A Website Story

“Ready, Set...Art,” an art lesson resource posted on Caroline Nayʼs website.

Caroline Nay

I have always said that the two greatest things to happen to the art room over the last twenty years are Microsoft PowerPoint and the microphone. But for me, a website for students to access has to be the third. It was a lengthy process for me to create a website, with many epic fails along the way. This article chronicles that process.

Choosing Your Platform
A few years ago, I paid to use a website creator that I felt had good templates to work from. After a year of using it, I decided that it was too fancy and time-consuming. Then I tried Google Sites. It’s free to use, but there are some things you have to pay for later.

I used my school email to create the website, which turned out to be a mistake because the site would not be searchable online. If people outside the school district wanted to see it, I would have to Google-share it each time.

Starting over, I used my personal email to make a new website, and that worked much better. Using the site is free, but due to the amount of data that it uses up, I paid an extra premium, which I believe is justified. An art website with lots of photos and demonstration videos inevitably takes up a lot of space.

Designing the Website
I watched many tutorials on how to use Google Sites, and they were all very helpful. One great feature to add is a Google Form for people to contact you. My overall design approach was to have a home page that starts with “What’s New?” with a link to my blog where I explain my philosophy and what’s on the site. At the top are tabs for Contact Form, Blog, a link to a workbook I wrote, and the art levels that I teach.

Making Your Site Searchable
I did a search for how to make your Google site searchable and found many step-by-step videos. The videos show how to index your site through Google Analytics to create an account and get the Measurement ID number. Then you copy that number, open a tab to get to the Google Search Console and add a site map, and paste in the Measurement ID. I found it difficult to read the how-to articles and after trying to follow the steps, I found it to be much easier to open a tab and have one of the tutorial videos playing while doing this. I watched a step, paused the video, and did that step. When it was all done, I tried to do a search and the website didn’t come up right away, but after waiting twenty-four hours, it worked.

Videos
You can upload your demonstration videos to your Google Videos, but that takes up lots of space. I prefer to upload my videos to my YouTube channel, which is much easier to access. For the most part, I make demonstration videos using my phone, upload them to my computer, and then use Video Editor to add the titles.

Having a website for your art room is another useful tool in today’s ever-advancing technological age.

For art show or art history videos, I like to use Animoto because it has easy-to-use templates that you can upload your photos into. These videos are also uploaded to YouTube. Animoto is free to use for the first year; after that, there’s a subscription fee. Make sure to change the image size of your photos, otherwise they may not upload properly.

The Benefits
It’s great to have one place where students can access their lessons, exams, and videos. When the school district’s online platform goes down, students can still access their assignments. Visually, it looks professional and beautiful. For counselors and administrators, it’s easy for showing students and parents the type of lessons I teach. Having your own personal website is a great advantage to the art room.

Caroline Nay is an art teacher at Faiss Middle School in Las Vegas, Nevada.