue
further I would strongly reccomend that you take a look at thailandlife.com
as this clearly shows how far it is possible to go with a homepage.
I think the last time he counted there were over 300 pages and
about 1000 pictures on everything to do with his life in Thailand.
Every small detail is recorded from things in his pocket to his
grandfather's funeral. His holidays are documented as well as
his daily life in his very popular Secret Diary. Tourists are
not the only visitors to his web site as man schools around the
world use it as a resource for studying life in a different country.
PAINTING
BY NUMBERS: It is not always easy
for the students to come up with their own ideas, so for their
first efforts we give them a set formulae:
Page 1 - Introduction about themselves
with a picture (about 50 words)
Page 2 - "My Family" (introduce their parents and brothers
and sisters)
Page 3 - "My School" (all about their school)
Page 4 - "My Diary" (daily activities for one week)
Page 5 - "My Friends" (describing their best friends
with links to their friend's web sites)
Page 6 - The final page is usually showcasing some art work or
something they have done
For a good example of this works, visit the homepage for Jittrawan
Adisaiparadee. You will see that she brought in some pictures
of her family which she scanned and she also used the digital
camera and school to take some pictures. Other student homepages
include: Raya Treecharoen, Nuttarika Chaiyadeacha, Mathuwadee Praipruksapun, Natsuda
Detthongkom, Chatchaya Yimyam, Naiwinit Mingtoom and Katiya Khunchitwattana.
WHAT
TO DO NEXT: The above homepage
takes about 4 months if they only have one lesson a week. Towards
the end, if we find we have spare time we encourage the students
to come up with their own ideas for more pages and we also help
them with graphic design like banners and animated images. The
students that finish first usually help to put together a class
homepage with some information as well as pictures and links
for everyone. Click here to see an example of this. |
For a student to make a homepage, it is probably
the ultimate project they can do in English about themselves.
At the very least, students should learn enough English to be
able to talk about themselves and the people around them. When
they are able to do this they then should put together a homepage
about themselves to share with other people around the world.
This is also an excellent way to receive penfriends.