Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
The Social Classroom
The Prezi below is an overview of the discussion in my mini-session about social media in the classroom on our district's "digital day of learning." Press the "play" button in the middle of the screen and use your arrow keys to navigate through the presentation. Click the square button in the bottom right corner of the Prezi to show the slides full-screen.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Publishing a Post on Blogger
Now that you've figured out how to start and customize your Blogger blog, it's time to start posting.
Click the orange pencil button on your dashboard to get started.
You'll see a screen that looks like this:
The narrow white box at the top of the screen is where you write your title. The wide white box in the bottom middle of the screen is where you write your actual post.
Here are your options in the post settings on the right side of the page:
Labels
Labels are a way to organize your posts by topic. For instance, this particular post has 5 labels: blog, blogger, communication, free, there's an app for that. Those are the topics I thought matched this post the most. Notice that in the picture above, there are lots of blue words. Those are the labels I've used in the past. If I want to use any of those labels in this blog post, I can either type them in the white box or click on them in the blue list below the white box. If there's a label I want to add that has never been added to my blog before, I have to type it in the white box. When you've added all the labels you want to add, click "done."
You can always go back and change your labels, although it can be tedious if you have a lot of blog posts. It's best to figure out what labels you'd like to use early in your blogging career.
Schedule
Click "schedule" to see some scheduling options. The default is set at "automatic," which means that articles will be posted as soon as you hit the orange "publish" button at the top right of the screen. Clicking the "set date and time" button lets you schedule to have your blog post published at a later date.
Permalink
By default, Blogger will use your post title in the permalink. That just means that that is the URL people will use to get to this blog post from now on once it's published. You can also enter a custom link if you need to.
I don't use the location option because I like my privacy, and Google is terrible about disregarding people's privacy. But you could post the location you were in while you wrote the post, if you wanted to.
Don't worry about the "options" tab for right now; you can use it later if you get the hang of blogging and HTML a little bit.
Now let's look at the bar between the title and the body text.
Disregard the compose/HTML buttons. All you need to know about that right now is that if you accidentally hit a button and everything on your typing screen looks very old-fashioned with lots of symbols and things that you don't remember typing, go back and click the "compose" button at the top.
Moving left to right:
The two arrows are undo and redo.
The "F" allows you to change between a few fonts.
The "T" changes the size of your blog post text.
I don't even know what the "normal" drop down box does; something with size, I think. It can't be that important, if I've been blogging without it for 4+ years. :)
B, I, U, are bold, italics, and underline options. The ABC with the line through it is astrike-through.
The A with the black box under it allows you to change the color of the text, while the button next to it changes the background of the text.
Clicking "link" gives you this pop-up:
which allows you to link to another website or to an e-mail address.
The button next to that allows you to insert photos into your blog posts. Click on it to see a pop-up similar to this:
In the big box to the right, you'll see thumbnail versions of all the pictures you've uploaded to your blog already today. {You can see the pictures that have already been featured in this post!} You can upload from your computer or, another website, an online album, or snag a photo you've already uploaded to your blog. Click on the picture you want to add to the blog and click "add selected." It will insert itself into your blog post, and you can play with the size, links, and captions from there.
Then we have a button to add videos.
It works much the same way the picture insertion button works.
The broken page icon allows you to insert a jump break into your post. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. :) I never use it.
The lines with the arrow allow you to change the justification of your text so that it's all on the left, all on the right, in the middle, etc.
Then you have options to add bullets in the form of numbers or shapes.
Add an indented quotation with the giant quotation mark button.
Take out the formatting in your post by clicking the T with the red x, and spell check your post by clicking the ABC with the green check mark.
When you're finished writing, you can click the "preview" button in the top right to see what the post will look like when it's published. {Links don't work in previews, BTW.} Click "save" if you want to save your work but not publish it yet. Click "publish" if you're ready to show your post to the world. :)
There are several apps that will allow you to publish to your Blogger account via a mobile device, but I have to warn you: they can be a little wonky. This one is probably your best bet, and it's free. :)
Click the orange pencil button on your dashboard to get started.
You'll see a screen that looks like this:
The narrow white box at the top of the screen is where you write your title. The wide white box in the bottom middle of the screen is where you write your actual post.
Here are your options in the post settings on the right side of the page:
Labels
Labels are a way to organize your posts by topic. For instance, this particular post has 5 labels: blog, blogger, communication, free, there's an app for that. Those are the topics I thought matched this post the most. Notice that in the picture above, there are lots of blue words. Those are the labels I've used in the past. If I want to use any of those labels in this blog post, I can either type them in the white box or click on them in the blue list below the white box. If there's a label I want to add that has never been added to my blog before, I have to type it in the white box. When you've added all the labels you want to add, click "done."
You can always go back and change your labels, although it can be tedious if you have a lot of blog posts. It's best to figure out what labels you'd like to use early in your blogging career.
Schedule
Click "schedule" to see some scheduling options. The default is set at "automatic," which means that articles will be posted as soon as you hit the orange "publish" button at the top right of the screen. Clicking the "set date and time" button lets you schedule to have your blog post published at a later date.
Permalink
By default, Blogger will use your post title in the permalink. That just means that that is the URL people will use to get to this blog post from now on once it's published. You can also enter a custom link if you need to.
I don't use the location option because I like my privacy, and Google is terrible about disregarding people's privacy. But you could post the location you were in while you wrote the post, if you wanted to.
Don't worry about the "options" tab for right now; you can use it later if you get the hang of blogging and HTML a little bit.
Now let's look at the bar between the title and the body text.
Disregard the compose/HTML buttons. All you need to know about that right now is that if you accidentally hit a button and everything on your typing screen looks very old-fashioned with lots of symbols and things that you don't remember typing, go back and click the "compose" button at the top.
Moving left to right:
The two arrows are undo and redo.
The "F" allows you to change between a few fonts.
The "T" changes the size of your blog post text.
I don't even know what the "normal" drop down box does; something with size, I think. It can't be that important, if I've been blogging without it for 4+ years. :)
B, I, U, are bold, italics, and underline options. The ABC with the line through it is a
The A with the black box under it allows you to change the color of the text, while the button next to it changes the background of the text.
Clicking "link" gives you this pop-up:
which allows you to link to another website or to an e-mail address.
The button next to that allows you to insert photos into your blog posts. Click on it to see a pop-up similar to this:
In the big box to the right, you'll see thumbnail versions of all the pictures you've uploaded to your blog already today. {You can see the pictures that have already been featured in this post!} You can upload from your computer or, another website, an online album, or snag a photo you've already uploaded to your blog. Click on the picture you want to add to the blog and click "add selected." It will insert itself into your blog post, and you can play with the size, links, and captions from there.
Then we have a button to add videos.
It works much the same way the picture insertion button works.
The broken page icon allows you to insert a jump break into your post. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. :) I never use it.
The lines with the arrow allow you to change the justification of your text so that it's all on the left, all on the right, in the middle, etc.
Then you have options to add bullets in the form of numbers or shapes.
Add an indented quotation with the giant quotation mark button.
Take out the formatting in your post by clicking the T with the red x, and spell check your post by clicking the ABC with the green check mark.
When you're finished writing, you can click the "preview" button in the top right to see what the post will look like when it's published. {Links don't work in previews, BTW.} Click "save" if you want to save your work but not publish it yet. Click "publish" if you're ready to show your post to the world. :)
There are several apps that will allow you to publish to your Blogger account via a mobile device, but I have to warn you: they can be a little wonky. This one is probably your best bet, and it's free. :)
Setting Up a Blogger Blog
A blog is a unique kind of social media website. It's social because it encourages others to interact with the main poster, usually in the form of commenting. But it's unique in that it allows the user to post multi-paragraph posts, as well as other media such as pictures, videos, and documents.
This website -- Innovate. Instruct. Inspire. -- is a blog that is directed at teachers; it is intended for other educators to read this site and glean information that could be useful in their classrooms. A blog could also be used as a classroom or grade level website that students and/or parents use to get information during the school year. Finally, it can also be a place for students to post their writing and/or discuss class-related topics.
First of all, please know that there are lots of blogging sites you could use. However, a lot of people choose Blogger because...
I currently maintain 4 blogs and help a friend with another, all without losing my mind. :) That's because Blogger is so easy to use! {Here is my old OUES blog if you want to take a look.} It's for this reason that this post will focus only on the Blogger platform for classroom blogging.
As discussed above, I think there are 3 main ways you can use Blogger as an educator:
Teacher Blogs
If you've ever been on Pinterest, you've surely seen some super-cute, practical, and/or just plain genius classroom ideas. If you clicked on the idea, you were probably taken to a blog.
The craze of teacher blogs has really picked up in the last few years, and I love it! Now, more than ever, teachers are creating websites solely intended to be viewed by other teachers so they can share the fabulous ideas they've used throughout the years. During my first two years of teaching, I spend a ton of time reading teacher blogs, and I attribute a lot of my good ideas to them.
As of late 2013, these are the top 50 elementary teacher blogs, as named by Teacher Certification Degrees.
As of December 2011, here are 50 must-see teacher blogs as named by Edudemic.
I would compile a list of who I think are the best bloggers, but then we'd be here for hours. :) There are two ways I've found fabulous blogs: via Pinterest and on other blogs. For instance, if you scroll down and look at the right side of this page, you'll come to a list that looks something like this:
I know I've got at least 20 or so EdTech blogs I read regularly listed in that section {you may have to click "show all" at the bottom of the list to see them all}. Click on any of those links to view the blogs. From there, look for similar lists. Just keep clicking and reading!
The benefit to having a teaching blog is that you have a way to write down all your cool ideas and share them with the world. You can also make blog friends that can help you with teaching-related problems when they arise. {Not to mention, I'm sure a teaching blog would look nice in your portfolio or resume!}
Classroom or Grade Level Website
I love the idea of a classroom website. It's a fabulous opportunity for students to access valuable classroom material outside the hours of 8 - 3:30 on weekdays.
You can post contact information {such as your e-mail address and links to your classroom social media sites}, the syllabus, supply list, due dates to upcoming assignments and events, copies of your lessons plans so that parents are more in-tune with what's happening and absent students don't wonder what they missed, outstanding working {I used to call this my "virtual refrigerator" page when I taught 8th grade. I would black out last names and post great work on the 'fridge just like my Mom used to do with me.}, learning links, and so much more. On my Science Lab blog, I used to post a short blurb about what activities each grade level did with me each week. I felt like it was one way to help connect families to the Science Lab from home.
Classroom Blog with Student Contributions
You can also have students write posts for the blog. They can be about anything! In my class, I might have students type their lab write-up for the day with pictures from their experiment.
When I taught English, I had students volunteer to post their short stories and essays on the blog.
I also posted a blog with thought-provoking questions and asked the students to discuss the topic in the comment section. Students were required to respond with their original thoughts on the discussion question as well as respond back to another student who had posted. It was a great opportunity to extend the thinking, work on Internet navigation and etiquette, and to improve typing skills.
How do I get started?
Like I said, there are lots of other blogging websites, but this post will focus on Blogger. If you already have a g-mail, YouTube, or Google Drive account, you already have a Blogger account. Just go to www.blogger.com and log in with that same username and password. If you don't already have a Google account like the ones mentioned above, click HERE to sign up for one. Once you log in, you'll see your dashboard, will will be empty if you've never set up a Blogger blog before.
Find and click this button in your Blogger dashboard to get started:
You'll see a pop-up that looks like this:
Type a name for your blog in the "title" box {don't worry -- you can change it later}.
In the "address" box, type the URL you'd like people to enter in order to get to your blog. Most people make this the same as their blog name, but it's not mandatory. Notice that your blog's address will end in .blogspot.com unless you purchase your own domain name and apply it to your blog.
Choose any of the templates -- you can change that later, too -- and click the orange "create blog!" button.
From there, you will see an overview of your blog:
You don't have to customize your blog at all if you don't want to; you could just click "new post" and start writing! {Click HERE to read my article about publishing a post on Blogger.}
Take a look at the options over to the left:
Here's what you can do if you click on each of those options:
Pages: at the top of this page, you should see 3 tabs: home, about, and video tutorials. Each of those is considered a "page." Add, edit, and delete pages from the "page" tab in your dashboard.
Comments: reply to, delete, and mark comments as spam on this page.
Google+: connect your blog to Google+
Stats: see your monthly page views, how many page views each post has gotten, where your audience lives, traffic sources, and the breakdown of which browser users are viewing your blog in
Earnings: only visit this page if you are using Google's "adsense" to make money from your blog
Layout: play with where things are located on your blog on this page.
A header is what appears at the top of your blog. Mine looks like this:
Decide which pages {if any} will show on your blog. Modify how people can comment and what the bottom portion of each of your blog posts says. Add Google's "gadgets" around the sides of your posts. Gadgets can include a search bar, a list of labels from each post, archives, an "about me" section, any HTML you want to include, pictures, videos, and lots of other things! Blogger made it easy to add the most common items so that you don't have to know HTML in order to use a Blogger blog.
Template: choose how you want your blog to look. Scroll down to choose a pre-made template from Blogger. There are also lots of websites that create free Blogger templates -- all you have to do is copy and paste it where the designer tells you to. HERE is one of my favorite places to look for templates.
{The screenshot below was taken when I was using a different blog name. :) }
It is in the templates section that you can also change how your blog will look when someone views it on a mobile device.
Settings: change your title, description, blog address, and privacy options on the first page. Customize how many posts you want to show up on each page of your blog, and how people can leave comments. Choose your time zone and the date format that Blogger will post every time you publish a new post. The "other" tab has options for backing up your blog and deleting it, should you ever decide you need to do that.
Click HERE for my post about publishing a post on Blogger.
This website -- Innovate. Instruct. Inspire. -- is a blog that is directed at teachers; it is intended for other educators to read this site and glean information that could be useful in their classrooms. A blog could also be used as a classroom or grade level website that students and/or parents use to get information during the school year. Finally, it can also be a place for students to post their writing and/or discuss class-related topics.
 |
| Via |
- ...they already have a Google account {gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, etc.}, so they actually already have a Blogger account, too. That means it's one less username and password to remember!
- ...it's free.
- ...it utilizes a drag-and-drop interface when customizing the layout and design, which is super-easy.
- ...it allows for lots of customization in terms of colors, fonts, layouts, sizing, etc. You can do as much or as little as you want.
- ...it doesn't require the knowledge of HTML in order to manage it {although you can use HTML skills to further customize your website, if you want}.
I currently maintain 4 blogs and help a friend with another, all without losing my mind. :) That's because Blogger is so easy to use! {Here is my old OUES blog if you want to take a look.} It's for this reason that this post will focus only on the Blogger platform for classroom blogging.
As discussed above, I think there are 3 main ways you can use Blogger as an educator:
Teacher Blogs
If you've ever been on Pinterest, you've surely seen some super-cute, practical, and/or just plain genius classroom ideas. If you clicked on the idea, you were probably taken to a blog.
The craze of teacher blogs has really picked up in the last few years, and I love it! Now, more than ever, teachers are creating websites solely intended to be viewed by other teachers so they can share the fabulous ideas they've used throughout the years. During my first two years of teaching, I spend a ton of time reading teacher blogs, and I attribute a lot of my good ideas to them.
As of late 2013, these are the top 50 elementary teacher blogs, as named by Teacher Certification Degrees.
As of December 2011, here are 50 must-see teacher blogs as named by Edudemic.
I would compile a list of who I think are the best bloggers, but then we'd be here for hours. :) There are two ways I've found fabulous blogs: via Pinterest and on other blogs. For instance, if you scroll down and look at the right side of this page, you'll come to a list that looks something like this:
I know I've got at least 20 or so EdTech blogs I read regularly listed in that section {you may have to click "show all" at the bottom of the list to see them all}. Click on any of those links to view the blogs. From there, look for similar lists. Just keep clicking and reading!
The benefit to having a teaching blog is that you have a way to write down all your cool ideas and share them with the world. You can also make blog friends that can help you with teaching-related problems when they arise. {Not to mention, I'm sure a teaching blog would look nice in your portfolio or resume!}
Classroom or Grade Level Website
I love the idea of a classroom website. It's a fabulous opportunity for students to access valuable classroom material outside the hours of 8 - 3:30 on weekdays.
You can post contact information {such as your e-mail address and links to your classroom social media sites}, the syllabus, supply list, due dates to upcoming assignments and events, copies of your lessons plans so that parents are more in-tune with what's happening and absent students don't wonder what they missed, outstanding working {I used to call this my "virtual refrigerator" page when I taught 8th grade. I would black out last names and post great work on the 'fridge just like my Mom used to do with me.}, learning links, and so much more. On my Science Lab blog, I used to post a short blurb about what activities each grade level did with me each week. I felt like it was one way to help connect families to the Science Lab from home.
Classroom Blog with Student Contributions
You can also have students write posts for the blog. They can be about anything! In my class, I might have students type their lab write-up for the day with pictures from their experiment.
When I taught English, I had students volunteer to post their short stories and essays on the blog.
I also posted a blog with thought-provoking questions and asked the students to discuss the topic in the comment section. Students were required to respond with their original thoughts on the discussion question as well as respond back to another student who had posted. It was a great opportunity to extend the thinking, work on Internet navigation and etiquette, and to improve typing skills.
How do I get started?
Like I said, there are lots of other blogging websites, but this post will focus on Blogger. If you already have a g-mail, YouTube, or Google Drive account, you already have a Blogger account. Just go to www.blogger.com and log in with that same username and password. If you don't already have a Google account like the ones mentioned above, click HERE to sign up for one. Once you log in, you'll see your dashboard, will will be empty if you've never set up a Blogger blog before.
Find and click this button in your Blogger dashboard to get started:
Type a name for your blog in the "title" box {don't worry -- you can change it later}.
In the "address" box, type the URL you'd like people to enter in order to get to your blog. Most people make this the same as their blog name, but it's not mandatory. Notice that your blog's address will end in .blogspot.com unless you purchase your own domain name and apply it to your blog.
Choose any of the templates -- you can change that later, too -- and click the orange "create blog!" button.
From there, you will see an overview of your blog:
You don't have to customize your blog at all if you don't want to; you could just click "new post" and start writing! {Click HERE to read my article about publishing a post on Blogger.}
Take a look at the options over to the left:
Here's what you can do if you click on each of those options:
- Overview: quickly see page views, news from Blogger, and any news about your blog {like if you got a new comment}
- Posts: look at all the posts you've ever written -- published, unpublished, and scheduled. You can also add and delete tags and edit posts from this page.
Pages: at the top of this page, you should see 3 tabs: home, about, and video tutorials. Each of those is considered a "page." Add, edit, and delete pages from the "page" tab in your dashboard.
Comments: reply to, delete, and mark comments as spam on this page.
Google+: connect your blog to Google+
Stats: see your monthly page views, how many page views each post has gotten, where your audience lives, traffic sources, and the breakdown of which browser users are viewing your blog in
Earnings: only visit this page if you are using Google's "adsense" to make money from your blog
Layout: play with where things are located on your blog on this page.
A header is what appears at the top of your blog. Mine looks like this:
Decide which pages {if any} will show on your blog. Modify how people can comment and what the bottom portion of each of your blog posts says. Add Google's "gadgets" around the sides of your posts. Gadgets can include a search bar, a list of labels from each post, archives, an "about me" section, any HTML you want to include, pictures, videos, and lots of other things! Blogger made it easy to add the most common items so that you don't have to know HTML in order to use a Blogger blog.
Template: choose how you want your blog to look. Scroll down to choose a pre-made template from Blogger. There are also lots of websites that create free Blogger templates -- all you have to do is copy and paste it where the designer tells you to. HERE is one of my favorite places to look for templates.
{The screenshot below was taken when I was using a different blog name. :) }
It is in the templates section that you can also change how your blog will look when someone views it on a mobile device.
Settings: change your title, description, blog address, and privacy options on the first page. Customize how many posts you want to show up on each page of your blog, and how people can leave comments. Choose your time zone and the date format that Blogger will post every time you publish a new post. The "other" tab has options for backing up your blog and deleting it, should you ever decide you need to do that.
Click HERE for my post about publishing a post on Blogger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)