This is Part 2 of a series of posts on using a blog for your class website.
To set up a new blog, go to
www.blogger.com and use your district username and password to log in. You'll see a screen like this. Click "New Blog" to set up your classroom blog for the first time.
1. Pick a name for your blog. This will show up at the top of every page.
2. Pick an address. Since this has to be unique, it’s probably a good idea to include your name in it somehow. Try to keep the address short and easy to remember.
3. Pick a design for your blog. (I recommend staying away from the Dynamic Views. Anything else is fine.)
4. You’ll be able to change all of these options later, if you change your mind. Click “Create Blog!”
Once your blog is ready, you’ll see it listed on your Blogger home page. The options in the menu here are the same options you’ll see on the next page. Click on “Overview” or click on your blog’s title to go to the Overview page.
This is the “behind-the-scenes” look at your blog. You see your main menu options down the left-hand side of the screen. You also see two (2!) buttons that will create a new post for you.
Click on “Settings” at the bottom of the menu options.
The Basic Settings page lets you change the title, description, or address of your blog. You can also add additional authors to your blog here, if you want someone else to post.
The two circled options (Privacy and Blog Readers) let you set some limits on who can see or read your blog.
The Privacy settings determine whether or not Blogger or search engines can find your blog.
These settings do not have any effect on who can read your blog (assuming they can find it).
The Blog Readers setting determines who gets to read your blog, no matter how they found it.
Click on “Posts and Comments” underneath “Settings”. This lets you decide who can comment on your blog posts. If you are using this blog only for your classroom calendar, you probably don’t want students or parents to leave comments. To turn comments off, you would click “Only members of this blog”. That way you are the only one who can comment.
If you do allow comments, you may want to enable comment moderation. If you turn on moderation, that means that readers can leave comments, but they will not be posted until you approve them. It’s an extra step for you, but it might be worth it.
