Today, October 16th, in class…

Please look at the assignment pages and do assignment #4 about ghosts and superstitions. Have fun with this!

Also, if there is any past assignment you have NOT FINISHED, work on that today in class!!!!!

Create Your Own Avatar!

Visit Face of the Future and create a cartoon character of your own face. You can save it as a jpeg and use it anywhere you would normally use a photograph. These make cute Avatars for your blog! (Avatars are the little pictures that show up beside your comments.)

Posting a YouTube video

First, go to YouTube and get the URL of your video. When you have your video showing, go up to the address bar and copy the entire address (the URL). Then come back to your blog. Create a new post. Be sure to give it a title. In the body of the post, type the name of your video. Highlight it. Click on the linked chain graphic in the tool bar where you are typing your post. In the address line, paste the URL of your video (be sure that you do NOT have http:// in the address line twice!). In the target line, choose “Open link in a new window.” Then click “Insert” and then “Save” and then “Publish.” Your video is now embedded in your blog.

Settings for your blog

In order to see the comments people leave for you, you must have your settings edited correctly. To do this, go to “My Dashboard.”

Click on “Settings.”

Click on “Discussion.”

The only check mark should be on “Allow people to post comments on the article.”

On the same page, under “Avatars,” click “Show Avatars.”

Under “Maximum Rating,” click “PG.”

You may choose a default avatar for those bloggers who leave comments and do not have an avatar of their own, or you may choose “Blank.”

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save.”

Also under the “Settings” tab, click “Privacy” and click on the top setting, “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone.”

Click “Save.”

Now you should be able to see your peers’ comments and teacher comments with no trouble and no delay!

Today in class, Thursday, August 20, 2009

Your very first blog responsibility today is to make sure you have completed Assignment #1 and that you have all the settings correct on your blog. Then…

Create a new post on your blog with today’s date somewhere in the title. Consider the characters in the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales and decide which one you would most like to travel with on a pilgrimage. Why? Then, decide which character would be most difficult to tolerate on a long road trip. Why? How would your personality and the personalities of these characters compare?

Now, search the web for images of the characters you have chosen and insert them into your post. (Refer to the post on this blog from August 13th regarding images in a post.)

Welcome to our class blog!

Welcome to our class blog. I hope that you find this venue for publishing your writing useful and fun. Please visit each other’s blogs and leave helpful, appropriate comments often. The exchange of ideas is important!

Helpful Places on the World Wide Web

I thought you might like to try your hand at creative publishing. Here are some programs that you can use and some helpful websites:

PhotoStory 3 for Windows (free download; very easy to use; create great slideshows from your images with music and narration)

Audacity (free download; mix music tracks and narration into one file in different formats)

audacity-tips-blending-soundtracks

www.zamzar.com (free video file conversion website; this is great for converting YouTube video into a .wmv file you can keep and use anywhere)

www.animoto.com (make professional videos from your own digital images and music; I have used this one many, many times! Here’s an example of one using pictures I took myself on the Amicalola River.)

www.wordle.net (make neat graphic presentations of words; below is an example)

www.dvolver.com (make really short animated videos)

www.circavie.com (make cool photo-embedded timelines; great for history projects)

Just google the programs and you should get several choices of downloads.

The best way to learn how to use the programs is just to play with them. Have fun!

Inserting Images in a Post

When you are writing a post and you wish to insert an image, click on the Add media: “Add An Image” button. (It is the first one after ‘Upload/Insert.’) You may then choose an image already saved on your computer by browsing files, or you can link to an image on the internet if you have the URL of the image. The image will be placed in your post when you hit the “Insert into post” button. Then just hit “Publish.”

wAcKy WiKiPeDiA!

Although Wikipedia is not always necessarily a reliable source for your serious research, it is still a vast collection of information which can serve as a good starting point when trying to learn about a topic. Never cite Wikipedia as a source in a formal composition or research paper without the express permission of your instructor, especially in college! However, the really legitimate entries have references and a list of sources that can be researched and quoted. Click here to learn more.

100 Top SAT Vocabulary Words

Visit this web site listing the 100 most common vocabulary words on the SAT. How many of them do you know?