The NEW Google Sites

Creating a Teacher Website in 10 Steps

Feb. 28, 2017

One of the easiest ways to have open communication with students and parents is to have and maintain a teacher website. The website doesn’t need to be complicated or fancy, nor does it need host all your course documents, in its most basic form, a teacher website just needs to contain a few key pieces of information:

a short bio about yourself
a picture of you
your contact information
information about the courses you teach (a simple link to the course outline would work).

The NEW Google Sites

The New Google Sites is a great tool that is easy to use and makes it virtually impossible to create a bad website. I’m not kidding, you would actually need to work pretty hard to make it look awful.

For this reason I highly recommend using it to anyone with or without website experience. I currently use Google Sites for this site: MD EdTech Support, and my teacher website: Mrs. McKean’s Website (clever title I know).

This post will show you the in’s and out’s of the new Google Sites by providing a simple 10 step process for creating a teacher website.

Don’t forget you can also download the GSuite Training extension to help you too.

Creating a Teacher Website in 10 Steps

1. Create a New Site

To create a new Google Site you need to open Google Drive:

Go to New > More > Google Sites

DONE!

Your new site has been created and will open in a new window/tab.

To access and edit your site you can either open it directly through Drive (where it is saved) or through the Google Sites app.

2. Name your Site

Go to the new tab/window your new site opened in.

Notice the top left corner says Untitled Site - change this first

Click here and Name your site
This is the title/name that will show up on the tab in the web browser when people open your website
It does not change your Page Title or the sites URL

3. Change the Theme

On the right side bar select the THEMES Tab

Choose your Theme from the list provided.

Pick Your Theme
Pick Your Colour
Pick Your Font

Themes are preset colour and font options created by Google.

There are currently only 6 Themes to choose from but within each theme you have the option of 5 colours and 3 fonts.

Once you pick a Theme it will be applied to the entire site. You do not have the ability to choose colours or fonts that are not within the preset theme (see, it's really hard to make it look bad when you have very few options).

4. Change your Banner/Header

Some themes have pre-selected images as Banners - this CAN be changed

Hover your mouse over the banner on the preview (left) side of the page.

Select Change Image
Select a Preset Image or Upload Your Own.

You can also adjust the banner size by selecting on the options in Header Type.

5. Add Content to your Site

Use the INSERT Menu (on the right)

Add Text using Text box
Add Images - options include:
- Upload files from your computer
- Add images with a URL
- Add images from Google Search
- Add images from a photo album
- Add images from Google Drive
Add from another website using Embed URL
Add Other Content from your computer using Upload
Add from Google Drive - From Drive
Embed YouTube, Google Calendars, Google Maps
Add From Google Docs
- Docs
- Slides
- Sheets
- Forms
- Charts

Double Click Wheel Menu

Double clicking anywhere on your webpage will open the Wheel Insert Menu. Use this to quickly insert:

Text
Images
URL web content
Items From Drive
Uploads from your computer

Important Tip When Inserting Items from Drive

When adding items to your Google Site from Drive you must set the sharing permission of your Doc, Slides, Sheets etc. to Anyone can view.

Here are some options to do this:

Check out my post HERE on how to change the permission for your documents
Add and use this awesome extension from Alice Keeler - AnyoneCanView.
Create a folder for all website items and set the permission of that folder to Public on the web
- Right click on folder > Get Shareable Link > Link Sharing ... More > On - Public on the web

6. Adding Pages

To Add Pages and Subpages to your site:

Go to the PAGES tab
Click on the Add Page Button (shown in image on left)
Name your New Page
Hit DONE

To reorder or create subpages Click and Drag pages up or down.

7. Adjust the Navigation Menu

The navigation menu will most often default to a horizontal top layout aligned to the right side of the page - shown in the image on the left

If you would like to change your navigation to a vertical menu (see image below) on the left side of the page:

Hover over the navigation bar on the left (where the page title is)
A gear icon will appear. Click it
Select Side Navigation

8. Preview Site

Preview Mode

You can always preview your site prior to publishing it by clicking on the eye icon.

In preview mode you will be able to see what your website will look like in a regular computer browser window or on a smartphone without the edit menus of Google Sites.

To exit preview mode, click the X button.

9. Publish Site

Once you are happy with your site you will need to publish it to the web.

To do this:

Click the Blue Publish button
Give your site an appropriate URL
- All sites include sd61learn.ca/
- Add your site name after the /
  - in the image I have added newteachersite
- A blue checkmark will appear if that site name is available
Change Who can visit my site to “Anyone on the web”
Hit Publish

A new window/tab with your published site will open.

Note: You will need to hit the Publish button every time you make a change to your website.

10. Share Your Site

There are several ways you can share your website with others:

Give out the entire URL web address
- Copy the URL of your published site (make sure it's your Published link, not your edit link)
- Paste it in an email or post it up in your Classroom
If your URL is too long use a url shortener extension like goo.gl or bit.ly
- Both of these extensions will create a shortened version of your website URL
- Example: https://goo.gl/TBkv1C < I used goo.gl to create this link to the MD EdTech website.
Share your link with Jill or Aaron to post next to your contact info on the Mount Doug website
- This is probably the easiest way to share your site
- Simply direct students or parents to mountdoug.sd61.bc.ca > Staff Info Page

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