Blogging Basics
You must have a working email address. If you don’t, set one up at www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com
Go to http://stmalitofwar.blogsplot.com . You can also get to the blog through my TIES teacher web site under “helpful websites.”
My “posts” are what you’ll see when you open the website. You’ll see a title for the post, followed by the post which is usually a short paragraph. The post will usually contain a passage from the novel or questions to consider.
After you have read the post, click on “Comment” on the bottom of the post.
You will then be brought to a log in and comment screen. At the bottom of this screen, it says, “No Google Account? Sign up here.” You will then type in your email and choose a password. Make sure your password is something you can remember! Write it down! You will also need to tell me what your log in (e-mail address) is and a question or clue to help you remember your password.
When you create your Google account, you will also create a display name. This should not be your first and last name, for security purposes. It can be any clean, appropriate name you want. You will need to tell me your display name, so I can make sure you get credit for posting your comments.
Once you’ve set up this Google account, you can type a comment into the page. When you’re done, choose “preview” to see your posting. After you’ve checked it for spelling errors and made sure it’s what you want to say, click on “Publish Your Post.” You will choose a name for your comment. Choose your display name. (It defaults to your log in name, so make sure you choose your display name.) Do not choose anonymous, or you will not receive points. Anonymous postings will be removed.
At this point, the blog will e-mail me an alert that a comment has been posted. I will make sure the posting is appropriate. You will get points for participating in the blog.
Remember that you will lose your blogging privileges and surrender all possible points for blogging if you publish an inappropriate comment.
Visit the blog often during the week. Usually, I will let you know if there is a new post to respond to, but ultimately it is your responsibility to be checking this. If you’re one of the first people to comment on a particular post, make sure you go back later and read the other responses and possibly add more comments. Make sure you read everyone’s comments as you will be expected not only to respond to my post, but also to any interesting comments from other people.
We will use these next few weeks to learn, and will set up more guidelines as we go.