BELLWORK Jackie Chan is frustrated because he does not understand what a blog is. Explain to Mr. Chan what a blog is before he karate chops you out of frustration. Your best guess could save your life.

What’s a blog?

OBJECTIVES Create a blog on wordpress.com Complete first assignment: Introduction

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO CREATE A BLOG?

ONE: email accounts You cannot create a wordpress account without an email. If you cannot access yours or do not have one, create an account at gmail.com, ymail.com, outlook.com or various other free sites.

TWO: blog accounts Go to wordpress.com. Click on “create website” or “register” depending on what you see.

TWO: blog accounts Create a name for your blog {firstname_lastname_thmscmtanddp}. This name followed by “.wordpress.com” will be the address people type to visit your site.

Provide your email and create a password. You must be able to access your email. If you cannot, it is time to retrieve your password or create a new email account.

Skip any of the premium paid options by clicking “FREE”

Select a theme. This will determine the template for your blog and the design. Themes can be changed at any time. If you cannot decide, just pick one and change it later.

Select the “Free” wordpress plan

Once you have reached this screen you must sign in to your email to activate your blog.

If you see this message at the top of your page, you have not verified your email and your blog is not activated yet!

THREE: creating posts Once you are signed in to wordpress and you have verified your email, click the pencil in the top right to begin making posts.

This is the interface for creating posts with any combination of text and media. It is a very barebones word processor.

To insert an image, click the “add media” button.

This will take you to the media gallery This will take you to the media gallery. Click “upload” to add new files from your computer or click “media library” to see what you have already uploaded.

Here is it what it looks like after uploading two files Here is it what it looks like after uploading two files. At this point you can simply insert or take the time to create a gallery.

Before you insert an image, you can change settings and information in the window to the right. The display settings below let you choose alignment and size.

Here is what the post creator looks like after inserting the images. You can still add text above or below the images.

Clicking “preview” shows us what our final post will look like.

In this example, two more photographs were uploaded and “create gallery” was selected from the top left. Afterwards, “create a new gallery” was selected on the bottom right.

In this is example, the gallery type “Tile Mosaic” was select and then “insert gallery” was clicked.

Here is what the post creator looks like after inserting the gallery. You can still add text above or below the gallery.

This is what clicking “preview” tells us our final post will look like.

When you are done, click “publish” and your post will be live When you are done, click “publish” and your post will be live! If you are not done, click “save draft” so you do not lose your work.

Your first Post: Subject: Introduction Your preferred name and a picture of yourself (use photobooth) Previous Photography experience Previous Photoshop experience Previous Graphic Design experience Previous Illustrator experience Previous video experience An interesting fact about yourself.

Common Challenges

Student blogs have no content They may not have activated their account: students must check their email and authenticate by clicking a button. Posts may have been saved in “draft” mode and need to be changed to “publish” You are visiting the incorrect website, double check their site address Student has not completed any work

Students Forget Login Have students write down their username and password somewhere that they will not lose it * Students need to know to access their email when recovering login information.