Blogging Guidelines
Blogging Blogging Blogging

Books you will be reading:
Johnny Tremain
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Shane
Call of the Wild
The Diary of Miss Jane Pittman

Blogging Requirements:
1. For each book, students will make at least five blog entries. These entries are not required to be grammatically correct and with proper spelling but considering that you are in an Honors Humanities program, I would recommend it. I, personally, always try to write well, whether in an e-mail, on IM, or on a blog. I think it's a good habit to get into and when I read sloppy writing or writing with many spelling mistakes, it is less impressive than when I read something that is well-written.
2. Entries will average 100 words. Tip: In writing your entries, try to start a conversation with whomever is reading your blog. Ask questions. Write about conflicts in the books or intriguing things about the characters. Writing "this book is great" isn't enough. Tell why you think it's great. It's best to post your entries while you are in the process of reading the book. When interesting things come up in your reading, you can go to the computer and write a blog about it.
3. Students will respond to at least five other student's blogs for each book they read. Tip: You can have some fun with this and respond more often than five times, but make sure you have at least five responses that are thoughtful and productive. Responding with, "Hi, how are you?" or "I agree" isn't going to cut it. If you read something in a blog that you agree with, write that. If you disagree with something written, it’s good to communicate your disagreement in a constructive, non-insulting way.
4. Make sure your writing is appropriate for a school setting. Whether in your blog or in your comments, keep it clean.

Your Blog Website:

You can change things on your blog by going to your blog, then clicking on the Blogger graphic (it says "I Power Blogger"). This will take you to the Dashboard. From the Dashboard, you can click on New Post (the symbol is a plus sign) or Change Settings (the symbol is a sprocket, I believe).

Do this now:
1. Go to the Dashboard and click on Change Settings.
2. In the Basic section, under Add your Blog to our listings, change that to "No." This is so that you won't get lame comments by the greater public.
3. Now click on the Comments link (near the top: Basic, Publishing, Formatting, Comments, etc.)
4. Under Comment Notification Address you can put your e-mail address if you would like to be notified by e-mail that someone has left a comment on your blog.

Last, but not least:
I've set up a blog at www.mueltrain.blogspot.com. On the left of the page are links to all of your blogs. It's a quick-and-easy way to get to everyone's blogs from one location, so you don't have to type in their URL. Each of you can set up this same listing of links to other's blogs.




- posted by Mueltrain @ 2:47 PM