More Online Information

Today's speaker really brought back a ton of ideas I had about putting my school's paper online.  I previously posted about how I made that decision, but thought I would share some of the things I learned along the way.

A screenshot of our website, www.theboltonpawprint.com

First, as Alan demonstrated, it really helps to have a student do all of the work.  I originally was going to have full control of how things were to look, updated, and approval over content.  What I found was that I really didn't have the time to learn a new type of publication.  WordPress on SNO is not hard, but does require some work.  I asked a trusted student to take control of the website.  I gave him clearance for all posts, but only him.  (I have had this student on my staff for several years, so I knew he would take things seriously.)  

He immediately took off with the site, rearranging the look, design and color choices I had already put in place.  And it worked.  Much better than the mess I had made.  

I then set the class up on a two week rotation for posting new content online.  The class was split into Team A and Team B, and each team member had to post at least one item in their time period.  Team A had two weeks, then Team B.  It worked, mostly.

When we bought the site, we put "www.thebotlonpawprint.com" on any surface we could find.  We made posters, magnets, videos (which we posted on the morning announcements).  We had contests to get readers ("the first ten people who tell a Paw Print Staffer...wins a movie pass")  

For my part, I emailed teachers to get story ideas from them.  I encouraged them to use our site for teaching purposes.  I promised we would cover their awards, achievements, etc..  And a few actually listened.  

So now I have had this experience, I cannot wait to get back and really make our site take off.  Measure progress in long term gains, not just over a few days work.    

Kelly Robinson