Ways to spice up your class website

As a new school year creeps closer, teachers are busy preparing their rooms.  Creating an online presence can be a great way to communicate with parents, yet many teachers don't have a well-maintained class website.


Here are some great options and examples of simple, free sites:
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1. Shutterfly- Who knew Shutterfly lets you create a class website on their page?!  The amazing feature is that parents can upload pictures or purchase pictures from the site.  They are password protected for privacy.  Shutterfly even lets you add calendars, roosters, and more!  Here is my Shutterfly page.  *Note: I use shutterfly only for pictures- my main site is through Blogger.
2. Blogger- We know it, we love it.  But for a class website?  Absolutely!  I LOVE the layout, overall look, and simplicity of blogger.  Here is my blogger classroom website, created with blogger.  Ladybug's Teacher Files have amazing video tutorials about how to completely customize blogger and make it a truly amazing webpage!  I will be spiffying up my website soon!  :)

Extra things to spice up your class website:

Design Her Gals

Add a little fun into your website by creating an animated version of yourself.  I have one at the top of all of my websites.  They are free to create and use online, but you can also purchase business cards and customized stationary featuring your creations!

Glogster Gloster is basically a virtual poster creator. Here is a gallery of online posters created with Glogster.  I actually used a glogster poster with hyperlinks as my classwebsite for part of one year.  It's free for educators!

Animoto
Animoto is a fast, easy way to create and share videos online.  Perfect for school websites!  Check out this elementary school's animoto video promoting their clubs.

Edumodo

"Secure social networking for teachers and students" is edumodo's mantra.  A great tool for class blogging!

Voki
An animated avatar (cartoon) of yourself- you can even add your own voice!  So for your website, you could have a Voki that plays a message to your students.  Here is a list of 20 different ways to use Vokis in education.
Here is my Voki:

What are your favorite examples of great class websites?  Link 'em up so we can all get new ideas!