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About This Blog

This blog is an instructional tool to help teachers learn to create efficient and effective blogs that use Google Tools in order to communicate,  promote your program, and  collect information. Since the format of a blog displays the most current information at the top of the page, and order of posts is determined by the time of each post,r here are a few suggested ways to use the blog.

1. Use the Google Presentation linked from the tab at the top of the page to guide the learning. Start by viewing the presentation to get a glimpse of the contents. When you come to a topic of interest, click on the link on that page in the presentation to go directly to the related blog post.
2. Use the search tool in the sidebar to find what you are looking for.
3. Scroll to the the first post, click older posts at the bottom of the page.

If you have questions or need additional support, please contact me. Information is posted on a new page, which is accessible through a tab at the top of the blog.

Have fun blogging!

Use Google Docs to Create a Portal of Information

Ways to Use Google Docs on Your Blog
Look for examples in the sidebar.

• Publish handouts
• Collect information through a form
• Post presentations
• Create student portfolios
• Publish student-created projects

Check the handouts section in the sidebar for step-by-step directions on using Google Docs.

Intro to Google Docs

Promote Your Program

A blog is a good way for you to share the great things that are going on in your classroom. Parents are more likely to check your blog if you show them what you are doing. One way to do this is to publish student work.

View this example of how a kindergarten teacher created a blog and combined it with Google Presentation to create portfolios of student work for sharing. All work displayed was chosen by the students and deemed to be an example of something they were proud of.

Click image to view.

Collect Information: Use a Google Form

A Google Form allows you to collect information. Posting a form on your blog will streamline the process. Look at the form in the sidebar of this blog, titled Get Started with a blog. Visitors click on the image and complete it, and on the back end, the blogger receives information in the form of a handy spreadsheet. This information can be sorted or it can actually be graphed.

View Question of the Week example in the sidebar of this blog.
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Let's take a look at another form used for students to turn in assignments.

View form: In Box This is what visitors see.
View back end: Google Spreadsheet. This is what you see.

Tutorials: Create an Assignment Tracker Using a Google Form

• Teacher Tutorial: Create an Assignment Tracker/In Box
• Student Tutorial: Use an Assignment Tracker/In Box to Turn in Assignments 

Get directions for creating a form in the sidebar of this blog, under Google Docs Guide.

Using Video on Blogs

You can post an occasional video on your blog, but if dedicate your blog to video, it will have to go by another name. This type of blog is known as a vlog.

A vlog is a blog that focuses on video, embedded directly in the post. A vlog should have a theme. Here's an example of a vlog, The Vlog Blog.

If you decide to create a vlog, there are some things to think about. You really can't share a vlog in the lab with all of your students and expect them to view videos simultaneously while sitting next to each other because that, of course, is network abuse. It is quite a strain on any network, and it will indeed slow things down for everyone. Instead, your vlog should be viewed by visitors at home, or by groups of students gathered around one machine.

Now that you have seen an example of a vlog, perhaps you are only interested in displaying a video occasionally on your blog.  There are a few ways to do this.

1. If you are using a source like Teacher Tube, or YouTube, you will find an embed code right on the page. Although it looks like gibberish, you can confidently copy the embed code and paste it into a blogger post, if you change the mode in the upper-right hand corner from Compose to Edit HTML. Don't worry, copying and pasting is easy, and it will work.
2. If you're using YouTube video, it's important to remember to deselect the option to include related videos underneath the embed code. Sometimes these videos are inappropriate. Thanks to Amy Vogt for the reminder!
3. If you want to conserve space on your blog, a very good option is to "fake it". You can take a snapshot of the video and use the Picture Gadget to post it in the sidebar. Copy the link to the video and paste it in the Picture Gadget and your viewers will be taken directly to the website where they can view the video. (See my example in the sidebar.)
   
4. If you're thinking about downloading a unitedstreaming/Discovery Education video and including it on your blog, please think again. This is quite illegal. D97 pays for a subscription to unitedstreaming/Discovery Education which allows us to share the video with our students, but not the world. There are copyright rules posted right on the unitedstreaming page.

Please remember, streaming video can drain any network. Be creative in the way that you ask students to view video. Project it to a screen for all, send students to your classroom computer in groups to view the video, and certainly send them home to view a video as homework. Students will most likely enjoy this type of assignment and they are bound to do it. After all, video is something they spend a lot of their free time viewing.

Please do choose educationally appropriate video carefully and also take a minute to view the carefully chosen video I've posted in the sidebar of this blog, Why Let Students Blog? by Rachel Boyd

Photo Galleries

 If you already have a Google Account, it's easy to login to Picassa Web Albums. Every image you upload to your blog is automatically saved there. You can create a slideshow of photos and publish them as a gadget in the sidebar of your blog.

Get directions in the handouts section of this blog.

Links

A link allows you to direct your visitors to a document or website and connect it to your blog. It's a good thing because it let's you conserve space on the blog itself. Think of the blog as the launcher and remember that visitors to your blog are not going to scroll through the blog looking for information. Rather, they are going to take in the information they can see on the screen when the blog loads.

Here is information about types of links:
You can create a link right within a post, but perhaps the best place for a link is in the sidebar of your blog because it will stay there until you decide to move it.  Links in the sidebar are Gadgets and there are a few different Gadgets to use to create them. Step-by-step directions for creating these types of links can be found in the sidebar of this blog.

The Text Gadget simply provides you with a place in the sidebar to post text. Within the text gadget you will find a symbol to create a link at the top of the screen.  Just highlight the text you want to link, paste the web address in the box that appears, and Save.  

The Picture Gadget lets you create a visual link in the sidebar, like I have done on this blog. You can upload an image, then use the link box to type in the web address. When visitors click on the picture, they will jump to the designated web address. 

The Links List Gadget is the Blogger tool designed to create links, but after much experience using this particular gadget with teachers, I can tell you that it tends to cause confusion. My advice is to skip this gadget and simplify your blogging  by using the Text Box or Pictures Gadget.

Clip Art and Graphics: Use Copyright-Friendly Images

A picture is worth a thousand words and if you use copyright-friendly images, your blog will be greatly enhanced.

• Find copy-right-friendly images sources by clicking on the page at the top of this blog.
• View the presentation below to learn more, and feel free to share it with your students. Click on the orange title to view the full version on the Prezi site.

Copyright - Photo Publishing on Prezi

Getting People to Check Your Blog

You can blog all you want, but the real challenge you face is getting people to actually check your blog.

How do you get busy parents and students to check your blog? Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Post important information on your blog so it is worth reading. If you like to write a longer narrative, that's fine, but do make sure the important information jumps off of the page for those who only have time to skim. Skimming is a survival skill for busy parents in the 21st century.
2. Enlist the help of your students. Give them something fun to find on the blog, or provide a small reward every once in a while for checking and ask them to show the blog to their parents.  View Question of the Week  in the sidebar of this blog.
3. Use a form to have them check in, then give them a special privilege or positive comment. (Something small, but fun!)
4. Use jokes, riddles, interesting facts, or anything that might get them checking.
5. Send a quick blog update message to parents, so they know when to check.

Look in the sidebar of this blog for ideas of ways to get them to check your blog.


Sample:

Comments

Blogs are meant to have comments and bloggers expect to be able to comment on a blog. Many blog authors are weary of enabling comments because they don't necessarily want everyone's opinions displayed on their blog, but this is something that can be managed with a bit of attention to blog setup. This means you can allow anyone to submit a comment to your blog, but each comment needs to be approved by you before it is posted. The whole process is quite efficient. You can set it up so you receive an email every time someone submits a comment to your blog. Then, you can approve or reject the comment.

Reasons to allow comments:

1. Visitors to your blog probably expect to have the opportunity to provide you with feedback. 
2. It can be enlightening to receive a comment. That way you know someone out there is reading your blog, and people often leave good and useful suggestions.
3. Parents viewing your blog can quickly respond to something they've just read and that keeps the communication flowing. If you would prefer to communicate with parents privately, you can say so in the comments message box, and move the conversation to the privacy of email, then just reject the comment and email the parent instead.
4. Opportunities for students to express themselves  through blog comments are exciting and provide teachers with all kinds of "teachable moments" to help students fine-tune their writing skills. Students love writing for an audience and they are motivated to publish something worth reading.
5. Teach students about Internet-safety by asking them to comment.

If you want to enable comments and comment moderation on your blog so it works the way you want it to, all you have to do is follow the directions found in the sidebar of this blog. Feel free to copy and paste the comment message samples provided on the handout right into your own blog or modify. The comments samples are the result of collaborative efforts to establish good, safe blogging that works!

Click the comments link below to view some suggested guidelines for students and to see how commenting works..

Step-by-step directions are available "Handouts" in the sidebar of this blog.

Publish Handouts: Google Docs

GoogleDocs offers an easy way to publish handouts on your blog. You are sure to appreciate the ease of using GoogleDocs instead!

A word of caution about publishing handouts: Please be careful about what you publish on the Internet. You can publish any original work you create, or the work of others with permission, but you can't just publish other people's work. If you want to direct your readers to a file that someone else has posted on the web, all you have to do is create a link to it, but please do not download someone else's file and upload it to GoogleDocs for publishing; that's not legal. If you purchased a workbook and you want to post a page from it online, forget about it. Most likely you purchased the rights to share the contents of the book with your students, but not to share the contents with the world.  The same is true with textbook materials; they can't be shared with the world.

Keeping the copyright rules in mind, I strongly encourage you to try publishing a GoogleDoc you create and linking it to your blog. Parents and students will appreciate being able to locate important handouts with ease, and you can save yourself the time and trouble of all that printing.

Step-by-step directions for performing this task from start to finish, are linked in the sidebar.  Click on Looking for a Handout?

Welcome to Build a Blog

The purpose of this blog is to provide useful information to busy educators about using blogs as a tool to improve efficiency, communication and learning as we prepare our students for living and working in the 21st century.

About Blogs
The term "blog" is short for web log. This means a blog is actually a running list of information with the newest information displayed at the top of the page. Blogging fits the lifestyles of busy teachers, as well as busy parents, because the tool is convenient, efficient, and safe. Use blogs to communicate important messages, collect information, guide student learning, and showcase student work.