PDF 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:-
Thanks so much Anne for organising these great activities, with a lot of ideas and different choices! Page maintenance has been something I have needed to do on my blog for a good while now, so here is my challenge post number three: “Add some Muscle to your Blog”.
Here are my reflections on Challenge 3 –
Navigating A Relief Teacher’s Journey (Challenge 3)
I’d appreciate some constructive feedback
Here’s my Sprin Clean
Let me know what you think!
Hi Kirby,
Very original About page. It inspired me to check out the rest of your blog – which is what it is meant to do.
Hi Vanessa!
Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your great tips on teaching as well! I love new wisdom!
Your comment avatar is very striking. Love your artsy persona. Can I be a student in your class? Bet it’s never boring.
I spring cleaned my about page and changed it a bit. I added a frequently asked page. Finally, did a post about my about page. I still haven’t figured out how to atomatically link my links in this posting area. So I added the links at the bottom. I am still working on the bubbles.
-Mrs. Berry
http://berryart.wordpress.com/about/
http://berryart.wordpress.com/frequently-asked-questions/
http://berryart.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/before-and-after-the-spring-cleaning-in-the-middle-of-winter/
Hi Christy I cheat with the links. I have a draft blog post that I open. I pretend I am writing a blog post, add the text, highlight it and then link to the url. Then I go to the html tab of the post and copy the code and add that back here on a comment. I do this, as I keep making mistakes with spaces etc. Did you see the link in the edublogger telling you how to do this?
Murcha
That is interesting. I have just followed your instructions, and now I am trying it out to see if it works for me! If it does I will be following your example for ever more!!
Kathryn
Spring Cleaning of Blog
Yes! Yes! It does!!!
Christy can you see what Murcha is saying. Its a great idea. I have to admit I used my class edublogs blog to prepare the link in the false draft post as edublogs is my main love for working in!
Great tip Murcha. You’re an ace.
Hi Murcha,
Thanks for this quick tip. I looked for the link you gave us in week two, but gave up looking for it. This is a great idea. Thanks.
T
Christy,
to have a FAQ is a very nice idea. Thanks for sharing it. As for adding the hyperlink here, you just need a bit of html title. Copy that and just change it with your info, and it should work.
I tried to follow your link but it didn’t work. Thank your helping. I just need a little bit more. I also tried in word to add a hyperlink; however, it looked great in word but it didn’t transfer over. What am I doing wrong.
Thanks,
-Mrs. Berry
Christy
Murcha’s idea is an excellent one.
1.Open up a draft post in visual.
2.Write the words you want to appear as the link.
3.Highlight them and press button link and add in the url for the post you want to link in a comment.
4.Then flip over to HTML and copy.
5.Go to the place where you are making the comment. Example here!
Write your comment and where you want the link to appear, and paste.
I was having trouble like you, got it right in 2nd challenge but made huge mess of it in this challenge. See my attempts below further down, Embarrassing!!!
But note my success above. Murcha’s way is really cool!
Kathryn
I just have to share one pretty exciting thing that I’ve put to work which I learned from participating in this challenge. In reading through the blogs on my Reader this morning, one of them mentioned the importance of play. I had just written a post about the need for play in a middle school science context over this past weekend.
I wanted to leave a comment and now I know how to link back to my post even when it doesn’t have the link button. Using the skills from Sue Water’s post, I successfully inserted the HTML into the comment and sure enough it linked to the post. Woo hoo!!!!!
Thanks to all of you who let me practice in the comments box on your blog because I couldn’t have done this without practice first. If you want to see my comment with it’s post, you can find it here. It works…amazing
Thanks for sharing your excitement. It is fun to learn new things, especially those that are useable.
Here is my post: http://techcsrn.edublogs.org/2011/01/17/teacher-blogging-challenge-3/
I plan to comment and do the extension as well.
Fun!
Okay, I focused on reinventing my about page. You can find my post about it here. You can also visit my new About page.
I am looking forward to reading up on what everyone else decided to do!
Here is a link to my completion of Challenge #3.
Looking forward to building community with all of your great bloggin’ teachers.
Michael,
I just love your about me page. I also like Caribou Coffee, we don’t have them here. Only Tim Hortons are here.
Your “about me” is a masterful blend of humor and passion. Jesus is my #1 passion, too.
I enjoyed your about page and the political cartoons. Where in NC are you? I grew up down east.
Michael I hope you come back and read this as I cannot find where to leave a comment on your blog. Have you enabled comments. Anyway, I liked the inclusion of Passions as a heading within your “About Me” page but although I like coffee, I had not heard of the coffee you mention. Maybe that is cos I live in the country or live in the land down under.
I updated my about page on School Librarian
This challenge was an interesting one. I enjoyed looking at these pages of blogs that I subscribe to, just to get a sense of what people say. I also enjoyed thinking about what is involved in doing it well.
Here is the link to my post: Book Frontiers—Challenge #3.
Here is my new About page–Book Frontiers—About page
I would love your feedback!
Hi everyone. Here is my new post and my new About Me page.
Well I not successful with the HTML way of putting a link in a comment. I’m going to keep working on that. In the meantime here is the link to my Activity 3 challenge http://plnaugle.blogspot.com/2011/01/kick-start-activity-3-add-some-muscle.html and the link to my new About Me page http://plnaugle.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html.
Hopefully I get this linking thing mastered soon.
Looking for some feedback to help me with my Spring Cleaning. Please have a look @ my post.
I think the challenges this week are great, and I hope I find some time to update my about page. I will definately be visiting many blogs to comment. Happy Cleaning Folks!
This challenge has been challenging! If anyone can offer suggestions for inserting the bubbl.us into my blog better it will be gratefully received. My post can be viewed here.
Kathryn
I have found this challenge, challenging. If anyone can help me embed the bubbl.us better please let me know.
Hopefully you can find my link here, Setting Up Pages On My Blog
Kathryn
For some reason (proabably human) I can not seem to post a comment on your page. So here is my comment:
I have never thought of having a contact me page. That’s a good idea. Now, I need to see if I can make one on my blog.
-Mrs. Berry
Christy
Thanks. Not sure why you weren’t able to post a comment. Sometimes the way blogs work things can go wrong!
Kathryn
Kathryn if you go to Theresa’s post, Kick Start Activity 3 Challenge Page
and scroll down the comments to one that she made she has told us how to embed the bubbles. Let us know if it works.
I am doing something wrong. But what?
Kathryn,
Part of the problem might be that you have included www which is not part of your blog URL and you have also put a / at the end after the .html This is the URL for your post http://miskaytea.blogspot.com/2011/01/setting-up-pages-on-my-blog.html
Bless you and thank you. I had got to the end of my tether. Hot and tired and grateful for the help.
Kathryn
My last try at trying to provide the link!
Here is my link to this challenge post. If anyone can help me with the bubbl.us embedding to do a better job, please let me know.
Here is the link the incorrect way.
http://miskaytea.blogspot.com/2011/01/setting-up-pages-on-my-blog.html
Kathryn
Kathryn,
When you look at the HTML code from bubbl.us, is there a width and height with a number after it in pixels? If there is that is what you need to change so the width is about 450-480 pixels. It should then fit in your blog column.
To check, make sure you are in HTML editor in your post dashboard. When adding HTML, you publish directly – don’t go back to visual editor or add tags and categories. Have everything else done, before adding the HTML code for embedding videos or things like toondoo or Google Docs or bubbl.us etc
Thanks Ms W. I was thinking in terms of the top bar. However I’m just thinking now perhaps thats the difference of paid and free?
What fun! I never really thought to have any more pages than the main page and the About page. I’m still having fun, even though I’m losing sleep over my blog!
Denise
http://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/2011/01/18/a-cold-winters-night/
Thanks for the nudge to examine our pages.
Here is mine:
http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/2011/01/18/teacher-challenge-all-about-me-is-really-all-about-you/
I tweaked my page a bit but then rediscovered another that was off in my archived bin (a short story).
Kevin
Really interesting part of the blogging challenge, Anne, making me think very deeply. Here is the link to my post. For some reason I don’t have access to html here: http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/01/adding-page.html
And here is the link to my About me page: http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
Greetings,
Here is my attempt and blog about using the bubbles. Please let me know what you think, without popping my bubble:
Bubble Bubbles Are Everywhere To Pop
-Mrs. Berry
My attempt to get the link to work, didn’t work. So here is the whole address. I will try again with the next post.
http://berryart.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/bubble-bubbles-are-everywhere-to-pop/
Thanks for your understanding.
-Mrs. Berry
Dear all,
Here’s my task reflection on my summer makeover.
I gladly present my three new Pages!
About Page
Contact Page
Inspiration Page
Hey Carla, Love the fact that you have three pages to share. The Inspiration Page is a fantastic idea!
Hey Carla, it is good to see you here as well. The Contact and Inspiration pages are a great idea.
I am really enjoying the challange and reading your comments. I currently have links on my blog to a website and my youtube channel. Running Google anylitics I can see that my blog gets a lot of traffic from YouTube and vice versa. I do have a question for the group. I can’t seem to figue out how to hyperlink information in the comment section to my blog. Please feel free to drop me an email or comment back to my blog to help me. Thanks
http://mrrileysblog.blogspot.com/
How interesting that the other online sites that you have joined eg youtube drive traffic back to your blog. It certainly shows the power of networking in many different ways.
I have added an About Me page. It is here– http://lauriefowler.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
I used pictures and links, but I think it may be too busy. Should I just go with the where I am now and not give my mini Technology Autobiography? Are there too many pictures? Not enough about why I am a blogger or an expert in my field?
Looking forward to your comments and assistance.
Laurie Fowler
Email me at lauriefowler@google.com or lfowler@uwa.edu
Loved your “about me” page. The digital photo of you at the top is very engaging. The tone of the page is very personal and warm. Loved the pictures, got a little overwhelmed with the amount of text, but it’s late and my eyes are tired. I feel like you are someone I would enjoy meeting in person.
I like it! One constructive criticism I would have is the picture at the beginning- very cute, but the explanation of where it comes from kinda kills the momentum as the reader starts reading your page. Maybe that pic should be at the bottom, or use an asterisk or smaller blogspot caption. Good job.
How wonderful to see a superhero’s blog! More power to you.
cheers,
Malyn
About Me
The Learning Pad Concept Map
Sorry link was wrong:
The Learning Pad Concept Map
Grrrrr
The Learning Pad Concept Map
The Learning Pad Concept Map
Whew, I finally got caught up on this one. I had some long overdue spring cleaning to take care of.
Here’s the link to my post: Spruce It Up!
Here’s the link to my new About page: About
Evidently I also do not know how to create a live link from here to my spring cleaning post. I’ve read through the above discussion thread but still can’t get it. Too tired to try more tonight, so here it is: http://wcslibrary.edublogs.org/?s=before+and+after+the+springclean
Also created graphic organizer in bubbl.us but don’t know how to “grab the code” to copy it into my post.
Tomorrow will be a better day!
Here I am! All the way down at the bottom of the comments page! I hope someone reads this… Good activity.
Is it gauche for me to thank people here for all the wonderful comments they’ve been leaving on my blog since we started this challenge? I just have not been able to respond to everyone. I appreciate all of your thoughts and suggestions.
Here’s my All About Me post. Enjoy?!
I rehabbed my “About Me” Page in a few ways (I’m gonna comment on that here and just post a link to the page):
-I made my email address a link rather than just text, ’cause that makes it easier if someone wants to contact me.
-I put a fun picture up.
-I made links to recent presentations, because I am interested in seeing if more of them might be in the cards…
Here it is:
http://www.speechtechie.com/p/what-is-speechtechie.html
I already have a few other pages and though I am thinking about how to optimize those spaces, I am going to leave them as is for now.
Okay, I must fall somewhere between Beginner and Advanced. Intermediate, maybe? I say this because until this Challenge, I wasn’t completely aware of pages. At least not in edublogs.org or blogspot.com, anyway. I use iWeb on my MacBook Pro for my Research website and it automatically sets up your blog with pages so I didn’t really think about it. (Thank you, Mac!)
Well, I went back to the beginner challenge to figure out how to make the page in about, and then (even more challenging) how to make it appear in my sidebar! But I got it figured out, started working the widgets and even added some links.
Please come over to My About Page and give me some feedback about using 3rd person to write the content as opposed to 1st person. The reason I decided to use 3rd person is discussed in my lastest post All About Pages. I checked out the Google doc and there’s lots of good information there. I can’t wait to read some of your blogs to see what ya’ll came up with!
Andrea (Ms. Nichols)
I have felt like an intermediate also. During the post challenge, I already knew all the beginner posting information, but I didn’t have enough posts to fully complete the advanced challenge.
Thanks Anne – I have actually really enjoyed this third challenge. For better or worse, here is my response.
http://margm.globalteacher.org.au/2011/01/18/adding-flex-and-muscle-to-your-blog/
Oh WOW, I tried out a new tool in my about page. I had created a Powerpoint for the GlobalEd conference last year about the student blogging challenge. I have now uploaded to slideshare (my first time doing that) and I embedded it on my about page here.
Hi,
When I first looked at this post I thought ‘Oh, I have already done this.’ But then I realised that there was still more I could do.
I was quite happy with my “About me” as it looks back on my journey and how I got to be a blogger. What I did need to do was update it for this year!
Instead of playing with my ‘About Page’ too much I decided to add a ‘Contacts Page’ to it instead. I made this a ‘child’ page of my ‘About Blog.’
Check out how I did this here
Mel
Ok, the spring clean has occurred. I may add to it as I go along, but for the moment, here is the revamped version.
http://margm.globalteacher.org.au/about/
My goodness! Look at all the comments – and blogs to visit!!!
Here’s mine
Posting done, time to go visiting.
cheers,
Malyn
Here’s my Spring Cleaning post.
I read Murcha’s hint on how she creates text with a link and am trying it out…hope it works!
carrie
My Spring Cleaning post…wondering if “About Me” really says much about me?
Hi Emil, here is the link to your post as it was not provided in the comment. Hope everyone realises that you can click on the hyperlinked Emil Harden (name of blogger) and it will take you to the blog. Then you may have to search around for a while to find the actual post.
I had a good spring clean with My About Me page but need to tidy up all the other pages – oh well, that can wait! I have loved looking at everyone else’s and will go back and clean up a bit more with ideas I have got from other participants. Thanks everyone! Here is my post A spring clean gives my blog muscle
Ahem… I posted my reply in the Beginner area by mistake. Here it is (was): ” I already had an About Me page, but it needed a bit of spring cleaning. When I go to people’s blogs, I like to find out as much as possible about both what they do and who they are. So I put some personal stuff into my About Me page, even some photos of my family. Here is the link: http://lunas994.blogspot.com/p/who-am-i-and-what-is-this-blog-all.html ”
In the meantime I have had an idea: how about creating a “retrospective” page for each year of blogging, with links of course? I am writing a post on my 2010 blogging activities, I might post it as a page as well.
I tried the bubbl.us activity. I am a beginner blogger and the map showed really small when I embedded it. I don’t know how useful the map really is. What can I do to make it easier to see?
http://readingandthinkingoutloud.blogspot.com/2011/01/map-of-blog.html
Making a more detailed About Moi – the one editable as standard by blogspot is not designable to I added a new page. Just the beginning so far …need to mull on what I want in it and look at others too. No option to add tags either sorry.
http://cheesyuk.blogspot.com/p/all-about-moi.html
Wow, what an interesting challenge about Pages. Reading through the importance of pages made me realise that my original, brief, “About Me” page was hard to see because of the theme layout I had chosen.
This forced me to choose a new theme and layout.
But I have spruced up my “About Me” and have added a “My Web Presence”.
P.S. Still trying to work out how to link within comments without the whole URL. Sorry. Any hints? Just in case the above doesn’t work, my three links are below.
http://groovylibrarian.edublogs.org/2011/01/20/about-pages-teacher-challenge-3/
http://groovylibrarian.edublogs.org/about-me/
http://groovylibrarian.edublogs.org/my-web-presence/
Nope, my links didn’t work. Sorry you’ll have to look at the whole url
I know challenge #4 is already up. I’m trying to catch up with all of my challenges! Let me know what you think of my changes! –Jee Young
Spring Cleaning!
My Improved About me page
My Brand New Book page
My About Me page is updated! I have almost completed 2 challenges in one afternoon (and not gotten anything else I was supposed to get done completed:) I guess I will be watching William Shakespeare: A Life of Drama tonight and writing a quiz. Someday I will be caught up!
My link didn’t work.
http://lindseyanderson.edublogs.org/about-me/
A great chance to spruce up the ‘About’ page at the ‘Classroom Blog Board’
I’m almost finished with challenge #3, tho I find myself doing bits and pieces of both the beginner and the advanced so I’m trailing a bit. I’m also giving the whole “link thing” a try using Mrs. Yollis’s advice. So stop by for a look at how I did my spring cleaning.
Hi all,
I have done a few changes on my blog including the background (reason given actually in the blog post) and two pages which I did not know how to do before. They both need some work but at least I am branching out. I also want to add a page about apps I am using presently but as I have to use a VPN to get on my blog and work sometimes things are a bit slow.
I would appreciate comments on how it looks because for some reason it has not loaded through the VPN properly for the past two days so I can’t see the final look. Thanks
Here is the link; http://teachlesslearnmore.edublogs.org/
Heather
Here’s my freshly cleaned about page http://penbentley.globalteacher.org.au/about/
Still need to do post and extension.
Here is a link to my post about pages. I added one of my favorite pictures!
Here’s another link to my post, the old fashioned way!
http://mrssarno.edublogs.org/
Better late than never! I have posted my ‘About Me’ page. I haven’t had one before. I used a Glog which was fun to use but took ages to make since I haven’t tried it before.
Check our my blog post
Picture Yourself on a Billboard
And my page About Me