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What software did you use to create your site?
I currently use
Microsoft FrontPage 2003
to create and manage the pages of mrcoley.com. I
began several years ago with FrontPage 98 and have upgraded each time a
newer version
has become available. At one point I considered making the switch to
Adobe Dreamweaver, but since I'm so familiar with FrontPage and it's features, I decided to
stick with what's comfortable. Microsoft has recently released its
next generation of web design software called
Expression Web.
The program is very similar to FrontPage, yet it contains many more powerful
features. I see myself making the switch to Expression Web in the future,
but for now, I'm continuing to utilize FrontPage. I make all of my major site
changes from my home computer using FrontPage, but I also use
Adobe Contribute at school to update daily homework assignments and The
Daily Blog. Contribute is a wonderful piece of software that allows users to
easily update websites from remote
locations. My clip art and images come from
Microsoft Office Online, a free service provided
for users of Microsoft products, and
Wikimedia Commons. Some of the other resources I
utilize include:
»
Microsoft Word 2007
»
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
»
Macromedia Fireworks
»
Macromedia FlashPaper 2
»
Coffee Cup Photo Gallery
»
GarageBand 3
» Audacity
(free download)
»
Canon PowerShot
SD750 Digital Camera
»
Logitech USB Headset
Microphone
»
Griffin iTalk Pro voice recorder
»
30GB iPod
»
Freepolls.com
I have purchased most of my software
online from Computer Products
for Education, a terrific website offering substantial
educational discounts on most popular software titles. In addition to
having great prices, I have found the customer service and delivery times
to be outstanding. I would highly recommend this site for your future
software needs.
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How long
did it take to create your site?
I first published my
site at the beginning of the 1999/2000 school year as part of the final
project for my masters degree. It began as a
very simple site, featuring basic subject matter pages, student artwork, and
an "About the Teacher" page. As I learned more and grew
more comfortable with the software, I started to add new pages
and features to the site. It has been a constant process of trial and
error, and I'm learning new things all the time.
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How do you create your classroom's podcast?
I began podcasting with my class midway through the
2005/2006 school year, and I absolutely love it! I highly recommend
giving it a try with your students. I have put together two web pages
containing information on how we create our podcast. The first page,
How We Create a ColeyCast, lists the
general steps we take each time we record a broadcast. The second
page, How to Make Your Internet
Broadcast a Podcast, lists the more technical steps involved in setting
up a podcast. Hopefully, these two pages will help you get started.
If you have any questions, please let me know by clicking
here.
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How do you run your classroom economy?
For more information on how I run my
classroom economy, visit the
Classroom Economy Frequently Asked Questions page.
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How many
visitors does your site get?
Believe it or not, mrcoley.com
gets over a thousand visitors each week, most from outside of
Murrieta. In addition to students and
parents from our own classroom, we get visitors from all over
the United States, Canada, England, and even as far away as New Zealand and Australia!
At last count, our website has had visitors from all 50 states and 89 foreign
countries!
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Can I use some of your ideas on my own classroom
website?
Absolutely! Sharing ideas is what teachers do.
Please feel free to borrow any idea you see on mrcoley.com and use it
in your classroom or on your classroom website. If you decide to include
something on your website, I ask that you include a link back to my site and that you don't copy
and paste my exact wording, formatting, and graphics. In short, borrow away, but
please make it reflect your site and not mine.
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Who hosts
your site?
For many years, my school district
graciously hosted mrcoley.com on its Web
server. I recently decided to move my site to Blue Host (www.bluehost.com).
In doing some research, I found many quality website hosting
services out there. Blue Host was a good match for me
because it offers unlimited hosting space and bandwidth,
includes a free domain name, is inexpensive ($7.95 per month),
has excellent customer service, and is free of
unwanted advertising.
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How were you able to
obtain the Web address mrcoley.com?
You can purchase domain names for
around $10 per year through a number of online registrars like GoDaddy.com.
When I hosted my site on my school district's server, I purchased the domain
name mrcoley.com and set it up
so visitors who typed www.mrcoley.com would be redirected to my location on
the district's server. If you have a website with a long,
hard-to-remember address, I highly recommend purchasing a domain name and
redirecting it to your website -- your visitors will thank you! My
site is now hosted with Blue Host (www.bluehost.com),
so the site has an actual address of www.mrcoley.com.
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Do you need
parent permission to publish student work?
Yes. Since material
published on the Web can be seen by the world, I obtain permission from
parents before I publish student work to the website. At the beginning of
each school year, I send home an
Internet
Release Form which details exactly how student work will be displayed.
I have chosen not to display students' pictures (for potential
security reasons), and their work is accompanied by the students' first
names (and occasionally last initials when students share the same first
name).
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Do
your students help you construct your pages?
My students do not help in the
construction of pages, but they do provide the content for some
of the pages. Students write articles for The
Daily Blog, create artwork for the art
pages, and write the scripts for and lend their voices to
ColeyCasts. You can see examples of their work by visiting the Student Work page.
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Where
do you find the time to maintain your website?
It's definitely one of my passions. It does take
a good deal of time to maintain mrcoley.com, but I don't look at it
as work. For me, it's fun. When I was young, I wanted to be a computer
programmer. I've always loved
working with computers, so building and maintaining the site has been an
opportunity for me to combine two of my loves -- teaching and technology.
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Do
you have any advice for creating a classroom website?
Start small. Rome wasn't built in a
day, and neither are good websites. And don't try to reinvent the
wheel. Find ideas for your site by surfing the Web for good examples
of other teachers' sites. Just make sure you give credit where credit
is due. Here's a list of some of the excellent
classroom sites I've come across, and here are some more of my
tips and suggestions. If
you're interested, here's some
research from
my master's thesis on
how a classroom website can be beneficial (the references are a bit dated,
but the information is still relevant). If you're short on time, a great place to start is
www.teacherweb.com.
This Web-based service helps you create your own classroom website in a matter of
minutes, without having to know how to use Web design software. To host
your site, TeacherWeb charges $39 per year (you can also try it free, with no obligation, for one month). Quantity
discounts are available. If you're wanting to get something online
quickly, TeacherWeb is a great place to start.
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