Check out these links to learn cool stuff about what a blog is, how to create one, and the best ways to make yours rock!  Your teacher will go over the basic blogging steps with you in class but this list will help you make the best blog ever.

SITES FOR CREATING BLOGS:

Blogger – This is a common and very easy to use site for creating blogs.  Visit this link to take a blog tour, watch a quick tutorial video, read other people’s blogs and easily get started on your very own blog. (You may chose to use Edublog, Blogger, or WordPress)

Edublogs – This is the site that many teachers use here for creating blogs in our school.  This link takes you to the video tutorial you need to watch to understand how to use the blog we are going to create.   (You may chose to use Edublog, Blogger, or WordPress )

WordPress – This is another common and easy to use site for creating blogs.  There are more options here than in Blogger or Edublog but it is a bit more complicated to learn how to use.  Visit this link to seeall the cool options for creating a blog as well as look at other people’s blogs and even participate in forums. (You may chose to use Edublog, Blogger, or WordPress )

SITES WITH COOL STUFF FOR YOUR BLOG:

 Copyright friendly music and sound - This link is for all those fun and interesting sound effects and music clips that you will want to be able to insert into your blog.  The sites on this wiki have copyright friendly material, meaning that you have permission to use them.

Flickr – You probably already know about the photo sharing site called Flickr, but this link takes you to the page that explains how certain icons mean that you can use the pictures for free and how others show that the pictures need some sort of permission before you can borrow them.  This way you will know which photos you can use legally for your blog.

SITES THAT EXPLAIN ALL ABOUT BLOGS:

Chris Brogan – As president of a media company Mr. Brogan has lots to say about blogs and how to use them effectively.  This link will give you some great tips and steps to take to handle negative comments on your blog.

Common Craft videos – This helpful video clip will teach you all about blogs and how to use one.  In less than two minutes!!  Check out all of their other videos for wikis, RSS, podcasts and other cool things that you can add to your blog.

escrapbooks – Check out this link to see a whole bunch of examples of blogs from kindergarten through high school.  These are put together by kids and they let you see how some choices work really well and some really don’t.  Click on each of the examples to find your favorite cool blog and the one you think REALLY didn’t work. 

How Stuff Works – This site has all sorts of cool information about how things work; cars, animals, computers, and even stuff online like blogs.  This link will take you to a great step-by-step process of what blogs are, how they work, how to create your own and connect yourself with lots of other interesting blogs.

Webmonkey –  Webmonkey is a site that has many valuable resources for all sorts of internet technology.  This blog link gives tips on how to make your blog better, more interesting, and overall a richer user experience.  This link gives an easy-to-follow break down of how to build a blog in WordPress, one of several free blogging sites online.

Wikipedia entry for “blogs” – This site gives an easy-to-understand definition of what is a blog and also embeds links within that definition that jump the user to further Wikipedia explanations, examples, and deeper definitions of blogs and blogging. 

Be sure to leave comments or questions for your teacher.  Just hit the “Add comment” button and type away.