Blogs

Blogs

Blogs - D and G blocks

Note: Online Safety and 'Netiquette'


 * Purpose**: This blog is a space for you to reflect on your intellectual side. You can discuss things you learn in our class; in other classes; in high school; discuss the point of education; your dreams for your future from an intellectual standpoint; your passion for art, history, design, philosophy, mathematics, music, biology, film, politics, world affairs, literature, photography, poetry...ANYTHING but it has to be about stuff in your MIND. You have Facebook to talk about what you ate for breakfast, your favorite boy or girl group, your 'diary' thoughts (romantic interests, emotional outbursts), etc. - the idea of the blog is an on-line intellectual journey for you and your thoughts.

Grading: [|Blogging Rubric Revised (Stephens) 3.pdf]

How many: Ten by the end of the third quarter - April 9th.

1. Go to [|www.wordpress.com] and join. Your blog address must look like the following: [] except with your information. Therefore, if your name is Bart Simpson and you graduate in 2012, your blog address will be: []. Add your blog's url to the list at the bottom underneath your Block.

2. Pick a template for your blog. What do you want it to look like? Should it formal? Informal? Funky? Classic? Busy? Clean? You want your blog appearance to reflect you.

3. See who is visiting you by adding a map from [|www.clustrmap.com] and then adding it to your blog by clicking appearance/widgets.

4. For each item, make sure you make a CATEGORY for it. All posts MUST be categorized. Uncategorized posts will lower your final blog grade. Why categorize? Because this is how people find your blog. If they google: Macbeth Act 3 and you have a category for Macbeth, your will come up as an option. Each entry can have MULTIPLE categories.

5. Under the widgets category, add LINKS to your page. Now LINKS will show up on your dashboard. Click on it and add everyone in your class as well as any of your friend's blogs - so that when people go to your blog, and they like it, they can click on your friend's blogs because they know it will be good...think of it as a friend suggestion on Facebook.

6. What now? Some assignments in class will be assigned specifically for the blog. However, you can also write additional entries about INTELLECTUAL interests. This blog is a space for you to reflect on your intellectual side. You can discuss things you learn in our class; in other classes; in high school; discuss the point of education; your dreams for your future from an intellectual standpoint; your passion for art, history, design, philosophy, mathematics, music, biology, film, politics, world affairs, literature, photography, poetry...ANYTHING but it has to be about stuff in your MIND. You have facebook to talk about what you ate for breakfast, your favorite boy or girl group, your your 'diary' thoughts (romantic interests, emotional outbursts), etc. - the idea of the blog is an on-line intellectual journey for you and your thoughts.

8. To each entry, add LINKS, videos, and IMAGES! All-text blogs are B-O-R-I-N-G! When you’re writing about an article or someone else, highlight their name and click the link button so your readers can go straight to the source. Link to a youtube clip by clicking on the button and cutting and pasting the url address. Add photos from your own collection or flickr (give credit at the end of your post). DO SOMETHING, do ANYTHING, that adds interest to your blog. **All posts should have a visual aspect. It will affect your final blog grade.**

9. Community Matters! You aren’t writing in a journal anymore, boys and girls, this blog is something ANYONE in the WORLD can see. So, we want to see CONNECTIONS. Link to other websites, blogs, give comments on other sites, and CONNECT to the online world around you. Show that you have a brain and you use it to think about the world around you and you listen to what others have to say and have an opinion about it.


 * We will all join www.googlereader.com to help you organize and keep up with everyone's blogs and other blogs of interest.** Think of it as an online newspaper where you only get the news you think is interesting.

Other RSS readers you might want to use if Google is not your style: NewsGator NewsFire

Blogs - D and G blocks

Resources:

[] : Top 5 Teen Blogs Warning: may not be good examples of intellectual blogs - you make the call...
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KIS student blogs (intellectual in one form or another):
 * http://kbeatricep11.edublogs.org/page/2/
 * http://kjessicac11.edublogs.org/2009/03/14/mans-best-friend/
 * http://hannak11.edublogs.org/2009/05/31/suicide-scary-but-common/