Thanks to everyone for the great posts so far. There is a wealth of knowledge, experience and sharing, so please take time to read others’ posts and continue to add comments. It is not too late to start the challenge – either start with this one or complete the two previous ones, commenting back on each challenge with your blog post link.
The third challenge looks at pages. Pages add extra depth, resources and information. They can be likened to muscles -as they give power, flexibility and weight to the blog. Individual blog statistics show that the ”About Me” page ranks high in the most visited posts/sites of a blog. People are curious about the blogger, want to know more about them, ensure they are worth following, networking with, returning to visit and that they are indeed valid experts etc. Bloggers need to consider the issues of transparency vs privacy ie how much information should be divulged on their “About Me” page compared with how much information the reader needs.
About Me in a Collage
Let’s start spring cleaning and build those muscles!
Spend some time looking at your “About Me Page”. How effective is it? Keeping in mind the characteristics of an effective post, what could you add to make it more informative, resourceful etc? What other pages could be added eg a class blog could have a cyber safety page, a code of conduct page, a page for parent information etc?
Tasks for the #3 challenge:-
- Look for some “About Me” pages on blogs.
- Add your ideas to a shared google document Pages in Blogs (or scroll down to the bottom of this post for the document). Together we can build a valuable resource for both participants and other interested parties. Add your ideas for class/teacher/personal blog pages and possible content.
- Give your “About Me’ page a spring clean or if you do not have one, add an “About Me” page. For any help required, check out the current beginners challenge on blog pages.
- Add at least one other page to your blog. Insert some information.
- Write a post “Before and After the Spring Clean” including justification for your changes or write a post on “Features of an effective About Me page” or if time were no problem, what would you do with an About Me Page. Include the tag #ksyb and any other you see as appropriate.
- Add a comment back on this blog post and include the link to your post.
- Find at least 5 other blog posts in challenge #3 and add a quality comment. Respond to those who comment on your blog post.
Extension Activity
Goto bubbl.us and register (or use other mind mapping tool). Login to bubbl.us, start brainstorming, add bubbles and label the bubbles with the names of your pages and typical content on the pages. The home bubble should bear the name of your blog. Add further bubbles as required. Save your mindmap, grab the code and embed that code back into your blog. See below a very basic mind map of the Teacher Challenge blog using bubbl.us.
Any feedback and further ideas are welcomed!
Below is the google document for sharing:-
Here’s my post for week three’s adding pages challenge.
http://tammydewar.wordpress.com
I added a travel map of countries that I have visited to the above blog, and have added a kilometres run page to my personal blog at http://www.dewarsontherocks.wordpress.com
Thanks for checking them out!
Tammy
Here’s my re-post of my comments following Murcha’s linking tips.
http://tammydewar.wordpress.com
I added a travel map of countries that I have visited to the above blog, and have added a kilometres run page to my personal blog at http://www.dewarsontherocks.wordpress.com
nope, didn’t work
Please check out my week three extension activity here
Thanks,
Tam
One more try tonight, please check out my week three extension activity here
Thanks,
Tam
Yay! I got it! finally!
Great activity. I keep falling behind though because I get sidetracked trying to work on the class blog also, getting everything ready for our start date.
I think FAQ pages for parents and students are a great idea. As I get comments from parents and students, I’ll add that page. I did add a Tech Tips page for my students on the class blog.
Here’s our info:
What Else Teacher Blog on Pages
Eagles Write Class Blog
Hi,
here’s my shortblogpost on effective about-me-pages. I also added a reading page, feel free to suggest what I should read this year! Now I am going to work a bit on my own about-me-page again!
Editied my about me page – but there’s still more I can do – here’s my short blog post related to the topic. My personal blog is completely new, and my band’s blog used to be a full blown website – but all of the band site’s content is not online as of yet. We previously used Rapidweaver to post and manage our website. After starting our student blogs last year with Edublogs, our staff decided to move all of our content over to a blog format.
This particular exercise really helped get things in order – and I now have a clear plan as to how to add to both my professional blog and my band’s blog. Also really enjoyed using Bubbl.us – a great online tool that I never knew about before. Love mind maps!
Some of these ideas may very well make an already existing blog more attractive such as the addition of a spinning globe or a map plus some information on foreign nations. Since our ESL students come from other countries they will surely enjoy sharing information about their customs, past schools, foods, and so on. A list of special class projects may very well serve to make parents tune in as well.
Helpful ideas here.
For this challenge, I focused on my classroom blog: Looking Glass (aimeeb.edublogs.org). My About Me page needed some serious updating! I also worked on my NEW professional blog: Doing it Differently (diwithtech.blogspot.com).
It was interesting how the purpose of the About Me page changed for each blog. The audience is different and the information I decided to share varied. I still need to add a page or two to Doing it Differently, but I got the About Me page up
I wrote my blog post on Looking Glass . . . you can find it here: http://aimeeb.edublogs.org/2011/01/23/before-and-after-the-spring-clean/
Activity 3 blog post…the tidy up and updating of my details was long overdue. Loved adding an extra page too. Here it is at last!
Here is my blog. http://peetztechchatter.blogspot.com/ I added an About Me page. I had never thought about doing that in the past, but can see how it will add to my blog now.
I have also cleaned out a box and updated my professional development and added a spring cleaning blog post. http://peetztechchatter.blogspot.com/2011/01/spring-cleaning-in-back-office.html
Here we are! Done finally.Catching up, catching up
I really enjoyed this challenge, thanks!
Ah, so you do have a real life then?
Did you do your spring cleaning?!
Check out my post on spring cleaning:
http://mshitzges.edublogs.org/2011/01/27/before-and-aft…pring-cleaning/
Here’s my post on spring cleaning my blog. This one was definitely needed – now to spring clean my house as well!!
Hi,
Here my post in activity3 about me page
I really enjoy this challenge, although I always in last minute doing the challenge
Don’t worry, I’m 4 challenges behind. It’s the effort that counts.
Dear All,
Here comes my post for the week 3 Activity Adding pages.
I is tentative and I amplanning to add/delete/modify but this is what I was able to come up with for now.
Please check it out!
Looking forward to your feedback
)
(P.S. When I catch up with the rest of the group I promise that I will also comment
Asli
I am trying to fix the broken link. Maybe it is because of the lay our of my chosen theme but About Me page is not visible on my blog. When I search I can find the page. I hope that it works now.
check out my blog
Check out my About ME page, as well as my post about my Before and After About Me:
http://msz1011.edublogs.org/2011/01/28/before-and-after-the-spring-clean/
OK, here it is!
After reading about “About Me” pages. Here is my first attempt. Suggestions are greatly welcomed. I have tried to incorporate many of the features that we have learned in our challenge activities.
About Me
I started a brand new blog (in addition to my edublogs one), here’s my spring clean and About Me:
http://eduquests.wordpress.com/
Well I’ve finally created an about page for my student blog. I still want to add another page highlighting my we presence so that people know where to find me. I also want a page with student directions on how to write postes. Please give me your ideas. I’m not very good at touting myself. http://everythingprealgebra.edublogs.org/about-2/
@A Earl , with your theme you’ll need to add the pages widget to your blog sidebar so the links to the pages will be displayed. I’d look at using titles for the pages like “About your teacher”, “About our blog”. We will be starting the 30 Days to Kick Start your Class and Student blogging in a week’s time. You’ll probably find these new activities will also help you!
Hope this information helped!
Ok – So I updated my About pages on my student blog http://www.everythingpreaglebra.edublogs.org. I noticed that my pages were not showing, so I tried to add the Pages widget to my blog and all of my other widgets disappeared. Can someone help me? I’m so frustrated!
A Earl,
The first time you add a new widget to the sidebar, the others that were there disappear. All you need to do is drag each of them across to the sidebar again. They should be at the bottom of your appearance> widgets page.
They will remain there from then on unless you change to a different theme which doesn’t allow some of the widgets you might be using now.
I haven’t decided if the saying “Better late than never” applies here, but I am putting forth some effort towards the challenge. Having my laptop stolen has slowed me down, but it hasn’t pushed me under. I just added an “about me” page that places a focus on me rather than the class.
Here it is http://thespacebetween.edublogs.org/about-ms-clayton/
I don’t seem to be having much success with creating links with HTML in comments lately…
Jill C.
I do not have a quality about me page as of yet. I got sidetracked adding a shelfari to my page along with some images! I will continue to revamp my page as the week goes by. You can view it here:
AboutMe
My about me page is pretty basic. I assed some personal info such as favorite bands and movies. Don’t really have any pictures I want on there. Here’s is the link – http://benpe.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
I slacked off a bit on this one, but since my blog is so new, I don’t want to bog it down with a lot of posts about posting.
I did, however beef up my About Me page a bit. I’d like it to be wittier, but the inspiration hasn’t struck me yet. As it is, the new page is more informative and better organised… hey, it’s a start!
http://wp.me/P1Xfh1-2