Welcome to the second step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging!
The tasks can be completed at your own pace and in any order!
The aim of this step is to:
- Help you understand how pages are used on class blogs
- Set up an About page, Guidelines page, and Contact page on your class blog.
Introduction to pages
Pages on blogs are normally used for information that you want to share with your readers but don’t expect to update frequently.
The main things to remember are:
- Pages are best suited for information you rarely update such as your About, Contact, and Blogging Guidelines pages.
- Situations where you want students to discuss a question or topic are better suited to publish as a post and not a page.
- Assignment and homework information is normally best published as posts and not on a page.
- Too many pages can make information harder to manage and find.
If you look closely at a page you will see it is normally made up of:
- Page title – This tells the reader what the page is about. A page title will often be fairly short as they won’t display properly on your blog otherwise.
- Your page content – This is information you want to share on the page. Like with posts, the content could be a mixture of text, links, images, videos etc.
- Comments – Most themes support comments at the bottom of the page. This allows your readers to add a comment to your page. Comments are disabled on pages by default and can be enabled.
Watch the following video to learn more about the difference between pages and posts.
Here’s a quick visual summary of the differences. We also have a post on The Edublogger that explains the differences between posts and pages further.
Why you need an About page
You never know how someone might find your blog — Google search, Twitter, Facebook, or a link from somewhere else.
One of the first things a new visitor looks for is your ‘About’ page.
The reasons for having an About page on a class blog include:
- To provide information for your students, parents, and families about the purpose of your class blog and how to use it.
- To help your class connect with other classes in other locations and countries.
Here are some ideas on the type of information you might include on your About page:
For students and parents | To connect with other classes |
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Examples of About pages on Class blogs
Check out the following examples to see how About pages are used on Class blogs:
- Mr. Baldock’s Class (Grade 3)
- Present with Ms. B’s Bloggers (Grade 4) – About us, About our blog, What is a blog? and About Ms. B
- Mrs. McKelvey’s Bloggin’ Frogs (Grade 4)
- Huzzah (Grade 6/7)
- Ms. Eichner’s 7th Grade Social Studies
Create your About page
All newly created blogs come with a ‘Sample page‘ created.
All you need to do is edit the ‘Sample page’ to change it into your About page
Here’s how you create your About page:
1. Go to Pages > All Pages.
2. Hover your mouse over the Sample Page title to bring up the action menus.
3. Now click on Edit.
4. Change the title of your page from Sample Page to About page.
5. Edit the permalink to change it to about.
It should now look like this!
6. Now just add your about information and when finished click Update.
Visual editor overview
The area where you write your pages and posts is by default in Visual Editing mode which uses WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option for formatting.
It works similar to any word processing software.
Simply write your post, highlight any text you want to format, and then click the appropriate button on the toolbar to add formatting such as bold, italics, or a numbered list.
The Toolbar Toggle icon is used to view the advanced formatting options in the second row including heading styles, underlining, font color, custom characters, undo, redo.
You switch between Visual Editing mode and HTML editing mode by clicking on the Visual or Text tab. Text or HTML editing mode is not something beginner bloggers need to worry about.
Below is a quick video tutorial on the visual editor:
Why have blogging guidelines?
There are two key reasons why guidelines are an essential part of your blog:
- Internet safety
- Ensuring high standards of writing
These apply to students, parents, and all of your blog visitors.
Blogging is an ideal way to teach about internet safety in an authentic and ongoing way. But just because students are blogging and using online tools, doesn’t mean they are automatically learning about appropriate online behaviors. This needs to be modeled, taught, and reinforced.
Read more about using blogging to teach about digital citizenship.
When coming up with your blog guidelines, you will need to consider
- The types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments. Consider what your rules will be about the use of last names, images, and personal information.
- What you should and shouldn’t write in posts and comments.
Some guidelines may be specific to your school and your school policies. Be sure to check your school’s policies and make sure they are included — especially when it comes to using student names and photos on a public blog.
Creating your blogging rules and guidelines is something you can do yourself or as a whole class activity. Getting students to be part of a collaborative discussion on guidelines gives students more ownership and a deeper understanding.
Examples of blogging guidelines
Check out the blogging and comments guidelines on the following class blogs for ideas.
Remember: copying and pasting someone else’s work is not okay. If you adapt your blogging guidelines from someone else’s you should mention that and link to their site.
- Huzzah is a grade 6/7 class from Canada
- Kathleen Morris’ created these guidelines for her primary Arts classes
- Dominic Salvucci has set up blogging guidelines for his high school seniors
- SCHS Open Studio is a year 9-12 Ceramics Class in Florida
- Miss Sporn’s Class is a group of year 2 students from South Australia
- The Avery Bunch is a technology class in Massachusetts
- Kim Cofino created these guidelines for classes when teaching in Bangkok
- Mrs. McNally’s Mumblings is a high school English class
Create your blogging guideline page
Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog as follows:
1. Go to Pages > Add New.
2. Now just give your page a title, add your content and click Publish.
Making contact easy
Those that visit your blog might also have a need to contact you. This makes it easier for parents to contact you and for other classes to connect with you.
Many teachers choose to create an entirely separate “Contact” page to go with the “About” page.
Here are some tips to consider:
- It’s best not to put your email address on your blog. A contact form (using a contact or form plugin) is better as it protects your email address from spammers.
- If you do want to provide your email, use text and something like support (at) edublogs (dot) org or an image of your email address to make it hard for spammers to pull your email address. Here’s an email icon generator you can use.
- Personal phone numbers are probably not something you want to share either — but sharing a school phone number might be appropriate for some people.
Other things to share might include Facebook, Twitter, or other social media profile information. Some of these are also shared by adding widgets to your class blog. We’ll show you how this is done later in this series.
Create your contact page with a contact form
Once you’ve decided what you want to include on your contact page, and if you want to use a contact form, it is just a case of creating a contact page and activating the Formidable Pro plugin.
- Note: To add a contact form you would need a pro subscription. as the Formidable Pro plugin is available for pro blogs only.
- Here’s an example of what the Formidable Pro plugin contact form looks like on Unlocking the Universe.
Here’s how to create a contact page using the Formidable Pro plugin
Note: The Formidable Pro plugin is available for pro blogs only.
1. Go to Plugins > All
2. Activate the Formidable Pro plugin.
3. Go to Formidable > Forms.
4. Click on Add New
5. Select Contact Us and then Create.
6. Hover your mouse over the Captcha field, now click Trash to delete it.
7. Now just edit the contact form to customize it to your needs.
- The * next to a field means this is required information to submit the form.
- Clicking on the * changes it to not required
- Clicking on the Title allows you to edit the name.
7. You can update the email address by clicking on Settings > Emails.
8. Once you’ve made all changes click Update.
9. Now go back to Formidable > Forms and grab your Contact Us shortcode.
10. Go to Pages > Add New.
11. Add a page title, your content, the Contact Us shortcode and click Publish.
Other types of pages
There are lots of different types of pages you can add to class blogs.
The main things to remember are:
- Pages are best suited for information you rarely update such as your About, Contact, and Blogging Guidelines pages.
- Situations where you want students to discuss a question or topic are better suited to publish as a post and not a page.
- Assignment and homework information is normally best published as posts and not on a page.
- Too many pages can make information harder to manage and find.
We’ll show you how to use posts in Step 3 of our class and student blogging series.
Examples of other types of pages
- How to comment
- Kathleen Morris’ How to leave a quality comment poster
- Mrs. Yollis’ How to comment video
- Alexandra Duarte includes a rubric in her How to comment page.
- Becky Versteeg has a before you comment page for parents
- What is a blog and why we blog
- Mr. Baldock’s Parents/Carers’ page.
- Resource links
- Kelly Cross’ fractions websites and Hour of Code resources
- Class calendar
- Syllabus
- Jurupa Hills High School Photography
- NCS Chemistry and Physics class info and syllabus
- Meet the class — A creative Thinglink by Mr. Rockey’s Westwood with Iford Orchid Class
- Student blogs — SCHS Open Studio (high school ceramics)
- Family contributions — Mrs. Crockett and Miss Dunsiger’s Rousseau’s ELP 1
- Reading reflection — Mr. McCray’s task for students
- Downloadable handouts — Roslyn Green’s Year 7 History
- How to blogging videos — Mr. Ewert’s 7/8 students
Setting up page links
Some themes automatically add a link to pages in their top navigation while on other themes you need to add a pages widget or set up a custom menu to add the page links.
Personally, I prefer to set up my top navigation using a custom menu as links in the top navigation are easier for readers and it allows you to customize the links considerably more.
You’ll find step by step instructions for setting up custom menus here.
Frequently Asked Pages Questions
These are some of questions around pages that we’re commonly asked.
1. How do you enable comments on pages?
Most Edublogs themes support comments on pages and by default comments are disabled on pages.
You can enable comments on pages using Quick Edit as follows:
1. Go to Pages > All Pages
2. Locate the post or page you want to enable comments on
3. Hover over its title to bring up its action menu and then click on Quick Edit.
4. Select ‘Allow Comments’ and then click on Update.
2. Why won’t comments display on pages?
Most of our themes support comments on pages however there are a few themes that don’t.
If the theme you are using doesn’t support comments on pages, and you would like this feature, then you will need to use an alternative theme.
3. What does the Nothing Found message on my front page mean?
By default, the front page of your blog is set to display your latest posts.
If you delete the default “Hello World’ post before you publish a new post then your front page will display ‘Nothing Found’, ’404 – Not Found Error’ or something similar depending on the theme you are using.
This message is displayed because there is nothing to display on your front page.
You’ll find step by step instructions on how to fix a Not Found message here.
3. Is it possible to publish posts to different pages on my blog?
We’re often asked if it is possible to add posts to other pages, rather than just the front page of the blog. This is commonly asked by educators who want to use one blog for multiple classes or subjects – check out Mr. Cartlidge’s Science Blog to see how it works.
And yes you can! But it does involve slightly advanced blogging skills. You’ll find step by step instructions for sending posts to different pages here.
Your task
Blogging is about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. Here’s your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!
Complete the following tasks:
- Create an About Page, How to Comment page, Blogging Guidelines page, or Contact page and then leave a link to your new page so we can have a look at how you went. Remember to refer to the examples we’ve provided for ideas!
- Read through the most recent comments in reply to this post and leave a response to another person’s comment.
Remember to leave a link to your blog in your comment so we can have a look at your new blog!
This course has been great. It is extremely user-friendly and I’m just whizzing right along. I did create multiple pages with little trouble. I’m excited to show my students what I’ve done and help them get going as well. Here is my About Me page link: http://msshenderson.edublogs.org/about-page/
You’ve made a great start and I’m sure your enthusiasm rubs off on your students!
You have done a ton on your blog. I love the title and all of the tutorials. Well done!
Here is the link to what I have so far:
http://wahsdesign.edublogs.org/
Making progress!
Wow, what a great header! Is it a photo of something you made?
Yes! The students did that in our digital photography “painting with light” session. Thanks!
I think it looks great so far!
I am starting to get the hang of some of these different pieces in my blog. It’s definitely a work in progress. I managed to pick a simple theme, add 2 pages: About and Blogging Guidelines. Like others, I am definitely thankful for those educators who have provided get examples to look at. Coming from a unique setting, Alternative Education. I am wondering if anyone else knows of other alternative ed programs that have Blogs that are live?
I am hoping to get feedback from my students as I continue the process – as their 12-14 year old minds always have something to comment on, LOL. Here is the link to my site: http://blessingsinalternativeeducation.edublogs.org/
Hi Kathleen and team,
I’ve spent way too much time looking at other people’s blogs. It’s great to see how different people approach each page.
One of my pages is here: http://mrsbucks3s.edublogs.org/why_blog/
After looking at Vicki’s I’m keen to add an easybib to the page and use that referencing system when I am writing blog posts for class too.
Thanks for writing things out so clearly,
Michele
Here is the link to my blogging and guideline page http://callierscience.edublogs.org/blogging-and-blogging-guidelines/
These are nice and clear and no doubt will be helpful to your students!
I haven’t done too much to my blog yet. I am still working. One thing I never would have thought to use is a Contact Form. I originally just had my email address on a contact page. I quickly changed to after completing Step 2. I know there is still tons to do, but I already feel much more confident and ready to get my students blogging.
Here is the link to my blog:
http://tselby.edublogs.org/
It appears to be coming along nicely! You chose the same theme as I did, I think it has a nice layout.
I hadn’t ever thought of a contact page, either, and I still haven’t added one to my blog yet. I may, but I am not yet seeing the need for it. If, however, I want to encourage students and parents to use the blog, a contact page would be really helpful.
Thank you for offering this challenge. I enjoy the challenge and am so eager to get my students blogging as soon as I return to school next week. How do I share my blog with you so you can give me any suggestions as I move along?
Hi Sally, feel free to share your blog URL in a comment here so we can take a look.
If you go to Formidable > Forms in your dashboard, you should find your contact form code.
If you need more specific help getting that set up, feel free to email our support team any time support@edublogs.org
Where do I find the contact form code?
Looking at other blogs is invaluable! I not only was able to complete my About Page and Guidelines Pages, but have come away with many great ideas.
I agree.. Looking at the other blogs helped me tremendously in creating my pages.
I’m doing that constantly. Then writing and rewriting and rewriting.
Totally agree that looking at other blogs is a game changer. I’ve been making a list of cool examples that have student pages linked to them so my students can get an idea of where we are going. Edublogs is awesome and I’m so glad I stumbled across this course.
I’ve created pages for as outlined in this step. You can view them at http://t6ruminations.edublogs.org/. When you visit the landing page there is big blank space (it looks like something should be there). When I click in that area it disappears and the text pops up.
Hi Vicki, are you still having trouble with the text missing? Your home page looks fine to me. I can see your ‘welcome to our class blog’ info.
I love looking at other sites for ideas. I love your guidelines page and the videos included. I might add those to my pages as well. Thanks!
http://mrskisselgeniushour.edublogs.org/
I would have to agree here. I loved seeing the embedded videos on digital citizenship and safety. I definitely want to look for some middle age appropriate videos to add as well. My students are not able to access You Tube videos from their student accounts, it’s blocked.
Hi Vicki,
I love the references you’ve included on your pages, will have to go looking and see if I can add easybib to some of my pages.
Your blog space looks interesting
Michele
I teach Literature and Writing to 7th & 8th graders, but have several different classes. I used the menu idea like Mr. Cartlidge’s Science Blog to help set it up. It’s still a work in progress, but I think it will make navigating my posts and pages much more helpful for my students and their parents.
Here’s my contact form page that I also created. http://lchs7write.edublogs.org/contact/
I have created my About page. I hope you can find it.
http://stringhamsapes.edublogs.org/sample-page/
I’ve posted my class syllabus and blogging guidelines on my class blog, https://rackaway.edublogs.org/ and posted links to essential course materials. Perhaps this will be covered in a later module, but I’d like to move the “Friends and Links” box higher along the right-hand sidebar. However, it’s not included in the widgets customizer box. Instead, that’s part of the “stuff” section and the only option is to disable, not to move up or down (I want to put Friends and Links directly below the Pages links.
Here is a link to our Blogging Guidelines page: http://colorfulclassroom.edublogs.org/blogging-guidelines/
It outlines the process we follow each week for blogging.
Here is a link to our About Page: http://colorfulclassroom.edublogs.org/about-us/
Thank you for this information. I am still learning and want my kids to be successful in this endeavor.
I haven’t even shown my class our new blog yet, but I am having fun getting it ready to go! This challenge is really beneficial since I came in with absolutely NO knowledge of blogs or blogging.
Here is the link to what I have so far: http://grovesgang.edublogs.org/
It’s taking shape! Well done! 🙂
this challenge is great. I was big time stressing that my ideas for my upcoming semester wouldn’t come to fruition because I am clueless on blogging. But I am glad they have these challenges to walk me through it!
Hello! Here is a link to my site with an About page and a Blogging Guidelines page:
http://beckyfleming.edublogs.org/
Hi Becky,
Congratulations on getting your blog set up and adding those two important pages too. You’re on your way!
http://globalliteraturefall2018.edublogs.org/about-our-class/
This challenge is great. I wanted to create a blog for my classes and this challenge is really helping me.
So glad to hear it’s helping! Your ‘About Our Class’ page looks great. This will no doubt be really useful for all your students!
Yes it is! I started with no knowledge at all so this has really helped me!
Again thank you!
My hope with my blog is to have my students post their writing to it so it all streams on the same blog, so we can read each other’s. Is there a way to do this without giving the students full access to blog-editing? I wonder if this would get too messy!
Hi Mr LeTellier,
There sure is. Check out our feature called ‘My Class’. It’s a simple way to either set up student blogs or add them as users so they can contribute to the blog (and you can grant them different levels of access so they can’t edit the whole blog).
Here is some info about setting up My Class http://help.edublogs.org/set-up-my-class/
This guide should help too. It explains how to add students as users once you have set up My Class https://help.edublogs.org/add-users/
I hope this helps and if you have any more questions please contact us support@edublogs.org
Thanks,
Kathleen
Thank you! I’ll take a look.
I’m glad you put this information in a comment. I can’t wait to take a look at it either. https://ldymacbeth3.edublogs.org/
This is extremely helpful, Kathleen. I’ll use these resources, as well.
http://beckyfleming.edublogs.org/
I am enjoying this blog challenge, that I am attempting to do once a week. Really enjoying pushing myself to share, collaborate, and learn from others.
I have previously had a class blog but never knew how to add pages or the purpose. Now I am in the loop and applying it to my personal blog.
Thank you.
Starting a personal blog was the catalyst for blogging with students. There is so very much to learn, but it’s been so much fun! Learning from others has been the best teacher PD.
I agree. Learning from others can be the best teacher.
I’ve used other sites to help create class blogs, but they were always so time-consuming that I never kept up with them. My students love adding to their blogs and getting comments from other students like them. It’s made writing so much more authentic.
Hello,
I am new to blogging and I’m trying to teach my kids the gist of their own student blogs. Can students add pages? I cannot find out how. I have followed the directions on the “Set up Pages” post but they don’t have the options.
Thanks to anyone who can help!
Hi Mrs. Posten, you’ve added your students as users to the class blog and they are set to moderation in My Class > Settings. This means they can submit posts as pending review on the class blog but can’t add a page to the blog. If you want students to have their own page then you need to set up a student blog for each student using My Class > Create Student blogs using the existing user options. Send us an email at support@edublogs.org if you would like more detailed instructions.
Sue Waters
Support Manager
Edublogs | CampusPress
Sue,
Thank you for the info. Would my students have to be able to access an actual email account for their own blog. Our district provides a “Google Apps” account for all students Grades 3-12 however they do not have access to the email portion until they are 13 or in 7th grade. Mine are in 6th.
Thanks, Chelsea
Hi Chelsea
They won’t need to have access to an email account for you to set up their blogs.
You can create their blogs using My Class > Create Student blogs using the gmail+ method with a preset password. We explain how this is done here – http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-11-set-up-student-blogs/
Sue Waters
Support Manager
Edublogs | CampusPress
dmss.edublogs.org
Just set up my About Me page. Here it is: http://stacymash10.edublogs.org/about-me-rwc/
HI, I’ve set up some pages but want to change the order they appear along the top. Is there an easy way to do this?
http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/
http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/user-guidelines/
http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/sample-page/
http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/writing-a-post/
And why is one coming up in the link as a sample page? It started as that…… Thanks
Also, one of my students has posted an image (a commix he made online) but it is too small to see properly. Is there any way to enlarge images without cropping?
HI Mrs Kidd
Thanks for sharing links to your new pages! Your blog is coming along well. If you use the sample page you need to edit the permalink to change it to a new URL. I’ve edited it for you so it now is http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/why-blog/
I assume you meant the comic in this post – http://wollemidhs.edublogs.org/2016/10/28/joy/ If so, I’ve inserted the image as a full size image, have linked media file and activated the Lightbox for images plugin – http://help.edublogs.org/lightbox-for-images/ When a reader clicks on the image the full size image loads as an overlay over the post so it can be viewed better.
Sue Waters
Support Manager
Edublogs | CampusPress
Hello Ms McKay.
I very much like your very sensible (and necessary) blogging guidelines. I think all class blogs should have them prominently displayed.
However, Spelling (and grammar) guidelines are secondary to content in my blog. My pupils are so hung up on correct spelling that it prevents them from writing altogether. So I tell them not to worry too much about spelling; so long as it can be read (deciphered).
Thanks
deanburnep.edublogs.org
Here is my “about” page, and you can find the blogging guideline tabs on there as well. Life got in the way of this for a bit, but we are back up and learning!
http://mrskiddqv.edublogs.org/about/
Hi Mrs Kidd
Thanks for sharing a link to your About page. You’ve done great work setting up your About page, blogging guidelines and commenting guidelines.
Sue Waters
Support Manager
Edublogs | CampusPress
I am enjoying looking at everyone’ blogs. I am setting up my blog along with the other art teacher in our building. She is a bit ahead of me with the challenge, but I am getting there. She had you set up her twitter link with her blog with her widgets. Could you do that for me, as well? We do share the same twitter account, but have separate blogs. The twitter handle is “jtlart”. Thank you!
https://shemansky.edublogs.org
Sorry for the delayed reply! I’ve now added the twitter widget to your sidebar.
Sue Waters
Support Manager
Edublogs | CampusPress
I have had fun setting up my about and guidelines pages. I love being able to see others and check back with the instructions. The only problem I have had is uploading a publisher document that I converted to a JPEG for my guidelines, so I ended up with a much simpler page. Still looks nice though.
http://fairviewroom8.edublogs.org/blogging-guidelines/
http://fairviewroom8.edublogs.org/about/about-2/
Hi “nicholej”
Thank you for sharing your pages. Your school looks like it’s in an amazing area!
Eugene Brown, Edublogs | CampusPress
@Edublogs_Eugene
I love your blog so far! 🙂
I see some pages with their twitter feed linked in as a widget…how do you do this? I really want to do this, too!!
Hi “jtlart”
Twitter feeds are added to text widgets as embed codes. If you share your twitter handle with me I’ll set it up for you.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs | CampusPress
@Edublogs_Eugene
http://mrsgollings.edublogs.org/
Here is a link to my blog.
I do not have the Formidable Pro plug in as an available selection under “All”. Can you help? http://alcoamiddle.edublogs.org/
Hi Michelle,
The security settings in Formidable restricts the user role to Admin. Your user role was changed to teacher, which is why you could not see Formidable. This has now been fixed.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I created an About Page and a Guidelines page. I am leaving a contact page out because all of the students have my email classroom phone number to reach me if needed.
http://aknovels.edublogs.org/miss-nelson/
Hi ‘akrzewina’
I really enjoy the look and feel of your blog. The yellow combined with the header image is very effective.
The photos add to your about page, but you might want to include them in the text. We have done this for you to show you how it is done – http://help.edublogs.org/image-alignment/
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I created some pages but they aren’t popping up on my actual site. What do I do.
Hi Caitlin
Please provide a link to your blog so we can help you with this.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Keeping it coming with step #2! I created a “How to Comment” page. This is a starter kit to encourage conversations on the blog. I will get some input from my students later.
http://hellogonzaga.edublogs.org/commenting-guidelines/
Looks like a great starting point. Mine’s similar:
http://mrsenglot.edublogs.org/blogging-and-commenting-guidelines/
I will have to think about the “about page” a little longer, but I am quite content with the guidelines:
http://forestdweller.edublogs.org/sample-page/
Hi “Forestdweller”
Well done on setting up your Blogging Guideline page.
I see you have not yet set up a Custom Menu, so we set one up for you. You can see the Custom Menu by going to Appearance > Menu in your dashboard – http://help.edublogs.org/custom-menu/
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I have created an About Page and Student Comment Guidelines page. I am trying to create a Contact Me page, but I am having difficulty with the contact form although I have a pro account. I have sent a message for help since the formidable is not showing in my navigation bar. desireebeard.edublogs.org
Hi Mrs. Beard
Thank you for your Abut Page. It is very informative.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Your About Page is very candid. You encourage developing writers and advocate for blogging. I will be sure to check back on the blog later.
I have created an “about” page, but must wait for school admin guidance on how much more I can add. Please check out what I have done thus far. http://mrsbaumgard.edublogs.org/about/
Hi Mrs. Baumgard
Well don on creating your About Page. We suggest you ad an image or two to give your About Page some context.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Hi! I’m working on a Contact page and am trying to follow directions, but it looks like the Contact Form can only be used for paying Pro members — is that true?
Hi Ms. Almasi
The contact form is an Edublogs Pro plugin.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Check out my new pages!
http://haflettages.edublogs.org/2016/08/18/the-ages-blog/
Hi Mrs. Haflett
A heads up that you have shared a Post as an example of a Page. Pages are static, like About and Contact pages, and Posts may change http://help.edublogs.org/the-differences-between-posts-and-pages/
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I tried to check out your page but it looks like there’s a password required…
I have created an “about” and a “commenting guidelines” page. I feel good about the “about” page but am still trying to finalize the “commenting guidelines” page.
http://msestrada.edublogs.org/about/
http://msestrada.edublogs.org/commenting-guidelines/
Maybe you could write a short statement on the purposes of commenting, giving positive feedback, engaging in conversation…?
I thought this was so helpful! It answered questions I didn’t even know how to ask!
kbocklage.edublogs.org
Whoops,
Here is the link http://kbocklage.edublogs.org/contact-me/
Hi Ms. Bocklage
I added reCAPTCHA to your form to ensure that you do no get spammed. Please navigate to Formidable > Global Settings to omplete the reCAPTCHA settings.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Great start!! I look forward to seeing what you do next!!
I’m hoping to create a contact form, too, but the ‘formidable’ is not showing in my navigation bar!
Ditto!
I have decided to have a page for each of my classes so they can respond to different blog posts easier. I would be happy to hear thoughts on this. I am at http://jaakre.edublogs.org/
Hi Jennifer
We recommend you set up a Post Category for each subject and add a menu item that opens each Post Category.
Subject Posts can then be assigned to each Post Category, and easily found by your students.
The following is an example of a blog using this approach for Classes – http://sgpsartflash.edublogs.org/
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Heres is my “about me” page, and I have also set up a “contact me” page as well. https://brownshs142.edublogs.org/about-me/
a Liverpoo game… 🙂 🙂
Hello! I have added two pages so far (still not 100% complete) to my blog. I plan on adding a contact page and how to comment page when our blog goes public. I am waiting until Back-to-School night to gauge how parents would feel about opening the blog to all edublog users, and hopefully after explaining the benefits we will be able to do so! I am very excited to introduce blogging to my students! My blog is http://missfellows161.edublogs.org/ and I would love feedback on how to improve it!
Thanks!
Hi Miss Fellow,
Once you start adding more Posts, your home page will start taking shape.
You might consider making the ‘Welcome” post sticky so that is is always visible on your Home Page.
Adding Post Categories will group your posts and make it easier for site visitors to find your content.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I am continuing to work on the blog! Here’s my about me section http://mrskurka724.edublogs.org/sample-page/
I still really like super six sevens site. It’s laid out the way that is easy for me to understand and would work well with my students level of understanding!
Hi Jenna, thank you for sharing your page.
From the image on your about page you live in an amazing environment!
We have renamed your About Page URL so it is easier to find – http://mrskurka724.edublogs.org/about/
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
It was hard work but finally I have a contact page, a page “about me” and another one with blogging and comments guidelines:
http://tiradelalengua.edublogs.org/contacto/
http://tiradelalengua.edublogs.org/sobre-este-blog/
http://tiradelalengua.edublogs.org/expresate/
I feel that I might change these as I go along, but I think it was a good exercise for me and I worked really hard on the content. It made me think a lot about what kind of work I am going to do and what I expect from my students.
I really enjoyed visiting and reading from your blog. I understand wanting to change things as the year progresses. I think it looks fantastic!
When I looked at the example blogs in the first step, I really felt like a rookie: “wow, there’s no way my blog will look like that and have so much information available.”
After this step, I’m definitely feeling a little better about it all!
The About page feels like the most polished of the bunch (pictures really help with that sense): http://mellywrites.edublogs.org/about-ms-melly-and-this-blog/
Both the Student Blog Guidelines and the Student Commenting Guidelines are stolen wholesale from McNally’s Mumblings, with many thanks for her permission: http://mellywrites.edublogs.org/student-blog-guidelines/
http://mellywrites.edublogs.org/student-commenting-guidelines/
The Contact page looks a little squished in this particular blog style, so I may experiment with it or see what the other form plugin looks like:
http://mellywrites.edublogs.org/contact-ms-melly/
I also discovered the Student Blogging Challenge today–I’m really glad that there’s a structure to walk students through the creation of their own blogs. Not sure yet if I will use it as a jumping-off point as we set up our blogs independently in August, or if I’ll wait for the Challenge to begin in Sept/Oct to dive in.
Hi Melly,
Great to hear you are feeling more confident about blogging.
I suggest you add reCAPTCHA to your contact form so you do not get spammed.
I added reCAPTCHA to your contact form. You need to add the security information from here https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html to Formidable > Global Settings in your dashboard.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Your blog looks really good! I hadn’t thought of linking Google Classroom and Remind, both of which I use, to my blog. Thanks for the idea!
Your blog is looking great. I really like how you included a way for parents to get information for Remind. I also like how you included a photo and image on your about page. It makes me want to stare at the page even longer.
IYour blog looks really nice and inviting. I love the pictures.
I’ve slowly developed and altered the pages on my blog over the course of the year.
This is my “Using Blogs in our Classroom” page, which I have kept the same from the start: http://56seps2016.edublogs.org/using-blogs-in-our-classroom/
I’ve recently worked out how to add sub-pages to my main menu as well, so I have added these to both my Term 3 PBL and Term 3 English pages, to prevent there being an overload of information on each page.
My newest page is the Term 3 English Page: http://56seps2016.edublogs.org/term-3-english/
I’d love some suggestions on how to make it more user friendly for ease of access if possible!
Hi Miss Zecchin,
I see you have a lot of pages. Sometimes it is better to use posts, especially for content that is updated over time, and add these posts to Post Categories. The Post Category widget the groups your Posts into manageable chunks.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
Here’s my updated class blog with about, contact, and guidelines. I got the contact form to work before I added the reCAPTCHA (which I think is really cool and I want it to work). Any ideas? http://mshubbard314.edublogs.org/
Hi Ms. Hubbard
We have added the reCAPTCHA for you. The reCAPTCHA fiels is double-cllicked in the formidable form, and it is then added.
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I started creating pages, the About Me page is what I spent most of my time on. I won’t have a classroom this year so I have time to work on the other pages. I added a Blogging Guide page and will keep working on it. I’m bummed the contact plug-in isn’t free unless you have Pro.
http://pullittogether.edublogs.org/about/
Hi Britta,
Thank you for sharing your About Page.
Have you thought of adding a photo to your About Page to make it more personal?
Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support
@Edublogs_Eugene
I felt the same way about the contact plug-in, but I may be upgrading to pro soon anyway.
Me, too. I began a basic blog last year, and it was successful. This year, I’m exploring other possibilities, but I’m not yet reading to go “Pro.” I already have a Welcome page, which is essentially an About page. mrsliebson.edublogs.org.
I am creating a blog for a 2 teacher classroom, so some of my pages are password protected at the moment because the info. on there has not been reviewed by my teaching partner. I have created an About Page, Contact Us Page, and a Guidelines page which you can view here: http://msbmsd.edublogs.org/guidelines-safety/.