This page contains some important information that you need to know before starting work on your web site! If You Already Have a Google Site...All Duneland School Corporation pages need to be on a Duneland server. If you have a PERSONAL Google account that you are using for a classroom web site, you can transfer the site to your Duneland account. Moving your site will not affect your personal Google account in any way, and it WILL then allow you to have a link placed on your school web site, making it easier for students and parents to find your classroom site. If you would like to transfer a site you've set up in a personal Google account, please send an email to sue.heater@duneland.k12.in.us. You will be sent login information for your Duneland Google account as well as instructions on how to move your web site.PLAN!Take at least a little bit of time to think about what information you want to put on your web site and how you want to organize that information. An hour of planning can save many, many hours of trying to fix it later!
Don't over-extend yourself! It's easy to get excited and tell yourself, your students, and their parents that you are going to update your site every single day with homework assignments, news, and lots and lots of pictures, but that all takes time. It's better to start small and grow if you choose to than to start out huge and find you can't keep up with it all!
Name Your Site and Change the Web Address (URL) - IMPORTANT!!!
When you are going through the initial setup process for your site, please know the difference between a Site Name and a Site URL, and enter BOTH in the appropriate fields! The Site NAME is just that - the name of your site - the title. It is what will show at the top of every page on your site. So if you enter "mathclass" in the site NAME field, then mathclass is what everyone will see at the top of your site. Please put something more descriptive, such as "Mr. Smith's 4th Grade Math Class". The Site URL is the web address - the address that starts with "http". ! PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!
When you enter a name for your site, Google Sites automatically uses that name for your URL (web site address). So, in our example above the address of the site would be: http://pages.duneland.k12.in.us/mr-smiths-4th-grade-math-class. Too long!!
**** When setting up a classroom site, please change the last part of the address to your login name (first initial, last name). So Mr. John Smith would delete everything in the URL field and replace it with "jsmith". The address of the site changes to http://pages.duneland.k12.in.us/jsmith **** Much better!
If you are building a grade level, group, department, etc. site, please keep in mind that a URL can only be used ONCE. If the site is for a 3rd grade team at Yost, do not change the end of the URL to "grade3", because there are 3rd grades at 4 other elementary schools! Instead use something like, "yost-3". If in doubt, ask!
Categories (When setting up your site)Please DO put your school name in this field! :o)
Please DO NOT put anything else in this field! :o( PHOTOGRAPHSBefore putting a photograph on your website, please be sure that parents have not directed that their child's photograph not be published. You can get that information from your school's office. In grades K-8, all photographs should contain a minimum of 3 people. No names, first or last, should be published on a web site with a student's photograph.
If necessary, please re-size pictures before putting them on your website. If the file size is too large it can cause a significant increase in the amount of time it takes your site to load.
Ask For HelpGoogle includes some help files with Google Sites. The Help button can be found at the top of any page in your site. Please also feel free to contact me (Sue Heater) with any questions you may have. I can often answer your questions on the phone or by email, and I'm also more than happy to visit you at your school if you need me! You can reach me at ext. 1104, or by email: sue.heater@duneland.k12.in.us. In addition, our Technology Training Coordinator, Sharon Klahn, may be able to help you with some of your questions. She can be reached at ext. 7404 or by email: sharon.klahn@duneland.k12.in.us.
When Your Web Site is Ready For the World to See
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