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You’ve got a great group of creative kids and someone other than you should know about it, right? Lots of educators seem to be publishing their students’ work, but how are they doing it? Here’s what you need to know to get your students’ work out into the world.

Why?

Why publish your students’ work? There are lots of reasons for choosing to publish.

Motivation

Perhaps the biggest reason is to motivate your students. We teach our students that creative work is intended for an audience, whether it is writing, visual art, photography, video, theater, or dance. Students know that their work has little audience outside of you, their classroom, and their parents. Offering students a larger audience increases their motivation for creative work and often the quality of the work itself.

Self-confidence

When you choose to publish a student’s work, it sends the message that you believe the work to be valuable and worth sharing with others. Seeing a project come to completion through publishing gives students a sense of accomplishment, boosting their self-confidence, which can spill over into all areas of the students’ lives.

Inspiration

We often think of inspiring our students, but forget our students’ ability to inspire. Your students likely inspire you on a daily basis. Why not let them inspire others? Children aren’t just the adults of the future, they are people in the here and now. They have something to contribute to the world around them. Let their voices be heard!

When?

When should be publish students’ work? Consider each of the following before making the decision to go public.

Privacy

Can you safeguard your students’ privacy? Whether publishing on the internet or in a more local forum, it is impotant that you know what information you can and can’t release about a student. You should always check with your administrator before publishing.

Intellectual Property

Even though the work was created in your classroom based on an assignment you created, students own all rights to their creative work. You must have written permission (if the student is under 18, from a parent or guardian) to publish that work on behalf of the student.

The Work Itself

Is the work ready to be published? We shouldn’t publish any and all student work, it must be carefully chosen. Choosing to publish sends a message to the student and others about your opinion of the quality of the work. Be sure that your opinion of the work warrants the compliment you are about to pay it. Only quality work should be published. Publishing sub-standard work sends the wrong message to students about what you expect of them.

How?

So you have chosen student work that you feel is ready to publish. Now what? Here are some resources you can use to find places to publish your students’ work.

 is a huge online student art museum that is in partnership with the National Art Education Association.

 is a site where teen writers and artists can publish, read, and share their work. 

 allows users to create digital portfolios.  It was not created specifically for students, but it does have a limited free version that could be especially useful to older students.

is a social networking service where artists can curate a feed with content related to their art form. 

 allows you to create and print your own magazine, on –demand, with no minimum number to run.

is an online literary platform where high school students around the globe can submit their writing or join an editing team. 

 inspires children through age 13 to publish original art, poetry, and stories. Children can even write reviews.

is a creative writing platform for making visual stories and publishing student work.

is a creative web development platform for building an online presence or portfolio. Intuitive and free. No coding or design skills necessary.