Linking Student Blogs to Your Blog

If you wish to link your students' blogs to your classroom blog you can do so with one of the gadgets.  This gadget will put links to each of your student's blogs on the front page of your blog.  As your students write a post, it will feed a snapshot of it to your blog.  This is beneficial for people who read your blog to be able to view what your students are learning and sharing.

Go to the blogger dashboard.

Go to Layout.

Click on 'Add a Gadget'

Choose 'Blog List'

Title your Blog List.  Choose how you want the blogs sorted and what you want shown.  Add your students' blogs by clicking on 'Add a blog to your list' and then enter the URL for the blog. Continue until you've added all of your class blogs.  Save when done.  Your students' blogs should now be visible on your classroom blog page.

Blogging with Year 3 students

Today 3 children from each Year 3 class came to learn how to blog on their iPads. They will take their new knowledge back to their classrooms to teach others. 

Creating Another Blog

Now that you have one blog up and going, many people are interested and ready to start a second blog, whether it be for their own personal inquiry as a place to gather evidence and information, or if it is to be a blog for a club that you are leading.

Go to your google account and click on the square of 9 dots.  

Click on 'More' and go to 'Blogger'.  

Click on 'New Blog' 

 

Choose a name for your new blog and a web address. If this is to be your private Professional Development blog, you may even like to use your full name.  As it will only be viewable by the select people you choose, no one will be able to access it unless you give them permission.  After you have created your new blog with your new URL, it is time to change the settings.  

To change the privacy go to Blogger Dashboard > Settings > Basic > Permissions > Blog Readers - Edit

There are three options for who your blog readers can be.  Decide which setting you'd like.  For it to be completely private, except for those you invite, choose the bottom setting: 'Private - Only these readers'.  This is where you will add the email addresses of those you want to allow permission to view.  You may need to go back here at a later date to allow others access.

Don't forget to change your other settings:  time zone, sharing on google+.  Click on the phrase to link to a previous post for instructions.

Adding Pages to Your Blog

To add pages to your blog go to your dashboard and click on Pages in the left column.  Then click on 'New Page'.

Give your new page a title and 'Publish'.  Repeat this process until you have all the pages that you want.

Next go to Layout.  Choose 'Add Gadget' and then select 'Pages' 

Once you've added this gadget you can arrange and rearrange the order of your pages as you see fit.

You can also choose to have the list down the side of your blog or across the top to display as tabs by going back to layout and dragging the gadget up to a long horizontal 'add gadget' area or to a small, side 'add gadget' area.

These would be the basic steps that would be unique to setting up a second blog, a private blog, and adding pages.  The other parts of blogging would be the same - posting, photos, links, template.

Have fun!

Adding a YouTube movie to your blog

To insert a YouTube video to your blog:
Find the video you want to insert from YouTube.
Below the video you will see the option to 'Share'. Click on this option.  Choose 'Embed'.  Copy the code that appears in the box.

 

Go to the blog post you are writing.  Choose where in the post you want to insert the video.  Once you're in the right spot, click on the HTML button in the top right corner.

When you are in the HTML portion of your blog, you paste the code that you copied from the YouTube video.  Then click back on the Compose button.  Your movie should appear.  You can now finish your blog as per usual.

Disabling the Automatic sharing on Google+

When you set up your blog it is defaulted to automatically share your blog posts with your Google+ contacts via email notifications.  To disable this do the following:

Go to your blogger dashboard

On the left side of the dashboard click on the Google+ tab  

Choose which box you'd like to use.  You can click to disable the boxes by clicking on the ticked one.  If you want to automatically share all of your posts leave the top one ticked.  If you want to be asked before sharing, select the middle box.  Don't choose the last box.  :D

You don't need to 'save' anywhere on this screen.  What you choose will be saved for your blog.  Hope that helps.

Creating a Signature Line in GMail

Go to your Gmail account


Click on the gear icon
 in top right corner


Choose 'Settings'

Scroll down until you find the 'Signature' section

Click on the box to enable the signature

Type in the signature box as you would like your signature to appear, adding a link to your Google site (copy and paste the url from your Google site)

When you are finished, scroll to the very bottom of this page and 'Save Changes'

That's it!  Now every email you send from your Gmail will automatically have your signature line.

(In this section of Gmail, you can find other interesting options that you may find useful for yourself.  Have a quick look and see what options are available.)