Always go with paid hosting if you can. Then you don't have to worry about dealing with any TOS issues with the blogging platform.

Best of all, you have total control to customize things the way you want them to be and can always protect your work.

There are exceptions, but for your project I would definitely recommend paid hosting.

If you are targeting US customers, then use US hosting provider.

If you use a "blog host" (Blogger, etc), then understand that you do not own the site.
Paid hosting is always better.
You can control what goes on with your own site.
Be sure to use a good host, like Site5 or Veerotech -- not Godaddy, Hostgator, etc.

With the economy the way it is right now, new entrepreneurs are looking for ways to save money in their start up costs. Every one seems to be looking for free web hosting but they really don’t understand the cost to their business by doing this.
But free isn't free....free web hosting companies need to make money somehow. They do this by inserting advertising into your page and you have no control over what advertising is shown.
And remember one thing free web hosting does not last for longer. Personally i never found free hosting appealing.
i am using IX WEB HOSTING http://www.ixwebhosting.com/. It is a paid hosting service.
IX provides unlimited storage space , bandwidth and domain. Also 15 free IP address , 3 domain names , website builder and 1 click installer.
They have 24*7 technical support.
So beware of fake services and give them a try !

IX is a terrible host.

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paid hosting

With a paid host you can install multiple scripts and other stuff... beside your blog. With a blog paid host, you can install and use on your domain only that blog. If you want to have a site based only on WP, better pay for a WP host and thats is your only concern, nothing else about cpanel and hosting stuff...Your provider should do anything he can to make your blog work properly.

I'd go for paid hosting. Bluehost is ok I guess. I'm currently on Hostgator. No problem so far.

The WordPress screenplay set up inside only two moments, using simply a single just click on the computer mouse button? That is feasible in reference to his world-wide-web apps set up specialist - it implies that one could initialize more than 50 favorite PHP apps using simply a single computer mouse button just click. A computerized database generation possibility can be had too

A combination is best.. blogging services are basically instant SEO... ideally you can set up several small blogs on blogging services that provide teasers and point to your hosted blog... be careful though not to come off as spinning articles...

If want to get started with a blog, rest assured that there are many options available. When it comes to free blog hosting, WordPress is clearly the most popular. Getting started is easy. Simply visit WordPress.com, sign up for a free account, name your blog, choose a template and stat posting. You get an administrative area to manage your categories and posts, built-in themes, widgets and other customizable features. Whether it is WordPress or any other platform, you can usually get up and running fairly quickly.

The downside to free blog hosting is that it leaves you limited. For instance, there are rules that restrict the posting of advertisements, a factor that prevents you from generating ad revenue. This is a crucial blow because many bloggers live off third-party advertisements, Google AdSense and other programs. Another drawback is that you can’t brand your name into the domain. For example, if you sign up for a free WordPress account, your domain would read something like myblogsite.wordpress.com as opposed to myblogsite.com. It may seem like a small difference but identity is vital for any website and it starts with a domain name. When considering that free blog hosting generally suffers from a lack of themes and add-on modules, it might have you thinking twice about what you’re willing to sacrifice.

Paid hosting. It's a no brainer. If you're unable to setup a site yourself, just pay someone else to. It's pretty cheap.

I agreed. Paid hosting is def. a better option b/c you have full control over it. Setting up it's not that hard and you can use wordpress on the backend side

IMO, paid hosting is right choice for You.

I recently setup a site with http://digitalocean.com they are a cloud based hosting meaning you have direct access to the server (root) and can install and do whatever you want with it. There base servers are 5$ and they have tools on the admin to do a one button wordpress install (webserver, php, mysql, etc). It was really fast and you get a server which can also be used for many other things.

Consider using a package like Movable Type or WordPress for the blog portion of the site. WordPress is free, and Movable Type is free for personal use. Movable Type prices for education are quite reasonable ($300 for up to 300 students). Both are quote robust, configurable, and are extendable by writing modules.

For hosting, if your school provides hosting space that satisfies the requirements for either package, that should be good enough. Alternatively, you can order a domain name (upwards of $35/year, though you can find much lower prices if you shop around) and pay a provider for hosting (depending on the amount of space you need and your potential traffic, this can cost anywhere from $5/month to $50/month or more). I'd suggest investigating what your school offers before paying for a domain name and hosting.

For the "rest" of the web page, I'd just stick with the blogs and provide a directory of student and teacher blogs. Have your teacher setup his or her blog as the main class resource.