Blogger+Directions




 * Directions for creating a blog in Blogger**



Blogger Web publishing service is an online service that lets you create and maintain your own blogs (online journals), as well as read the contributions of other bloggers. Using a blog is a great way to share your thoughts with others and get their reactions. Blogger makes it easy to set up your own professional-looking blog, complete with colors and graphics.

1. Go to http://blogger.com 2. Click “Create a blog” 3. If you’ve never created a blog with Blogger before, follow the directions on the Create a blog page. 4. If you have, click, “sign in first.” 5. Name your blog: Under blog title, type “College Research Skills” 6. Under “blog address,” type crs and then just your initials. If that blog address is not available, try typing your initials first and then crs so that it looks something like this: http://crspas.blogspot.com. I would like your blog title to be as generic as possible. 7. Click “Check Availability” 8. Type in “word verification.” 9. Click “Create blog!”. If you did not choose a template the first time, you can click view blog and click on “Design” on the top right. You will also be able to change your template at any time. 10. Choose a starter template (which can be changed later if you want). There are many templates to choose from. Each template contains colors, fonts, and formatting so that you can concentrate on creating a compelling blog, rather than spending your time choosing fonts and formatting columns. Because only a small sample of each template is shown, you can use the preview template link under each sample to see a better view of how your blog will look. When you have found the template you want to use, select it, then click continue. You can always change it later. 11. You’ll see a notification telling you that your blog has been created. 12. Click “view blog” on the right. Look at how nice your blog looks. 13. Click “design” in the upper right hand corner. 14. Click “settings>basic.” 15. Under “add your blog to our listings,” click no. 16. Under “let search engines find your blog,” click no. 17. Under Settings>Language and Formatting, change time zone to Eastern Time. Save settings. 18. Under Settings>Posts and Comments, under “who can comment?” click anyone. 19. Go to Layout on the left hand side and on the right column, click “add a gadget.” 20. Select “blog list” and start adding the names of your classmates’ blogs to your blog list. (We will do this after everyone has successfully created a blog). 21. Go back to “add a gadget” on the right and scroll down to “link list.” Add at least one link that you go to frequently. It will ask you to name your list. You can name it something like, “Favorite Places” if you like, or think of something else to name it. 22. Go back to “add a gadget” and select “list” and add at least one favorite book, one favorite movie and anything else you like. Name the list, “Favorite Books” or “Favorite Movies” or anything else you’d like to create a list for. 23. Go back to “add a gadget” and go to newsreel and under “search expression,” type in some subjects that you are interested in following. You can select more than one. For example, I chose libraries, librarians, and information literacy. You can choose subjects like basketball, cats, or ANYTHING, that you are interested in. Be sure to separate your subjects with commas. 24. You can continue to go through the gadget list and add any and as many gadgets as you’d like. 25. When you are done adding gadgets, click on them (on the right) and arrange them as you’d like. Be sure to click on the orange “save arrangement” button at the top. 26. Click on “template designer” above and a new box opens up. 27. Customize your blog by playing around with the background images, templates, color themes and layout of your blog. If you do not finish, you can always return to the template designer at a later time. 28. Now it is time to populate your blog with posts. In this class, you will be “writing to learn.” This is an opportunity for you to ponder key concepts and ideas you learn in this class. To prompt you, I have written some questions that you can type into your first post. It is your answers to these questions that I want you to write about during the course of the year. Your blog is like an online diary and will be a record for you, for me, for your classmates, for your parents, and for the principal of what you learn in this class:


 * Your first writing assignment:**


 * What do you consider interesting? **

People write best when they write about topics // they // consider interesting, but to choose a relevant topic, you must know yourself. To help you understand your interests, complete the following phrases as honestly and completely as you can.


 * The subject I most enjoy reading about is...because...


 * My favorite hobby or pastime is...because...


 * If I won the lottery, I would use the money to...because...


 * The type of volunteer activity I prefer is...because...


 * My favorite school subject has always been...because...


 * If I ran the world, the first thing I would change would be...because...

These are other prompts to get you started:

• What did you already know of the material presented in the lesson? • What did you learn? What material was new to you? What were the three most important things you learned in today’s lesson/independent practice? • What did you understand most/least about today’s lesson and independent practice? • What would you like to know more about the material? • What questions do you still have? • How is the information you learned applicable to your other class assignments? How is this class helping you with research in your other classes? • How is this class different from any others you've taken in high school? • How is this class the same as any others you've taken in high school? • What did you learn from reading someone else’s blog? Did it help you write your own blog entry? • If there was a reading assignment, what did you learn from the reading assignment? What did you not understand? What prior knowledge did you bring to the reading material? • Did you have a need for information today? If so, how did you go about finding it?