1. Go to Appearance > Themes.  On the taskbar, click on your blog’s name and select “Dashboard”. Then click on “Appearance” and next “Themes”.   Check out all of the colorful, unique themes and pick the one that suits you best. Click activate. You can change your theme at any time. Be sure to look at your theme and see how user friendly it is, especially after you create your About Me page.  If you don’t like it, you can always change it.   For more information on how to do this, click here.

TIP:  YOU CAN ALWAYS GO TO YOUR DASHBOARD TO EDIT ANYTHING!!!

2. Here’s how you create your About page:

1.  Go to Pages > Add new.

2.  Title your page  About Me.

3.  Now just add your About Me information in the provided box.  State your first name and then share about yourself. REMEMBER IT IS PUBLIC!  Tell the interesting things about yourself. Share your dreams and goals.  What do you want the world to know about you?  REMEMBER:  we are not sharing phone numbers, addresses, emails, or anything like that.  Your pages, posts, and comments ALL must be approved by me.  SEVEN SENTENCE MINIMUM. When finished, click Save as Draft (if you are not ready to turn in to me) or Submit. Use good grammar! Use capital letters correctly and complete sentences.

You do not have time to just sit there or goof off! For every minute you are idle, you are creating a minute of online homework for yourself!

freewarmcoffee.com

(Tolisano-Langwitches, Silvia. “ Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Part II-B: Student Writing.” Langwitches Silvia RosenthalTolisano, WordPress, 11 Dec. 2011, http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/12/11/learning-about-blogs-for-your-students-part-ii-b-student-writing/.)

“What is a Blog.” YouTube, Edublogs, 19 May 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDxg5ODEXEQ&list=PLQCsl8AO_KPX1qfrk1ZKFXoD5hURrW0yX&index=1.

Hernandez, Andrea & Silvia Tolisano. “The Possibilities of Blogging.” YouTube, uploaded by Andrea Hernandez, 8 Mar. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZzHjzw6Fs&index=4&list=PLQCsl8AO_KPX1qfrk1ZKFXoD5hURrW0yX

 “Leaving High Quality Blog Comments.” YouTube, uploaded by Nicolas Weiss,  11 Mar. 2014,  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgriSvP9HGo&list=PLQCsl8AO_KPX1qfrk1ZKFXoD5hURrW0yX&index=3.

Silvia Tolisano-Langwitches has some great things to say on this topic.  Basically, the three biggest reasons people may have an aversion to blogging are:

1.  They believe they have nothing interesting to say
2.  They believe they are not good writers or don’t like writing.
3.  They believe they don’t have time.

She cleverly responds to each of these issues.  Although she is addressing educators, her message applies to you, too.  To read her rebuttals for each of these concerns, read http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/11/26/learning-about-blogs-for-your-students-part-ii-writing/

and watch this video:

“Step 11: Setting Up Student Blogs.” Edublogs, WordPress, 2016, http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-11-set-up-student-blogs/.

I am so excited to have you in my class!!! This year, we will be learning the basics of digital citizenship via blogging!  As world citizens, it is imperative that you feel comfortable and develop a safe online presence.  Blogging is a learning experience for me, too, so we will be learning the ins and outs of this together!  When you submit a comment, I will have to approve it before it is published online.  There are many ways that you might be expected to comment: for example, you may be required to comment  after reading an article, a poem, or a story.  We will eventually get to commenting on peers in the classroom and around the world.  You potentially will be even creating your own blog – but we will begin with baby steps.  My goal is to make you a good writer with a safe, responsible online presence.  Technology has crept into every occupation, every way of life. We can’t avoid it or play ignorant!  Hopefully, this will be a great step into making technology your friend, not your foe.

Class of 2019, get ready!!!

We will soon begin blogging! That’s right! You will be in charge of your own personal blog!

I can’t wait!!!

Hello, my lovelies!

Today we are adding categories (if you have not already done so) and widgets.

1.  Go to Dashboard > Posts > Categories.  Create a category called Creative Writing and a category for  Personal Posts. You can call this category My Personal Posts, or if you already know what you want to blog about, you can be more specific. For example, you might call it Delicious Recipes, Illustrations, Gaming, etc.  You can also create more than one category for your personal posts if you wish.

2.   Next up:  widgets!  Let’s take a look at exactly what widgets are in this video.  It basically shows you all you need to know about widgets.  For some examples of what widgets look like, click here.

Now, go to Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets. For this assignment, please add the following widgets to your sidebar in your preferred location by clicking, holding, and dragging them into the sidebar area:

1.  class blog (move ((click, hold, and drag)) from “Available Widgets” into your sidebar)
2.  flag counter (see http://www.flagcounter.com)
3.  traffic counter (see http://www.feedjit.com)
4. one more of your choice (look in “Available Widgets”)

Please be leery of adding a ton of widgets. They can be a distraction to the true content of your blog!

3.  If you have not already done so, comment on at least one of your classmate’s blog posts. If time permits, comment on two classmates!

Categories, widgets, and comments due at the end of class!