I received an email this morning from School Rack informing me of some new features and free services that they have rolled out just in time for back-to-school season. School Rack now offers a free service for teachers to build and host their own classroom websites. Unlike other free website solutions that are targeted toward a general audience, School Rack has features designed specifically for teachers. On your School Rack website you can post assignments with full descriptions, expectations, and deadlines. This is an integrated feature, not an add-on page that you have to create yourself. See the screen capture below.

Not only can you post assignments to your School Rack website, you can also collect assignments through your School Rack account.

School Rack offers students and parents free accounts to communicate with teachers. Once your students and parents have activated their accounts, you can directly message individuals or send messages to groups that you have created.

In all School Rack offers a very good service for teachers. I have only two concerns about School Rack. First, the user interface is a little cluttered when you’re getting started. Second, the free version limits you to thirty group members and limits the number of files you can upload in a month. The group limit of thirty members is probably large enough though for most elementary school uses.

Applications for Education
School Rack could be a very good choice for creating your classroom website. If you’re looking for a system for posting assignments and communicating with parents, this may be just what you need.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free
Moogo – Create a Free Website
Jimdo – Great Option for Building Your Website