History of the TOPS Website
The first TOPS web site appeared in 1996, hosted on the Seattle Public Schools web server. The original site was designed by Pm Weizenbaum and created by Jack Lee, then parents of a TOPS first grader. Jack maintained it for several years, until it was taken over in about 2000 by 5th-grade teacher Kevin Crozier (now at .
In the fall of 2002, when Kevin left TOPS, the site was "renovated" by Jack and Pm (then parents of TOPS 3rd and 7th graders)--constructed by Jack, with many of the best design ideas contributed by Pm. The templates and pages were created using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.
In 2006, the site underwent another major redesign. The site switched to using BlueHost, and the code was rewritten from the ground up by Jack's son Nathan Weizenbaum, that same first grader from 1966 and now a TOPS alumnus. Although the look remained pretty much the same, the website was made XHTML compliant and more dynamic through the use of server-side includes. All the pages were created with nothing but a text editor.
The diagram below shows some of the main features of the home page.
Student art work: The art work that graces the TOPS home page and the upper left corners of most of the content pages is based on paper-cut collages created in the fall of 2002 by the TOPS seventh graders, inspired by the work of Henri Matisse and Jacob Lawrence, and under the direction of art teacher Luzita Roll. Look in the Gallery section (or click on one of the images) to see enlarged images of all of these works.
Class buttons: The buttons across the top of the page labeled K through 8, SE, and DHH will take you to web pages for all of the TOPS classes. There you will find contact information for teachers and room reps (when available), current class announcements, and links to teachers' home pages.
TOPS logo: Wherever you see the TOPS logo, you can click it to return to the TOPS home page.
Main menu buttons: The buttons down the left side of the page are the main menu buttons, giving you access to all of the main sections of the TOPS web site. When your mouse hovers over one of these buttons, a table of contents for that section will pop up (provided your browser is Javascript capable, which should be the case if you are using version 4.0 or later of Netscape or Internet Explorer or any version of Firefox and haven't turned off Javascript).
Link to SPS web site: Wherever you see the Seattle Public Schools logo, you can click it to jump immediately to the SPS web site.
TOPS news and announcements: The "What's New at TOPS" section of the page has announcements of upcoming events at TOPS, new additions to the web site, and other items of current interest to the TOPS community.
Quick links to popular pages: Here you will find one-click access to some frequently requested pages on the TOPS web site, such as the latest newsletter, the latest go-home, the TOPS calendar, and seasonal events such as school plays and the TOPS auction.
