How to build your own web page - Electronic Learning - Brief Article

Instructor, August, 2002 by Lauren Goldberg

The thought of creating a Web page filled with the latest information about what's happening in the classroom sends many teachers running quickly in the opposite direction--far from the computer. But fear not. Building a Web page is so much simpler than you might think. For starters, you don't need to learn HTML or any other programming language. Creating a Web page can be as basic as typing information into a single online form. For a simple page, there are a number of free Web-based services that guide users through the process of entering text, adding links to other Web sites, and even uploading pictures. These tools also help you post homework assignments, calendars of important dates, and highlights of classroom activities.

You can find these easy-to-use online forms at Quia (www.quia.com), Eboard (www.eboard.com), and TeacherWeb (www.teacherWeb.com). Scholastic also offers a Web-page builder through its teachers site (http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/index.htm).

Most Internet service providers (such as AOL, EarthLink, and MSN) offer users free software and server space to build pages. The two most popular Web-browsing software packages, Netscape and Internet Explorer, can be downloaded for free with Web-page building capabilities.

Once you've entered all of your information--and saved it, the most important step--you can tweak it with vibrant colors, little icons you can pull from clip-art Web sites, and other graphics. Be sure to check your school's policy before adding pictures of your students or their names.

For more information about great ways to put teacher-created Web pages to work, and for links to these teachers' Web sites, see "Web Pages to the Rescue" on page 27.

RELATED ARTICLE: Examples of Teachers' Web Pages

1 Kathi Mitchell, of the Kimball School in New Hampshire, loaded her Web page with a summer reading list, links to other Web sites for teachers, search engines for children, and information about each of the subjects she teaches.

2 Doug Shivers, a bilingual kindergarten teacher, offers his site in both English and Spanish so parents of all of his students can understand what's happening in his class. Shivers uses simple graphics and updates regularly

3 Laura Candler, from North Carolina, includes links to parent-resource Web sites in addition to information about her class, their current creative-writing project, and a special assignment they're working on to save the rainforest.

Lauren Goldberg is director of teacher training at Belmont Day School, in Belmont, MA. A former classroom teacher, she is also a specialist in elementary curriculum and in technology and curriculum integration.