When creating a school website, there are several tools and low cost options to consider. I personally recommend WordPress because I use and love it, and because it is easy to set up several pages, add contact forms, and upload files and images pretty seamlessly. If you are adventurous, and have advanced tech skills, you can also look into your own hosting using WordPress as well as the many plugins available.Additionally, there are several others including: Wix, SquareSpace, and Weebly that also offer paid and free versions, as well as website “builders” that step you through the process. With WordPress, after choosing a site name, you can sign up for a .com or .org address and pay around $20/year to have your own url that doesn’t include .wordpress.com –which looks much more professional.
As mentioned in the previous post, there are several key pieces of information that should be included on a school website, such as:
- School name and location
- Contact info
- School faculty and staff
- Grades and subjects taught
- Access to grades and school email
- Admissions information
- Newsletter signup
- Contact info
- Calendar
In this series of posts, I will be demonstrating how to create and add these simple features to a standard WordPress website. Many of these features overlap in how to add them to your site, for example:
- n this series of posts, I will be demonstrating how to create and add these simple features to a standard WordPress website. Many of these features overlap in how to add them to your site, for example:
- Adding and editing a page
- Add and edit your About page to give information about your school
- Add a page telling about school faculty and staff, and include photos
- Grades and subjects taught
- Adding a contact form
- Adding widgets
- Embedding a calendar to list upcoming school events
- Adding a follow button, so parents and others can be notified of updates
- Adding an external link as a menu item
- Providing access to school email or grades
- Adding and editing a page
Let’s start with adding and editing a page.
First you will begin on the “My Sites” page (select this in the upper left corner). Once there you should see a menu along the left side of your page. Select “Add” next to the “Site Pages” button to add a page. From there you can easily edit the page, as well as add media by clicking the “Add” button in the upper left of the editing window. Media can include images of course, but WordPress also allows for Word documents, PDFs, and PowerPoints. This can be helpful when adding admissions forms, field trip permission forms, faculty photos, etc. This feature can be used in many ways, you will simply need to plan how to organize your website, what pages you would like to add, and what each one should contain.
Amanda M. Orozco 