Web site name: The Cougar Pride

Web site URL: http://www.cvs.k12.mi.us/SWhite01/index.htm

Web site creator: Sarah White, Dakota High School, Macomb Township, Michigan

Teachers at Dakota High School employ teamwork to prevent the school's large enrollment from making students feel disconnected. Ninth-grade teacher Sarah White and her three teaching partners -- Jennifer Dwojakowski, Andrew Renaud, and Rene Ribant -- are responsible for providing coordinated learning experiences in global studies, English, biology, and math for their 120 students. The Cougar Pride helps them achieve their goals.

"We practice many progressive teaching methods," said White. "We created the Web site to share those methods and the research behind them with the students, parents, and others in our learning community. The site also provides a place where we can communicate directly with parents and students, and where they can reach us as well."

The Cougar Pride contains an explanation of the team's philosophy, and information about the team teaching methods. In addition, the site offers Related Articles and a bibliography of Further Reading about curriculum, standards, and group and discovery learning. Some of the resources cited also are Internet-based.

"The links provide background information and research to support progressive teaching methods, integration, and mastery learning," White explained. "Teachers often are interested in the Sample Integrated Unit and Activities page, which provides two examples of integrated units and assessments to help them implement a similar program."

White's favorite portion of the site is What's New?, a section that provides summaries of current team activities and pictures of all of the school's big events. Parents rely on the site to stay informed about classroom activities as well, including homework assignments and test dates.

White, whose husband assisted the team with graphics and site design, recommends that others seek out knowledgeable help as they first delve into site building. "HTML is not hard to learn," she stated. "Find someone to help you design the basic structure; maintaining it from there is easy. Most district technology support personnel are happy to help get you started."