Classroom Website

[bklingher]

I am looking for a free or relatively cheap way to set up a classroom website. I do not want to create my own from scratch but would prefer to use an on-line program. After looking at a bunch, I seem to have settled on Hotchalk. Although it has somewhat limited capabilities, it seems to be the cleanest and easiest for my purposes - class announcements, communication with parents & students, homework assignments.

Has anyone had experience with Hotchalk? Any other sites you might suggest?

Thanks!

[KristenV]

Is this free? I haven't looked at something like this- but it's a wonderful idea.... have you thought about using Microsoft Frontpage and then having the school's webmaster publish it for you through the schools' website?

[literarycompass]

I found that using a blog for a class website was the easiest and cheapest way to go. I used Blogger in combination with Google Documents to communicate with students and parents, and to post handouts that students might lose. Here is my site from last year:

http://mrsenger.blogspot.com

The Google Documents are in the right column under my profile (no laughing at my picture!). Blogger and Google Docs worked great, but the site was mostly for communication.

This summer I decided to expand a bit and get my own domain name and use Moodle, a free courseware system that came with my domain hosting company (Hostgator). I pay less than $10 a month for the hosting service. I use my domain to host my Teen Literacy Tips blog and my classroom site. Here's the address of my new classroom site for this year.

http://www.nicksenger.com/olc

There was a bit of a learning curve to using Moodle, but it's easier than it looks. With Moodle I can add assignments, students get their own blogs, and it's extremely customizable (is that a word?). I'm still playing with the site and can't wait to get feedback from my eighth graders.

I hope these comments help.

[orlandoteacher]

I use www.edublogs.org It has easy set-up and it's free!