05 Create A Professional Page
Your Professional Page is what visitors see when they click on your hyperlinked name in the Staff Directory. Before anyone can see your Professional Page, however, you must initialize it. [Obviously you must also add some content, or visitors will find it empty!]
It takes just three steps to initialize your page:
- Log into SchoolLoop.
- Click "My Website" at the top of your portal.
- Click the "Publish" button.
Those steps will set a blank template as your Professional Page, and create a hyperlink on your name in the Staff Directory leading to it. It's equally simple to remove the hyperlink. Just click the "Change" button to the right of where it says "Site is published":
Adding Content To Your Page
Your Professional Page represents you to the world! It sends a message to anyone who visits (parents, students, the general public) who you are, and what you're about. For that reason, it may take some thought to decide what you want.
Luckily, others have confronted this challenge before, and various good ideas can be identified. For example:
- A nice photo of you,
- A thought-provoking quotation.
- A list of your credentials.
- An introductory letter to parents.
- Your class rules.
- A regularly-updated blog describing the work you assign each day.
- Pictures of your students.
- An interesting cartoon.
It may help to look at pages that other teachers have done. Move your mouse around the page that comes up when you click the blue link preceding this sentence, and find its hyperlinks (places where the page turns gold). Click to see the Professional Pages of other Hamilton teachers from the past.
A good "minimum page" probably includes at least a) your photo, and b) a thought-provoking quotation. A list of your college degrees and some information about your teaching credentials would also be a good idea.
Step-By-Step Guide: Create A Professional Page
Here is a step-by-step example showing how "Joe Smith", supposedly a new Latin Teacher at Hamilton, sets up his Professional Page. Here is his procedure, which you can follow, too:
Joe first surfs to lbhamilton.schoolloop.com, and logs into School Loop.
Joe looks for the icon marked "My Website," at the top of the page, and clicks it.
The unpublished, blank template for Joe's Professional Page appears. Joe has previously located a thoughtful quotation. To key it in, he clicks the pencil on the top box.
A text editor appears. Joe clicks into the text area, types his quote, then clicks "Save & Exit".
Joe can now see his quote in the template. He wants to add his picture, which is located on a thumb drive that he has plugged into his USB port. He clicks the pencil on the box to the right.
In the optional "Title" box, Joe types, "It's me: Joe Smith!". He clicks the Browse button, then navigates to where his picture is stored on his thumb drive.
Joe selects the photo he wants, then clicks "Open".
A window labeled "Upload a Photo" appears, showing the file-name of the photo show in it. Joe clicks the button "Save & Exit".
Joe's quotation and picture are now both visible in the template. Joe doesn't want a "Calendar' or "Notes" section on his page, so he clicks the trash can on those boxes to remove them.
Joe is ready to add his qualifications. He creates a NEW box by clicking the green plus sign under his quote. (You can add a new box wherever there is a green plus sign.)
School Loop prompts Joe to choose the type of box he wants to add. He chooses "Rich Text Editor."
Joe types his qualifications, then clicks "Save and Exit" as before.
Joe is ready to publish his page. He clicks "Publish".
A green message, "Success!", appears. Joe clicks "Live View" to see how his page will look "live".
...And it looks pretty good!
