In this day and age, parents and teachers can interact with each other via the Internet, through email. A teacher can also build a website to update parents on the goings-on in class, dates of tests and upcoming field trips. This makes it convenient to communicate with parents who have odd or long work hours, and building a teacher web site is easier than you might think.

Purchase your domain name. This would be the name of your website, and it's what your students and their parents will put into the address bar on their Internet browser to get to your site. Choose a name that will be easy to remember, such as mrsjoneswebsite.com.

Purchase a hosting plan. Paying monthly hosting fees is like paying "rent" to a hosting site so that it will host (or store) your website's pages on its large servers.

Create your site using your knowledge of html, xml, or xhtml. If you don't know any of those programming languages, you can use a site-building program to build your site. Godaddy.com (see Resources) has an easy-to-use website building software called Website Tonight, which makes it easy for beginners to build a website in a matter of a few hours.

Make pages on your site. Pages you might want to include are topics the class is currently studying, dates of upcoming exams, dates of class parties and a list of ways parents can contact you (email, school phone number, your office hours).

Send a note home with your students, informing parents of the URL of your new website.