Good morning! I'm Catherine Lyons, and I've taught fourth grade in central Ohio for twenty-three years. In the fall of 1998 I started a class home page, mostly so I could stop answering the same three questions every Monday ("What's the spelling list?" "When is the field trip?" "Did he have homework last night?"). By Christmas, half the teachers in my building had asked me how to make one. This is my answer, written down so I can stop giving it in the teachers' lounge with my mouth full.

The good news first: a class page doesn't have to be fancy, and it doesn't have to take your evenings. Mine takes twenty minutes a week. The families don't want dancing bears. They want the spelling list.

Lesson 1: What to put up

Think of the page as the refrigerator door. Put on it what families look for when they're standing in the kitchen at 8:15 on a school night.

• This week's homework, day by day. This is the one they'll check most.

• The spelling list, with the test day. Grandparents print it and quiz on the phone. I've heard it happen.

• "What we're learning this week." Three or four sentences: what we're reading, what we're doing in math, social studies and science. This gives families something to ask about at dinner besides "How was school?" (Answer: "Fine.")

• Field trip dates and when the permission slip is due.

• The supply list, so nobody has to call you in August.

• How to reach you, and how fast you'll answer.

That's it. If you never add another thing, you'll have a page families use every week.

Lesson 2: What never to put up

A class page is out on the whole World Wide Web, where anyone can read it, not just your families. Write every word as if a stranger were reading it, because one will be.

• Children's last names. Ever. Not on the honor roll, not on the birthday list, not on the "Star of the Week."

• Photographs with names. A picture of the class at the science fair is lovely. A picture with a name under a face is something else. My rule is no faces at all, just hands at work, backs of heads and projects, and I've never had a parent complain that the volcano was too recognizable.

• Anything that says where the children will be, and when. This one is easy to miss. "The fourth grade will be at the nature center from 9:30 to 1:00 on Thursday" tells a stranger exactly where to find a busload of nine-year-olds. Put the date on the page and send the details home on paper. Same for recess times, bus stops and after-school practices.

Get written permission before any child's work goes up. I send a letter home in September asking whether I may post their child's writing or artwork on the class page, with a first name only, and I keep the signed slips in a folder in my desk. If there's no slip, the work stays on the bulletin board in the hall, where it's just as admired. First names only, even with permission, and if there are two Ashleys, it's "Ashley R." and that's as far as it goes.

I don't name our school on the class page either. The families know where it is.

Lesson 3: Twenty minutes a week

A class page that's out of date is worse than none, because parents stop trusting it. The trick is to make it a routine as fixed as lunch count. Here's mine:

Notice what isn't on the schedule: new pictures, new colors, new anything. Once the page is set up, you change the words, not the page. That's what the fill-in-the-blanks template is for.

Lesson 4: Answer within a day

Once you have a class page, you'll get e-mail from parents. That's a good thing; it's a parent who might never have called. But if you put an e-mail address on the page, promise how fast you'll answer, and keep the promise. Mine says "within one school day." I check at 7:00 in the morning and again after supper, and that isn't counted in my twenty minutes, because answering parents isn't page work. It's teaching.

Two things I've learned: anything about a grade, a behavior problem or a child's health gets a phone call or a conference, not an e-mail. And absences go to the school office, not to me, so they get recorded. Say both of those right on the page.

Lesson 5: Look at how other teachers do it

Here are two class pages on GeoCities.us that I send people to:

Mrs. Okafor's Second Grade. Mrs. Okafor says near the top that she doesn't put children's names or photographs on her page, and that she doesn't name her school, because the page is out on the whole wide Internet. Then she gives families exactly what they need: the class news, the week's spelling lists, a reading log and the field trip, and she tries to update it every weekend. It's warm and it's careful at the same time, which is the whole trick.

Mr. Delgado's 7th Grade Science. Middle school is a different animal, and Mr. Delgado's page shows it: homework posted every Sunday night, a day-by-day homework table, the lab safety rules and the whole science fair timeline. And he promises to answer e-mail within one day, usually the same night. Good for him.

Ms. Mondragon, who teaches kindergarten down the hall from me and is in her third year, looked at both of those, then used my template and had her page up in one lunch period. Mrs. Mather, across the hall, took two weekends, but she's a perfectionist and her page is beautiful. Either way works.

Homework for you

1. Read this page. (Done!)

2. Open the fill-in-the-blanks template, copy it, fill it in with this week, and put it up.

3. Send the address home on paper, and tell families how often you'll update it.

4. Pick your twenty minutes and write them in your plan book in ink.

You may notice I don't link to my own class page from here. It's for my families, and they already have the address. It's on the refrigerator magnet I send home every September.

Visitors since January 1999: Questions from teachers are welcome: [email protected] Last updated Sunday, September 19, 1999