How to Create and Edit Extra Pages in Your Blog (Part 6 of 6)

This is Part 6 of a series of posts on using a blog for your class website.

Click "Pages" in the left-hand list menu. You'll get a screen that looks very much like your list of posts, but empty.

You create, edit, and publish new pages just like you create, edit, and publish new posts. The difference is that these pages do NOT appear on your home page in your stream of posts. The extra pages you are creating are static pages, meaning that they are not updated when you add new posts to your home page. For that reason, they're good for keeping information about the class, or about you, or about some special long-term project the students are working on.

Once you've created a few pages, you need to put a gadget on your home page so students and parents can get to them. Click on "Layout" in the left-hand list menu. Click on any spot that says "Add a Gadget", then click on "Pages" in the box that opens. This will open your options box for the Pages gadget:

Under "Pages to show", check the pages that you want to include in the gadget. (This is also where you can add a link to an external website, like the school or district website, or Aeries.) Under "List Order", drag the pages to the order in which you would like them to be shown.

This box will appear like this no matter where you have added your gadget. However, whether the pages show up horizontally (like tabs) or vertically (like a list of links) depends on where the gadget is added. If you want to have horizontal tabs, move the gadget to be underneath the blog header. If you put the gadget in the sidebar, it will appear as a list of links. You can move the gadget around after you click "Save", in the layout screen.

For this example, I've added my Pages gadget underneath the header, so it will appear as a horizontal series of tabs, like this:

How to Customize the Look of Your Blog (Part 5 of 6)

This is Part 5 of a series of posts on using a blog for your class website.

Click “Template” in the left-hand menu. Here is where you can choose the look for your blog. I recommend keeping things simple rather than ornate; it’s easier for more students and parents to read that way.
To make things even easier, especially for younger students, you probably want to make the font larger and darker than the default. To do that, click on “Customize”.

Then click on “Advanced” at the upper left of the screen.

Here you have control of the font size and color for “Page Text” (as well as everything else). Be restrained with this. It’s much easier to make your page harder to read than it is to make it easier to read.

How to Add Items to Your Blog's Sidebar (Part 4 of 6)

This is Part 4 of a series of posts on using a blog for your class website.

Click “Layout” in the left-hand menu. Here you see the different elements of your blog. You can edit things here as you like, or you can leave them as-is.
In the circled region on the right are the “gadgets” in your sidebar. This is where you can add boxes that make your blog more appealing and useful. Here are some of the better ones and what they do:

• Follow By Email – allows a reader to enter their email address and then receive an email whenever you update your blog 
• Pages – if you create additional pages for your blog, you can list them here so readers can find them 
• Search Box – allow readers to search for terms or keywords in any of your posts 
• Text – you can add a static text message; this might be good for your contact information or your availability for after-school help 
• Image – add a picture 
• Slideshow – add a slideshow that includes multiple pictures 
• Poll – survey readers 
• Blog List – include a list of other blogs you like, maybe other teachers’ classroom blogs 
• Link List – include a list of websites; perhaps useful resources for your class 
• List – include a list of items; anything you like 
• Labels – if you label individual posts, this gadget displays the labels you’ve used and lets readers filter posts and search for a label 
• Profile – information about you, including contact information (New blogs have this automatically added.)
• Blog Archive – this lets readers go back and find blog posts from previous months or years (New blogs have this automatically added.)

You can change titles or options for any of your gadgets by clicking on the word "Edit" in the lower-right corner of the gadget in the layout above. From your "public" blog screen, if you are signed in, you'll see a small "tool" icon on each gadget, which will also let you edit the gadget. To remove a gadget entirely, click on the word "Edit", then click "Remove" in the options box that opens up.

How to Post on Your Class Blog (Part 3 of 6)

This is Part 3 of a series of posts on using a blog for your class website.

There are multiple ways to create a new blog post. Blogger makes it easy and gives you many buttons to use. Anything that looks like a pencil or says "New Post" will bring up the editing page.

The editing page looks a lot like Google Docs or Word or any other writing tool. There are a few options along the right side:

• Labels allows you to tag posts with a keyword, or category, to make it easier for readers to find them. You can include as many keywords as you like.
• Schedule allows you to set a post to be published automatically at some future time.
• Permalink lets you customize the URL for this particular post; this is not very useful.
• Location adds a marker to the post indicating from where it was posted. This might be useful if you are posting from vacation or a field trip; otherwise, probably not.
• Options lets you enable or disable comments specifically for this post, overriding your settings for the entire blog.

As you are writing your post, Blogger will save the post automatically, just like Google Docs does. If you want to make extra sure that your post is saved, you can use the Save button in the upper right. If you want to see what your post will look like on your blog, click the Preview button. You can use the Close button to get back to your blog dashboard. But the important button here is Publish. Once you have written your post and previewed it, you need to click Publish to make it public.

In this picture, you can see that I've written two posts. The top one, however, has not been published, so it is still marked as "Draft". You can remove a post that has been published by using the "Revert to draft" button. You can also edit a published post by clicking on the title of the post in this list. You have several options to make edits, corrections, or additions, even if you have published a post.

How Often Should I Post?
Many teachers like to post weekly. Personally, I would post daily. At the end of each day, I wrote up what we did for that day while it was fresh in my mind. How often you post is up to you. Just make sure you can keep up with the schedule you decide, so students and parents know what to expect.

How to Set Up a Blog for Your Class Website (Part 2 of 6)

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.

Why You Should Use Blogger for Your Class Website (Part 1 of 6)

If you want a class website that is easy for students to find what they need; easy for you to post information, files and links; easy for parents to keep up to date on what is going on in your class; and flexible enough for you to tailor it for your own tastes, you want to use Blogger.

I've become convinced of this after helping teachers create class websites in Google Sites, watching teachers deal with the difficulties, confusion, and limitations. Other teachers have chosen to use Edmodo or Weebly instead; still others continue to use HTML editors and build sites hosted on our own district server. What pushed me to Blogger was a session at the GAFE Summit in Coronado earlier this month, presented by Jen Roberts (@JenRoberts1) of Point Loma High School. Jen made a great case for teachers using Blogger as a class website, and convinced me whole-heartedly. Since then, I've tried out Blogger on a couple of teachers, and they've been very positive about it. I think it's easier to use and set up than Google Sites, and allows you to give a better view of your class to students and parents. (Here's a link to Jen's 9th-grade English class blog, as an example.)

Blogger is part of the Google Apps suite, so you already have an account through your district login. As with Sites, you can create as many blogs as you like, so you can have separate blogs for different classes, as well as a personal blog for reflection, if you choose. You can post daily or weekly updates for your class, as you choose. Each post can include photos or videos, formatted text, links to class files, or links to outside resources. You can add separate pages for particular projects, topics, or resources. You can have a sidebar with gadgets like a search bar so students can search your site, or an email subscription tool so students or parents can get your latest post sent to them automatically (look to the right of this post). You can schedule posts to appear at a future time, like at the beginning of your class the next morning. You can enable or disable comments for your entire blog or for individual posts. Blogger can do so much that Google Sites cannot. You should be using Blogger for your class website.

If you're not yet convinced, here are the resources from Jen's presentation; she makes the case better than I can. If you're ready to get started, the next several posts in this series will show you how to create a blog, how to post on it, how to create extra pages, how to format and customize your blog, and how to add widgets to the sidebar. Let's start blogging!