About six years ago, I decided to build a classroom website. My hope was that Internet savvy parents could visit our classroom on the web and communicate with me via email. It would serve as the ultimate communication tool. At the time, I had simple thoughts of just a class schedule and a link to my email, and maybe even a couple pictures… I guess I had no idea that my little classroom website would end up taking on a life all its own.
Now the thought of building a website sounds easy enough, right? Well, not quite… I was naïve to think it was going to be easy. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to build a website – the problem was that I had no idea how to do it or where to start. At the time, there were no other teachers really “creating” their own websites so I didn’t have anyone to guide me through the process. So I was stuck doing just what you’re doing now, surfing the Internet, testing different sites, reading how-to books, and emailing other webmasters for tips. Through trial and error, mostly error, I taught myself how to build my very own website.
Today, I consider this to be my ultimate hobby. It is no longer difficult – in fact, it is very easy and extremely fun! I learn something new everyday and I get very excited when there’s a new HTML code that I crack! I always giggle when teachers ask me when I find the time to do this. My honest reply is that it didn’t happen over night – this website has taken me years to build and I am very proud of it. But is it time consuming? No. In the beginning, it was very time consuming, but now all I do is add my newsletter every week and update it here and there. The real updating occurs over the summer when I have the time, but that is something I do by choice, not really because it needs it.
I am always humbled when other teachers send me an email or stop me in the hallway to ask me questions about my website. I hope that you’ll find this webpage where I wish I had found it six years ago. I hope it speeds the process up for you so you don’t have to do the digging that I did to find out how to create a website. I encourage you to email me if there is anything you are still wondering about after you read this and I congratulate you on wanting to build your own website.
The first thing you need to decide is what type of site you want to build based on how much time you’re willing to invest. If you like the idea of having total control over the look and feel of your website, I recommend you develop your site using Microsoft FrontPage or Yahoo! Geocities. If you prefer to just insert your information and let the program do the rest, you could try TeacherWeb or Scholatic's Homepage Builder. Now really take your time when selecting the route you will take to create your site. There are Pro’s and Con’s to each option.
The upside to the first option is that it completely allows you to fully customize your website. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want. You can enter HTML codes, custom graphics, music, layered backgrounds, etc. to enhance your site. Anything is possible. The downside to it is that you basically start with a blank page. You'll need to enter with a design and a plan in mind.
The upside to second option is that it’s really basic and easy. Your site could be up and ready for parents to surf within an hour. The downside is that you get a cookie-cutter website, without any originality. You’re quite limited when it comes to customization with only a few color schemes and generic graphics to choose from.
After doing a lot of research on these options, I chose to build my website using Yahoo! Geocities. All of the other options will cost you money, but the best part about a Geocities website is that it’s FREE!! However, after a couple years, I decided to upgrade my site so that I would have a simple dot.com address. I wanted something easy for my kindergarten students to type. That’s why I chose the domain name “mrspacker.com.” Geocities is very easy to use with simple cut and paste, point and click technology. As I become more advanced, I started inserting HTML codes and Geocities makes it easy to do that. I currently pay $8.95 a month for Geocities to host my website. This includes the program to create it, the domain name, more storage that I could ever use, and an ad free site. In the past, I have even had some very generous parents offer to sponsor the website for me. This tells me that even my parents agree - it's well worth the money!
Now that you’ve got the program to build it, you need to plan what you’re going to do with it, because when it comes to building websites, planning is the most important step! First and foremost, I recommend that you visit other classroom websites to gather ideas and inspiration for your own. Today, there are thousands of fantastic classroom websites that can guide you. However, never copy ideas – just get inspiration from them. Teachers work very hard on their websites – you would never want someone to copy your’s.
Once you’re bursting with great ideas, you’ll need to consider the following questions as you begin to plan your website…
 What information would you like your website to display?
How many pages do you want your website to contain?
How would you like your pages to look?
Who is your target audience?
When I first started my website, it was very basic and targeted my parents only. It contained only a few pages and didn’t have many bells or whistles. Today, my website is very different. My target audience now includes my students and other teachers, as well as myself! My website has branched into many sections containing information about all sorts of classroom related “stuff.” My advice for you would be to start out small as well, as I know that the longer you have your website, the more you’ll want to add to it!
Once you have completed your plan, and are sure about what you want to do, then fun begins... it's time to begin building your website!
After you have a plan for your website, it’s time to begin looking for graphics and clipart. If you decide to build your website with GeoCities or TeacherWeb, they have a nice selection of generic clipart for you to choose from. However, Geocities gives you the freedom to upload your own graphics as well!
The graphics and clipart that you use for your site will set the tone right away. I recommend that you try to keep your graphics consistent throughout your site. Personally, I prefer graphics on each page to be from one or two collections only. Mixing graphics from many different collections or artists can make a page look tacky. Remember, visually appealing pages keep visitors longer!
Over the years, I have found many artists that offer precious, free “school-themed” websets for you to choose from. Some artists even sell websets, but those are generally larger sets. It’s just up to you how much money you want to invest. In the past, I have purchased websets and used free graphics as well. If you do use their graphics, always try to give credit where credit is due. It’s very disrespectful to the artists to use their work without listing where you got it. Here are some websites that offer some great graphics:
Cutecolors
Graphic Garden
Original Country Clipart by Lisa
Grandma George
Whispy Hollow Graphics
My newest website venture is creating my own website graphics. I use the Paint program in Windows, and Paint Shop Pro. I’m even tinkering with animation and loving it! You can find an example of my clipart at the top and bottom of this page.
An HTML code is simply text, like what’s in an email message or a word processor document. When your web browser loads a website, it’s reading the HTML code only because it understands text and that’s it. Your web browser translates the HTML code and displays what you are seeing right now. Your web browser doesn’t see the graphics, but you do.
To see what your web browser sees, go up to View and scroll down to “Source.” A text document will appear – this is the HTML code that contains all the writing that will appear on your screen, plus instructions to the browser about where that writing should go and how it should look. The code is also telling your browser where to find and put the pictures, animations, and background on your screen. HTML code does this by using tags.
Webhosting Programs like the ones previously mentioned, including GeoCities, automatically generate the HTML code for you so there’s no need to learn it to build your website. However, the more you tinker with your website, the more HTML will look familiar to you. Currently, I write and create my pages using 100% HTML code. Where it used to be a foreign language to me, it is now second nature. I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on HTML, but once you realize the benefits of using and writing HTML, it’s hard to go without it. Not to mention, it's very exciting to write something and see the computer translate it correctly!
(I know, I know... I'm a nerd and proud of it!)
Here are some great websites that offer HTML scripts for your website:
Bravenet
Lissa Explains It All
Dynamic Drive
Keeping your website current is very important as visitors dislike it when web pages are out of date! They like to see that you value communicating with them by keeping your pages current. Out of date pages tell them that you don’t have time for them and that you don’t value your website.
You might be amazed at how many times your pages are viewed throughout the day. To keep track of this, add a page counter. I am currently receiving over 1000 hits a day – that’s potentially 1000 people that are disappointed with out-dated pages or 1000 visitors that are satisfied to see new content.
And I will not lie to you… you will spend many, many, many hours building your website. The good news is, once it’s built – it’s super easy to maintain! Depending on what you’re updating, it could take just a couple minutes to a couple hours a week. For the most part, I spend about 30 minutes a week adding my newsletter and that’s about it. Occasionally, I will spend a longer amount of time doing other things, but nothing at this point takes very long at all.
Less is More! Overloading your web pages makes them load slower and harder to read. Try to keep them simple and straight to the point.
Don’t go overboard on the graphics and blinkies. Remember, keep it simple.
Don’t put everything on one page. When you do this, your visitors have to scroll endlessly through content that could be spread out and organized across several pages instead of one. Create and link to pages throughout your site.
Try to stick with one font throughout the website. If you use a font that is not common on most PCs, offer a download of it from your website. For example, I use Kidprint. This is a font that is not commonly found, so I give visitors the option of downloading it from my site.
Keep the fonts, layout, and theme consistent throughout your website so you don’t confuse your visitors.
Don’t use light colored fonts on dark backgrounds. If a visitor wants to print a page from your site, they won’t be able to see anything when they print it. Usually, PCs are configured to only print the font, not the background, and white font just doesn’t show up that great on white paper.
Try to keep all your web pages up to date and make sure all your links are working properly.
Avoid animated page transitions. I admit it, I tried them, too! But they really are a pain and it just makes the pages load slower!
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