Blogging Workshop - Christ Church School, Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging! Our main goal today is to help you set up a web log (blog) and learn how it can be used to communicate with your students and their parents. Time permitting, we will also explore other ways you can use blogs for both professional and personal fulfillment. We have plenty of time to cover the basics, so please don't hesitate to ask for assistance at any point during the session.

Please write down the URL for this blog for future reference. http://letusblogtex.blogspot.com Store the address in your wallet or purse. That way you can return to this blog when you need to review any of the steps.


1. Setting Up a Gmail Account (if you don't already have one)
2. Right click here. Click "Open in New Window." Drag your windows side-by-side so you can see these instructions while following the steps at Google.
3. Click on "Create an account."
4. Follow the steps and set up a Gmail account.

5. Creating Your Blog - Please note: For today's workshop, a blog has already been created for you. We are leaving these steps here, though, in case you want to set up a personal blog for yourself at some later time. You may now proceed down to Step 15.
6. Right click here . Click "Open in New Window."
7. Click on "CREATE A BLOG."
8-14. Follow the step-by-step instructions Blogger gives you.
9. When asked for your email address, enter your Gmail address.
10. Use your Gmail password as your Blogger password.
11. Choose any name you like for your blog. Follow the rest of the steps.
12. Choose a Starter Template. This can be changed later.
13. You will be told that "Your blog has been created!"
14. Click on "START BLOGGING." You will be taken to the Post Editing Box.

15. Writing Your First Post16. Click on "New Post." This will take you to a Post Editing Box. Write a post Title and then down in the Text Box write anything you like by way of introduction. "Welcome," "Hello, world." "Goodbye, cruel world," etc.
17. Click "PUBLISH POST."
18. Click "View Blog." Voila! Behold your first post!

19. Editing Your First Post
20. Now let's edit that first post. Click the diagonal orange pencil icon at the end of your first post. This will take you back to the Post Editing Box.
21. Change your wording slightly and then click "PUBLISH POST." Click "View Blog" and see if you like the change(s) you made.
22. Click the orange pencil icon again and return to the Post Editing Box.
23. Select a word by double-clicking it. Look up at the Tools Bar (Font--TT--b--i, etc.). Click on "b" to make your selected word bold face. Click on "i" to make it Italic. Click the A for the Text Colors Menu to change the color of the word. Click PUBLISH POST-->View Blog and check your changes.

24. Linking - This is magic, folks, and one of the most useful aspects of blogging! It allows you to send your visitors all over the World Wide Web to information, pictures, and others sites. So here we go. Remember, we're just practicing here. You can go back later and make this more personally useful.
25. Go to the Post Editing Box. Select any word by double-clicking it. Look at the Tools Bar and click the Link icon (icon looks like a chain link). A Hyperlink dialog box will appear. Type in the following: http://texids.blogspot.com/. Click OK to close the dialog box. Click "PUBLISH POST"-->View Blog. Click on the linked word and go to my Texids blog.

26. Adding Pictures - There are a couple of ways of doing this.
26. Go to the Post Editing Box. Look up at the Tool Bar. Click on the Insert Image icon. (Looks like a photo of mountains w/ blue sky.)
27. Method 1: Click Choose File-->My Pictures (or folder in your computer where the picture you want is located)--Double click the picture you want-->OK. The picture should now appear in your Post Editing Box.-->PUBLISH POST-->View Blog.
28. Method 2: In the latest version of Blogger, you can simply copy and paste a picture from the web right into your post. Find a picture online, right click--Copy Image-->Paste pic into the Post Editing Box.-->PUBLISH POST-->View Blog.

27. Adding Gadgets - For the time being you will not be able to do this with your CCS blog. We will therefore omit Steps 27-38 today. If you want to set up a personal blog, though, you can follow these steps later.
28. Either at the top of this Post Editing Box or at the top of your blog (if you're signed in), click "Design."
29. Click "Add a Gadget."
30. Scroll down and click on "Link List." or click the + sign.
31. Find Title. Type "Useful Links." (Omit quotation marks and period.)
32. Find "New Site URL." Type the link to Christ Church School: http://www.christchurchschooltemple.com/
33. Find "New Site Name." Type "Christ Church School Homepage." (Omit quotation marks and period.)
34. Click "ADD LINK."
35. Click "Save."
36. Click "View Blog."
37. Test the link to see if it works.
38. By the way, you can quickly Copy a URL by hovering over and right-clicking a link-->Copy Shortcut. You can then Paste the URL wherever you want it to go. This can save you a lot of time and make sure you get the URL absolutely correctly. If you mistype a URL by even one letter, period, number, etc., the link won't work.

39. Adding a New Post
40. Click "New Post" in the Post Editing Box or at the upper right-hand corner of your blog. "Create Post" will also add a new post.

41. Viewing and Working with Your List of Posts
42. Click "Edit Posts" in the Post Editing Box or in your Dashboard. The Dashboard is what you will usually see when you log in to your blog. You can also see the Dashboard link in the upper right-hand corner of the Text Editing Box.

43. Using Blogger Help
44. Click "Help" in the upper right-hand corner of your Text Editing Box for Blogger help. Blogger does an excellent job of answering just about any question you might have about using the service.

45. Rewriting Your Original Post
46. Rewrite your original post as a welcome to your class and class blog here at Christ Church School. Write some words of welcome and give a preview of some of the subject material and learning activities your students will be doing this year. Point out that parents and students will be able to visit your blog and read weekly reviews of what you all are studying and doing in class.
47. Include a picture and a link (for example, to the Christ Church School website. Mrs. Alwine will read and approve your post before you leave.
48. Delete any other posts you might have written. This way, your blog will be ready for viewing by anyone visiting it.

48. Signing Out and Signing Back In (just to make sure you have the hang of it)
49. Click "Sign out."
50. Then sign back in by typing blogger.com in the address bar, signing in with your Gmail username and password, and getting to your Dashboard.
51. Sign out.

Thank you very much for participating in the Blogging Workshop. We sincerely appreciate your effort and cooperation and hope you will find blogging to be a pleasant and rewarding experience. I strongly encourage you to visit the blogs under "Useful Links" on the upper right-hand side of this page. You will get lots of ideas on how to use your blog(s). It's also rewarding to simply hang out at your own Dashboard, clicking various things, playing around with your blog (and especially your practice blog), and thereby learning new techniques.