Meadow Glade Elementary School (MGES) in Battle Ground, Wash., is now offering a cutting-edge elective class designed to help students create and maintain a Web site. The class, taught by Malaika Childers, is offered as a one-semester class to seventh and eighth-grade students who have met the computer skills requirement. With six brand-new networked computers in the classroom, the students are able to take advantage of current technology.

Students begin by learning about copyright laws and basic Web page aesthetics. They move on to how to create a Web site using Netscape Composer software. Several students have even learned the Web site design language, HTML (hypertext markup language).

After a few weeks, students begin to assist teachers in maintaining staff pages. This has proven to be a positive experience for all involved. As teacher Carla Cheney puts it, “Finding the time to keep up a Web site on my own is a challenge. Because I have students in my class who have taken the Web design class, I can tell them what changes I want made on my site, and I know they are capable of following through.”

The students feel a sense of pride and ownership in the MGES Web site. Marcus Avery, one of the first to take the class, remarked, “The class helped me be more creative and think deeper than just using pictures on a site.”

Mike Morauske, another graduate of the class states, “The Web site design class taught me skills that I will use for the rest of my life.”

MGES, its faculty and students are proud of the care and time the students put into their projects. Some of the students’ final projects can be viewed this summer at http://www.mges.com/staff/childers/index.html.