Detailed Instructions To Start Your Own Blog

Imagine my delight when a fellow blogger at Cool Cat Teacher found my blog and commented on it in her blog. Vicki, the Cool Cat herself, wrote about the value of having relative newbies to technology teach other newbies. I agree wholeheartedly and have found this to be quite safe for teachers and successful for me. Something about being so new at it myself helps me remember how challenging (and frustrating!) technology can be at the beginning. My hope is to find more time as a librarian next year to offer learning sessions for teachers at the emerging level. Vicki suggested that I post the actual detailed instructions I used at my session for teachers on my blog. Well...that has become my tech challenge to figure out how to do that, so while I experiment with that, I will post the actual instructions here. And when I do figure it out, it's a perfect posting!

Creating Your Own Blog

1. Go to the internet and type in www.blogger.com
2. Click on the “Create your Blog Now” button
3. Follow the steps to create your own account. (you can use an existing account and it does not have to be a google account)
4. Decide what you want your blog title (display title) to be (i.e. China Adventures, The Life of…, My Dog Spot, Classroom Capers, etc.) and then what you want your web address to be called (for example, mine are www.daleandtara.blogspot.com or www.techlibraryclassroom.blogspot.com ) These can be the same as your title if you want. When you are done, click on the big arrow again.
5. Fun part! Choosing the template you want. You can preview as you go along, but it’s also easy to change your template later by just clicking a button and, for some reason, you have more options later on. Once you choose your template, you can start your first post.
6. Now you need to decide what you want your first post to be about…you can simply add the title to the title bar and the text to the text box, just like a word document.
7. If you want to add a picture, there is a square icon in the upper left that is a picture. Click on that and you will have options similar to that of attaching a photo to an email.
8. Go to ‘choose file’ and then find the picture you want to add. You can also decide on the placement of the photo and the size of the photo. Click on ‘upload image’ when you are ready to add the picture.
9. When you are ready to add both the picture and the text officially to your blog, click on the ‘publish’ button at the bottom of the page. DONE!

Edit template—things to do here
This is basically fun to play around with but here are some tips.

a. Go to the ‘template’ tab on the top left. This will take you to the layout of your blog page. You can add info about you in the “ABOUT ME” section or a message in your NAV BAR on the top (sort of a subheading to your title).

b. The “add a page element” option is a cool thing to explore. You can add links to other websites you like or a link to a flickr photo account.

c. Tons more fun things to add later on once you get started...

Starting Your Own Blog

I have met so many people who enjoy reading blogs, think they are a good way to communicate your thoughts and ideas but think it's difficult to start their own. Absolutely not true! Creating your own blog, especially with Blogger, is really very simple as it walks you through the process for each step. There are other free blog sites out there, but I personally find Blogger easy to use, and I wanted to start with something that gave me confidence.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to www.blogger.com
2. Follow the 1, 2, 3 directions. Please note that one can spend a long time choosing the colors and design of a template--I suggest choosing one and then making changes to it later as that is easy to do by going to the template section.
4. Start your first posting! You can add an image by clicking the square image button
5. Once you have your first posting up and running, then it's fun to go back and look over all the various things you can add to your blog.

As a classroom teacher who is really enjoying having a blog or two, I offered an after-school session on getting a blog up and running. I provided very clear, written instructions on how to create one. What a great way to help teachers who aren't quite sure of technology to feel more comfortable and see that something as cool-looking as a blog can be quite simple to do.

FBA--Fabulous Book Alert

How Much? Visiting Markets Around the World. Ted Lewin; Harper Collins, 2006.

I came across this book at an independent bookstore last summer and knew it would fit perfectly with a goods and services/market unit our second grade classes do in the spring. With illustrations of markets around the world, from the camel markets of Cairo to a market on the train tracks in Agua Calientes, Peru, the language is rich and poetic. When describing a night flower market in Madras, India, Ted Lewin writes

"The lamps reveal half a face here, a silhouetted hand, flashing white teeth there, half a body draped in a gorgeous silk sari."

Makes me want to hop on a plane and go now! For many kids in the international school system, there is a good chance they have been to some of these markets or at least dream of going at some point in their travels--for me, it's the camel market in Cairo that I hope to get to one day...

Poetry + Tech

My class is finishing the school year by wading waist-deep in a poetry unit that is just as much fun for me as it is for them, and I'm already thinking of ways to help teachers extend their poetry lessons as a librarian. I found a cool website that allows kids (and adults!) to use the "magnetic poetry on your refrigerator door" concept online, complete with a virtual refrigerator door. Something about having all those words for the choosing provides an opportunity to play with language that I love to see as a teacher. Check out the magnetic poetry online.

Miniature Earth Video

My fabulous friend Sharon sent me the link to this short video illustrating what the world would look like were there to be just 100 people on it. Stunning photography and valuable information are included regarding poverty, wealth and the people who make up this world. This video would be great to use as a combined math and social studies lesson, or, as Sharon says, everyone should keep it on their desktop as a reminder... http://www.miniature-earth.com

Chinese Librarian

Just had to share this gorgeous painting a local artist named Lu Yong Zhong made for me this week--it's a style called "peasant painting" that I absolutely love for its details and color. He has been at our school the last few weeks creating this exact painting as a mural outside our library, and so I asked him to paint me the same piece so I can take it with me around the world as a librarian. I just love it, especially the scrolls in the porcelain jars and the kids on the floor. Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate a single online source with information about the artist, but all of his work is simply stunning.

Step-by-Step Tech Training

Until I figure out how to upload video to this blog (my own tech challenge!) to demonstrate a few tech things I've tried recently, I will direct your attention to a very cool blog I found put out by PLCMC (Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County). The folks over there have presented a challenge to their employees to try 23 things related to Learning 2.0 technology. It's self-directed, very easy to navigate and walks you through things like Flickr, creating a blog and YouTube. A fabulous way to tackle some new tech!