Your Rockstar Mission:

The Basics

1. Decide on a theme for the site you will create. Ideally this should be something you or your students could use next year.
   • A classroom website with information for students and parents
   • A template site for student e-portfolios
   • A class project website
   • A student report website
   • A professional portfolio
   • A site to collect and reflect on resources from your CUE Rockstar Summer Camp experience
   • Something else?
2. Create your Google Site in sites.google.com or in your Google Apps account.
   • Choose a site theme
   • Set sharing permissions
3. Add pages and content to your site.
   • Add at least one of each of the 4 types of pages: Web Page, Announcements, File Cabinet, and List
   • Embed Google content: Documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, YouTube video and/or video uploaded to Google Drive, Calendar, Maps
   • Add images: from your computer and from Picasa
   • Add external links
   • Use gadgets to bring site content to your home page
   • On Google+? Add a +1 to your site.
   • Set page level permissions
4. Add another person in the room as a collaborator on your site.

Resources:

• Google Sites Guides
• Google Apps Training Module
• Using Google Sites for Class Webpages by Eric Curts
• Working With Google Sites by Tony Amsler
• Google Sites in the Classroom Crib Sheet
• Google Sites Training Videos
• Google Sites for Teachers by Richard Byrne
• Getting Started with Google Sites by Catlin Tucker
• +1 button in Google Sites

Intermediate/Advanced

1. Navigation: Edit sidebar navigation to control the order and/or create horizontal navigation.
2. Site Look & Feel:
   • Customize the colors and fonts on your site
   • Add a custom background or custom banner to the header of your site.
3. Add a Favicon to your site.
4. Embed content from another site or add a useful gadget of some kind.
   • The RSS feed from your blog or a favorite blog you follow
   • A presentation from Slideshare.
   • A Voicethread or a Glog or other digital content your students may have created.
   • A Revolver Map or a ClustrMap (students love to see dots on these)
   • Your Twitter feed or the Twitter feed of your favorite chat
5. Page Templates: Customize the layout of a page on your site and save this as a page template and then use it to create a new page.
6. Site Template: Save your site layout as a template.
   1. NOTE: If you do this, any changes you make to the site will also be reflected in the template.
7. Do you have a page with a lot of content? Add a Table of Contents!
8. Add threaded discussions to your site.
9. Google Apps Scripts:
   • Assignment Turn-in
   • Subscribe Box
   • Set up a page for each student in your class
10. Add the ability for non-editors of a site to leave a comment
11. Turn on Google Analytics for your site.

Resources:

• Changing Your Site's Layout
• Managing Navigation on your Google Classroom Site (video)
• Creating a custom banner by Molly Schroeder (video)
  • Colourlovers - to create background pattern
  • Ribbet or Pixlr (in place of Picnik)
• Animated/Custom Image Sliders
• Adding a Favicon for your Google Site
• Gadget Gallery & Development
• Google Sites: Add a Revolver Map (video)
  • NOTE: This is a video I created for my students using the older version of Google Sites so some things have changed slightly and some of the sizing recommendations were specific to where they would be adding the code.
  • Revolver Maps
  • ClustrMaps (account required)
• Create Page Templates
• Site Templates
• Assignment Turn-in Script for Google Sites by Molly Schroeder (video)
  • Note: Molly refers to collections; these are now folders
• Subscribe to Site Changes
• pageMeister - Create a page for a list of students
• Add Comments using a Form
• Add a Twitter Feed
• Insert a Table of Contents
• Embedding Discussions
• Configure Google Analytics for Google Sites

Need more help? Try searching for whatever you need and including "google sites" in your search terms.