Your own classroom website

I am all about providing access to learning outside the walls of my classroom. As you know, there are lots of "educational resources" available on the web, but do any of them relate to your specific class's materials and needs? You can't get a personalized feel from a website unless you create it.

By maintaining a classroom website, you create a fabulous opportunity for students to access valuable classroom material outside the hours of 8:00 am - 3:00 pm on weekdays. I'm not suggesting that we bombard our students with extreme amounts of work and not allow them any time for their families or hobbies, but I do think that providing personalized educational resources outside of school can have huge benefits for your students.

What Can You Post on a Classroom Website?
The specifics vary, depending on which hosting site you choose, but with a little creativity, the answer is "anything!" Here are some examples of what I posted on my classroom website:

1. Contact information -- to the school and to myself. For myself in particular, I provided information on my e-mail address and phone number, as well as my classroom Twitter. Besides providing those specific contact avenues, I even included a "contact box," where people without e-mail can actually send me a message (via e-mail). There's no way for me to reply via e-mail if the sender doesn't have his/her own e-mail address, but this works great for just "leaving a message." It also works great if the computer network you're on when you're visiting the website blocks you from access your e-mail address. Case in point: a girl who has a Yahoo e-mail account was able to send me a message on the school computers, even though her Yahoo access was blocked. 
2. Syllabus, necessary supplies, and due dates -- I title this "essential info" on my website, but of course, you can name it whatever is best for you. This is where kids can go to obtain extra explanation and/or copies of any of that "essential info" that was presented at the very beginning of class. This comes in handy for my secondary English students, especially right before our bi-annual binder check, because they can download extra copies of the homework help groups and syllabus, which are mandatory for the binder check! 
3. Lesson plans -- Some teachers balk at posting their lesson plans for the community to see, but I welcome all families to read mine! I want everyone to know what's going on in my classroom. This isn't to say that I am able to always stay on schedule or that I always do things perfectly, but it creates a much more relaxed environment when everyone is on the same page. There is less confusion for the parents because, regardless of the child's lack of explanation or communication, the parent always knows what was taught and assigned that day in school. 
4. Due dates -- I embedded a calendar into my website and made sure to update it frequently with new due dates. Students could view this on the web or view the paper copy in class, but there was no excuse not to know what assignments were due at what times. 
5. Virtual refrigerator -- I love my virtual 'fridge page! It allows me an opportunity to post outstanding student work for the entire community to see! (Just make sure you white out last names for privacy purposes!) It's a great way to recognize effort for a student of any age, but it works particularly well at the secondary level, I've found. Kids of that age aren't eager to go home and talk to their families about school, much less are they sharing accomplishments with their peers. Posting work on my virtual 'fridge allowed my secondary students the opportunity to shine publicly and academically, and it helped make success in the classroom a little more "cool."
6. Learning links -- I have a resource section on my website, and it connects students and parents to all kinds of helpful websites that are "teacher approved." When I taught elementary, I mostly listed links to learning games online. I might also include links to "kid-friendly" search engines, which can be hard to come by these days! When I taught high school, I included links to research involving our classroom: SparkNotes and research paper explanations. I also included links to suicide help lines, child abuse awareness websites, etc. I probably won't ever have anyone admit to using any of these links, but it makes me feel better to know that they're there and available.

I'm on Board; Now How Do I Get Started?

Here are a few sites that will host your own website:

1. Consider using a blog. Blogspot actually has the capability to build up to 5 (I think?) pages. For those of you that don't plan on posting a lot, you can blog and post homework on the same website. 
2. www.weebly.com I love this website. It is SO easy to use. Its drag-and-drop interface is simple, even for the technologically-challenged. :) I built my English websites using Weebly. There are many design options, and, like I said, it's super-simple. One thing I don't like is that there are several components labeled "pro," which means you need to upgrade your membership in order to have access to them. But I managed to go a whole year without needing to use any of the "pro" elements. And, even if you decide to upgrade, it could cost you as little as $3/month. Not too shabby. You can incorporate everything from text and pictures to YouTube videos, Google maps, and your own blog (which eliminates the need for an external blog). There's also an HTML widget available for those of you that are a little more fancy-schmancy, but I use it rarely at this point. 
3. www.yola.com I used this to create my very first website for early childhood education. There aren't as many customizing options, but it has the same drag-and-drop set up. I set up a website here for my 8th grade language arts class, but moved to Weebly because I felt it looked cleaner and offered a little more. 
4. www.wix.com I love, love, love this website! This allows you to create flash websites for free! They're totally customizable, although there are plenty of template options to get you started. It may be slightly more complicated to work than, say, Weebly, but still employs the use of drag-and-drop components. Some of the things Weebly asks you to pay for (like an audio file) are available here for free. It does NOT have its own blogging option, but there are several good blogging websites, anyway, so it's definitely not a deal breaker. I did have a little trouble incorporating YouTube videos, but I'm sure that can be amended quickly. I've been a member of Wix for less than a month, and have already decided to switch my classroom website to this host for next year's class. That website isn't completely done yet, but the point is, because I knew the basic navigation (thanks to Yola and Weebly!), it was easy to figure this out site out. One cool thing: it's a flash website, so it naturally looks "fancier." It also has a little bit more available storage for the average user. One negative aspect: since it's a flash website, some computers aren't equipped to view the site! (I'm pretty sure it's free to download the component that helps you view flash, but you have to be an administrator in order to download it...so if you're on a public computer that isn't equipped with it, you're just stuck, unfortunately.) This may create a problem on school computers that haven't been updated recently or that have extreme filters, firewalls, etc. 
5. www.webs.com I remember signing up for this briefly, and then deleting it. It's basically the same as everything other free website. But I obviously found the above-mentioned sites easier to use, so I opted out of this account quickly. However, you may find it easier to use, so I'm posting it. :)
6. www.21classes.com I actually just found this one, but it seems promising!
7. www.classjump.com A colleague of mine reminded me of this one today. I signed up for it many moons ago and didn't like the layout, so I quickly abandoned it. It reminds me a lot of Blackboard or D2L, so if you're into that, you'll love Class Jump. I do like that it is simple and looks college-y, but I do enjoy my pictures, slideshows, videos, and more!
8. Classroom tripod. I just found this one (this is a product of a Google search). Not sure I would use it, but I want you to be aware of more than just my personal preference sites...
9. Teacherweb. Same ol' same ol'. 

OK, we all know these aren't all the ways you can build a classroom website. But it's nice to know of specific options. I think Scholastic has a teacher-website section, as well, if you want to check that out.

Depending on how proficient you are with HTML/CSS, you could make your own completely independent website (using something like Go Daddy). The possibilities are endless!