Using Edublogs – WordPress for schools, teachers & students – these are the three steps I take to initiate my student blogs.  This is certainly not the ONLY way but this is the process I found to be most helpful.  The best resource is the very helpful user guide Edublogs offers.  Every process along the journey of classroom blogging is outlined and explained well in that online guide.  

I find it more efficient to conduct this initiation myself rather than the students.  For one, I can set up their URLs in a uniform fashion, eliminating the possibility of silly URLs students may regret owning later – URL name is the one item that cannot be altered.  Additionally, the twenty minutes or so this takes me to do is undoubtedly faster than the entire period it takes students as this very well may be first experiences with the blogging world.  Students will have ample opportunity to “own” the experience through choice of theme, fonts, colors, etc.

Once you’ve set up your own class site via edublogs.org, perform the same steps to set up each individual student site. **NOTE:  Because I illustrate this step-by-step, this may look much more involved than truly is. . . . Again, see the Edublogs guide for the thorough step-by-steps.  This is simply my own step process, in my own words:

1.  TEACHER DOES:  Set up each student account individually at Edublogs.org.

1. Click on “Get Your Free Blog Now” (just as you would have done for creating your own account).
2. Make the “username” the first initial of first name, last name (i.e. tchristensen) for each student.  This is what he/she will use to log in.  Creating uniformally formatted will be easier for you to create and them to remember.
3. Skip the optional “email.”  This will not be needed if you have uniform usernames & passwords!
4. Create a “password” that is easy to retrieve for each student (id?/birthdate?).
5. Make the “blog domain” something that sufficient for future digital portfolios (full names?  first initials of first names/last names?  first names/first initials of last names?).
6. For now, make the “blog name something like  “Theresa’s Blog, Jason’s Blog, etc . . . they can change this later.
7. For “blog type,”  don’t forget to indicate it as a student blog!  This will allow them to “join your class” site later.
8. TLC TIP:  If, after performing the above steps, Edublogs tells you that student name already exists, add a numerical digit at the end of the name.  For uniformity, you may want to think of this number ahead of time and keep it the same for each student.  (i.e. 2014 for that year)
9. Go back to the Edublogs.org site for EACH student and perform this same process.  It really doesn’t take long!

2.  TEACHER DOES:  Link the student blogs to your own Edublogs site.  Taking this step ahead of time, prior to unveiling the student sites to your students, will add to the fun because they will see their names on the “blog roll!”

1. Log in to your own class site on Edublogs.
2. Go to the Dashboard.
3. On the left hand side, go to “Links” and click “Add New.”
4. For each student, create a link:
   1. Fill in the student’s name in “Name.”
   2. Type URL (that you already created) for that student’s blog under “Web Address.”
   3. Under “Description,” type Brad’s Blog or Skylar’s Blog, etc.  This appears when the cursor hovers over the link on the blog roll.
   4. If you have ONE class, this is all you need to do!  If you want to place more than one class in your blog roll (in other words, have more than one class linked up to your site), you will need to set up each class as a category:
      1. Go to “Posts”
      2. Click “Categories”
      3. Fill in a name for your Category (i.e. Period 5 or Period 6)
      4. Press “Add New” and voila.
5. Now your links should start appearing as you named them within the right sidebar!

TLC TIP:  If the blogroll doesn’t automatically appear on your right sidebar, go to “Appearance” and “Widget.”  Drag over a Widget called “Links.”  HERE is the complete guide for this process.

3.  STUDENTS DO:  Students join the class site.  ~EDUBLOGS PRO option ONLY

1. First, unveil the sites to each student!  I’ve used THIS document in the past.
2. Once the students log in to their sites and get over their initial excitement, have them go to the Dashboard, go to “Class” at the left-hand side and “Join a Class.”  They search for your site, request to join and you approve.  Having them join your class allows you further control of their posts – if you choose to have it.  In other words, you can approve posts or comments before they are published, you can easily see who has completed a post, etc.
3. TLC TIP:  I’ve used Edublogs both with and without a PRO account and have functioned well with both.  While I prefer having the PRO for its advantages (more control of privacy, more media upload capacity, more themes, the new reader function, etc), managing posts is doable without it.  You will simply need to click on each student link within your blog roll to check the posts.

I hope this explanation is helpful in easing your initiation with classroom blogs.  Like I mentioned above, there are a couple of different ways to begin but this is what I found to be the least complicated and time-saving.  In the meantime, Happy Blogging, Friends!