Build Your Teacher Web Page

Introduction  This In-service will cover  Choosing Content  Choosing Method  Basic Technical Skills  Lab – Put together your site!

Choose Your Content  Consider Your Audience  Parents  Students  Other Teachers / Other Schools  Grant Prospects  Public  Local citizens / Tax payers  Out of Town People Considering Van

Choose Your Content  What Matters Most?  Build Your Outline  Upcoming Events  News – Past events you want to cover  Assignments  Links & Downloads

Choose Your Content  Keep Timely & Up to Date  The best way to keep people coming back to your page is to keep current information on it.  The best way to keep people away is to neglect it.

Choose Your Method  District Website  Benefits:  Easy to Use  Easy for Audience to Find  Free

Choose Your Method  Canned Webs  Scholastic.com  TeacherWeb.com - $30.00 / year  SchoolandTeacher.com - $20.00 / year  Write Your Own Code

Basic Technical Skills  Workflow  Determine Content  Find Pictures  Find Related Link on Web  Write copy in Word – relate to picture when possible  Prepare Related Document for Download (if applicable)

Basic Technical Skills  Photo Software  Photoshop- for advanced users  Microsoft Paint- for anyone  Other- You may have your own preference  Prepare Pictures  pixels wide  RGB, 24-bit Color

Basic Technical Skills  To resize a big picture-  Open Paint (All Programs > Accessories > Paint)  Choose File > Open… and navigate to your file  Choose Image > Stretch/Skew…  Change the numbers in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes. Try 20 in each box. (If numbers in the boxes are different, the image will lose its original proportion.)  If the picture occupies about 1/3 to 1/4 of the window, that’s about right.  Choose File > Save As… and change the file name to preserve the original file. Be sure to leave spaces out of the file name. Tip: Use_underscores_instead.

Basic Technical Skills  Log on by clicking Maintenance on footer of almost any District page  Your User Name is your van.sprnet.org address  Your initial Password is first1  Reset your Password  Log in with new Password  Forgot Password? Just click Forgot Password and it will be ed to your van.sprnet.org

Basic Technical Skills  Control Panel  Profile  This will contain some default data – you should confirm and update when necessary  Preferences  Phone and anyone?  Schedule  Use this to display to your students and their parents your typical day and when you are available (or not) for conference.  Change Password

Basic Technical Skills  Assignments  Give your students assignments  Attach worksheets, pictures, PDFs,  Set Due Dates  Extras  You may choose a variety of other District Links to display on the right column of your page. Click the link category to add. Click the Red X to remove.  Links  Post links to your favorite websites here  TIP: Open the link you want to post in a different browser window. Then grab the icon at the beginning of the address and drag it into the Website Address field  Don’t forget the Link Tag! That’s what will appear on your page.  Downloads  Post links to common documents  TIP: Make sure the file you upload has no spaces in the filename. That can cause the link to be broken.  TIP: Use the »Upload File link to add files to your collection.

Basic Technical Skills  Upload Files  This is where you can upload your pictures and documents  Leave spaces out of file names!!!  Galleries  Set up as many photo galleries as you would like.  Delete Uploaded Files  Occasionally you will need to delete images or documents. Do that here. But be careful, there is no undo!

Frequently Asked Questions  Q: Can I link straight to another web page or download?  A: Yes! When setting up or editing an Article or Assignment, click the radio button next to the word Hyperlink and the user will be taken directly to the linked page without displaying an article.  Q: Can I use spaces in my file names?  A: You can, but we don’t recommend it. Spaces can be confusing for the computer to work with and frustrating for the user who doesn’t understand why the computer won’t perform the desired task. Use an underscore _ or dash - instead.

Frequently Asked Questions  Q: Can I link to a document within an article?  A: Yes. It’s a little complicated, but you’re a teacher, so you can handle it. You’ll need to know a couple of things. First, what is your van.sprnet.org address? Take the part of that address before sign. Let’s call that your KEY. Next, what is the exact filename of your document? We’ll call that FILE.NAM. In the Related Link box of the Add/Edit Article page, type “../UserFolders/KEY/FILE.NAM”. So, if your van.sprnet.org address is van.sprnet.org, and your filename is User_Instructions.pdf, you would type, “../UserFolders/myles/User_Instructions.pdf”.

Frequently Asked Questions  How do I resize an image?  Open Paint (All Programs > Accessories > Paint)  Choose File > Open… and navigate to your file  Choose Image > Stretch/Skew…  Change the numbers in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes. Try 20 in each box. (If numbers in the boxes are different, the image will lose its original proportion.)  If the picture occupies about 1/3 to 1/4 of the window, that’s about right.  Choose File > Save As… and change the file name to preserve the original file. Be sure to leave spaces out of the file name. Tip: Use_underscores_instead.  Upload New Picture  Anytime you use this link, you will be using a special program that uploads and resizes your pictures.