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| Writing Blog Central |
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Help for Parents & other visitors Our Student Blogs Active - 2007-2008 Ms. Howard - TAK Mr. Hanscom - CKES Ms. Giczi - CKES Mr. Wooldridge - EVB Ms. Willard - EVB Ms. Robinson - SECS Mr, McInnes - SECS Primary Voices - ESES Da Costa Challenge - TCS
Annual 2006-2007 2005 & older Ms. Howard's - Takhini Mr. Campana - WES Ms. Wissner - JVC Ms. Potter - KLS Aces Bike Trip Exodus Mission 2004 Excursion Mission 2005 Excelsior Mission 2006 Territorial Honour TAL Weblog |
for Students
IntroductionWelcome to your class writing blog. Your class will be using this web site to workshop and publish your writing. New stories start in the News area where they are discussed and commented on by the site editors (students and teachers). Once a story is ready, the teacher posts it and it appears on the Home Page, on the individual student Department page which are accessed by following the Meet our Authors link, and it becomes available in the Discussion area where members of the public can comment.Interested members of the public (parents, etc.) can also join this site and give feedback on published student's work by using the Discuss link at the end of each story. Only members of the site can post comments and you must have a valid email address to become a member. Your writing blog is a public website. Anything posted to the Home page and Department pages is viewable by any visitor to the site. Therefore, all postings must comply with the YESNet Web Publishing Policy, and should be polished, final drafts. Please remember that this is a blog and not a chat or journal site and refrain from using chat slang, short cuts, etc. Please Note: These Help files are a separate web site. You will need to return to your Classroom blog before following the instructions. Here is a printer-friendly version of this page in case you want to print them out before returning to your blog. Please check with your teacher before printing. 1. Logging inTo use the blog it must recognize you as an editor. To do this you must log in. Students login using their 5 digit Yukon Student ID and an assigned password. Note: although the field is labeled Email address it will accept your Student ID number. 2. Starting a new storyStudents should continue to use a word processor for the draft stage of their writing. This way they will have the full set of editing tools (spell checked, thesaurus, etc.). The blog is used for workshopping and publishing and should therefore be in final draft form.a. Click on the Start a New Story link in the Navigation menu
 b. Put your story title in the Title field. Leave the URL field blank  c. Select your name from the Department pop-up list. This will assign your story to your ePortfolio when it gets posted by your teacher.  d. Copy and paste your story into the Story box.  e. When you have this done, click on the Create News Item button to add your story to the workshop area.  3. Editing a StoryAfter you have posted your story you will want to be able to access it in order to make corrections, etc.a. Log-in to the blog
b. Click on the News link in the Editors only: menu that appears across the top of the site after logging in c. Find your story in the list. Click on the title d. This will open your story into an editors window. If you scroll up you can see a preview of what it will look like when posted to the page.  e. Make your changes f. Click on Post Changes button when you are done. Posting a story to the Home Page and Department Page Only the Managing Editor (Teacher) of the site can make a story public by posting it to the Home page. It will also automatically get posted to the Department page that was chosen in the Department pop-up when editing. If you feel your story is finished and ready for public consumption let your teacher know. About the Release button You will notice a Release button just below the preview of your story. If you use it it will release your story from your control and the only person who will be able to make changes will be your teacher. There is no way to undo this. 4. Workshopping a storyPart of the process of a Writing Blog is workshopping the stories. This is when you can make comments and suggestions on other students stories in order to help them become better writers. We are looking for specific constructive criticism, and it is always important to point out the strengths you find as well. You can add your comments to works in progress or to finished works that have been posted to the Home page.a. To comment on a work in progress 1. Log in to the site.
2. Click on the News link in the Editors only: menu that appears across the top of the site after logging in. 3. Click on the title of the story in the list you wish to comment on. 4. Click on the Discuss link at the bottom right of the story you've selected. 5. This will open the story with a Response Text field just below. Type your comment in there and click on Post Response. b. To comment on a published work 1. Log in to the site.
2. Find the story you wish to comment on either on the Home page, on the Individual Department page which are accessed by following the Meet our Authors link in the navigation area, or in the Discussion list accessed with the Recent Discussion link. 3. Use the Discuss link at the bottom of the story. This will open the story with a Response Text field just below. Type your comment in there and click on Post Response. Remember that your comments will be public as soon as the story is posted to the Home Page by your teacher so please pay attention to your spelling, punctuation and avoid using chat slang, etc. 5. Adding a picture to a storyAdding a picture to a web page is more complicated that adding one to a document. First you will need to prepare the picture. Then you will need to upload it to the site. Finally you will need to link to it.Remember that you must follow our web publishing policy to stay safe. No personal pictures of yourself or of your classmates. You also need to follow Canadian copyright guidelines so please check with your teacher before uploading. a. Preparing the picture Pictures need to be of a reasonable size and to be saved as a JPG. If you are using digital pictures you can do this in iPhoto. You can also use Appleworks. Using iPhoto
1. Open iPhoto 2. Select the picture you want to use 3. Look for the Export command. It is either under the File menu or the Share menu (depending on the version)  4. Use the format pop-up to select JPG 5. Select the Scale images no larger than... option and set the width to 400 (iPhoto will fill in the height) 6. Click on Export. Give the file a short, descriptive name and keep track of where you save it as you will need to find it to upload it later. Using Applework
1. Open Appleworks. Ask for a new Draw document. 2. Paste, or drag the picture file into the draw window. 3. If it is huge, use the Scale by Percent command under the Arrange menu to reduce it. You may have to do this a couple of times. 4. Use Save As... under the File menu.  5. Use the Format pop-up to select JPEG [QT]. Give the file a short, descriptive name and keep track of where you save it as you will need to find it to upload it later. b. Uploading the picture Now that your picture is ready, follow these steps to upload it to the blog: 1. Log in to the blog
2. Click on the Pictures link in the Editors Only: menu that appears across the top of the blog when you are logged it. This will open up the index of pictures. 3. Click on the Create a New Picture link. This will open a picture upload page.  4. Put the short name of your picture in the Title field. 5. Use the Browse button to navigate to your saved picture file. You should be careful that someone else is not already using the file name you want. If they are, change yours by adding a number to the end of it (ie: cats becomes cats1) 6. You can leave the large text area blank. 7. Click on the Post New Picture button. Your picture will be uploaded. c. Linking to the picture This is the easiest part. To add the picture to your story: 1. Log in to the blog
2. Open your story 3. Decide where you want the picture. Type the short picture name in the story inside of quote marks (ie: "cats") 4. Use the Post Changes button. Your story will reload with the picture now linked. |
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