With so many options now available, we’ve decided to show you how easy it is to decorate your blog for any holiday or season!

We’ve also set up a demo blog so you can check out what a live blog looks like when you use different options to customise with a particular feel!

Adding a Custom Background

Most themes now allow you to set your own custom image header and custom background.

Yet most people are unaware of how easy it is to add a custom background to achieve a more customised look while adding a personalized touch to their blog.

The first step is to search for a free background you’d like to use.  Numerous websites provide a wide range of suitable free images and backgrounds.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

1. Free Christmas Wallpapers
2. Webweavers Free Clipart
3. Free webimages & Clipart
4. Background Labs
5. Layouts for Christmas
6. Christmas Free 4 All
7. Animated Gif Net
8. Cartoon Cottage

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use, all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.

Now uploading your background is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Background inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose File, select the image you want to upload and then click Upload.

3.  Once it is uploaded select your preferred display option and then click Save Changes.

And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom background!

Student bloggers often like using an animated gif for their background.  All they need to do is locate the animated .gif they want to use, save it onto their computer the same as you would save any other image, and then upload it as a background.

Of course, animated gifs can be a bit overwhelming when used as a background and Ronnie made me remove my pretty ones

Adding a Custom image header

Custom image headers, like backgrounds can really add to the look and feel of a blog.

You can easily make your own or search for a free image header to use.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

1. Guides & Tips Bogger
2. Free Christmas headers
3. Free Web headers
4. Free Header images
5. Theme headers

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.

Tip:

1. For the best quality use the recommended image header dimensions for your chosen theme (recommend size for your theme is displayed on Appearance > Header)
2. I use Snagit to resize and adjust my image headers to the correct size before uploading.

Now uploading your image header is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Header inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose file, browse for the image on your computer and then click on Open.

• Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.

3.  Next click Upload 

4.  Your image will upload and if it isn’t the exact dimensions you’ll need to select the area you want to crop and then click Crop and Publish.
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And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom image header!

Adding widgets to your sidebar

And don’t forget the longtime-favorite Let It Snow plugin on Edublogs which adds falling snow right on your blog!

Leave a link to your decked-out and holiday-trimmed blog below so we can all get in the festive mood.

Seasons greetings and happy blog decorating!

The good news is that our newest custom menus feature makes this even easier!

This is ideal if you want to put up a post or question geared only towards one group of your students. They will see a link for their class in the top menu navigation of your blog, and once they click on that link, they will see only posts meant for them, with the most recent at the top.

Don’t let the length of the instructions fool you – it really is easy to setup, and once it is done, it will last you all school year

Step 1 – Choose what should be shown on your “home page”

Option 1 – All posts are shown with the most recent first – this what you are most likely used to

Option 2 – A “static home page” where you place a welcome message or important announcements

What we will be doing is assigning categories to certain classes or subjects. Because of this, you may not want all posts to show on your home page – what people see when they first visit your blog.

If you are ok with all posts, no matter the subject or class, showing together on your home page, then you won’t need to do anything special and can skip right to Step 2.

If you go with the static home page (Option 2), then you will first need to create a new page, just like any other page, and put in the information you want people to see.

Then, go to Settings > Reading in your blog’s dashboard, choose ‘Static Page‘ and in the drop down, select the new welcome page you just created.

Click ‘Save Changes‘.

You will be able to go back and update this page with new announcements whenever you like – but users that have subscribed to your blog feed or by email, won’t receive any sort of notification.

You can also create a new blank page called something like “All Posts”, and choose it under the posts dropdown box so that there will be a place for all posts to be shown on your blog in one place.

Step 2 – Create categories

Go to Posts > Categories and create new categories for each class, year, or subject that you want to appear in your blog’s navigation menu.

You will need a category for every post you write if you are using the static home page from step 1.

As you publish new posts, make sure to assign them to appropriate categories. You will get an error message when you click on a category that doesn’t yet have a post assigned to it. You can also assign a post to more than one category, which is great for news you want to share with all groups.

Step 3 – Create a custom menu

Go to Appearance > Menus and create a new custom menu for your blog.

Once you do this, all of the links at the top of your blog will disappear and you will need to add them back using the custom menu.

Visit our help site on custom menus to learn more, or check out the video below:

Going from here…

If you have this up and working and would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below letting us know!

For more information on setting up a class blog, check out the ongoing Class Blog series on our Teacher Challenges free professional development blog.

Before now, you had to put a link to your twitter page and then potential fellow tweeters had to click “follow” there. Now, they can do it all from your site with one single click.

He’re an example for my account. Go head – click follow – I won’t mind!

So how do you add one to your blog?

Twitter makes it easy to grab embed code for your own personal follow button here.

We’ll walk you through the steps, but if you want to know more about embedding, you should check out the in-depth post here from our Teacher Challenge blog.

1. Visit the Twitter Resource page for the Follow button

2. Choose from the available options and then copy the code that appears on the right side

3. Paste the code into the HTML tab of a page or post. A popular place might be to put it on your Contact or About page.

How To Embed In a Sidebar

You can see that we’ve embedded the follow button into the sidebar of this blog on the left side under our photos.

Here’s how to this:

1. Complete steps 1 and 2 from above (which is to go here)

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

4.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

5.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for your follow button or widget, click Save and then Close.

6.  That’s it!

What other twitter widgets can you add?

Using the exact same steps as embedding the follow button, you can also add several other twitter widgets too!

All of the different widgets and options can be found here.

Here are a few on display for you too see:

The Profile Widget




The Search Widget




Edubloggers List Widget

Other Twitter Resources

• A twitteraholics guide to tweets, hashtags and all things twitter
• To hashtag or not to hashtag
• Edublogs on Twitter

Did you know that the fastest and easiest way to add new features to your blog is by embedding widgets into the sidebar of your blog?

To help you out, here is a list of the most popular and most useful widgets that can be added to your blog in no time.

Scroll down to the bottom of this post for more instructions on how to add widgets to your blog. Don’t forget, these widgets can also be embedded using the HTML tab in any page or post as well!

Visitor Statistics

1. ClustrMaps - The most popular widget on Edublogs.  Displays a small map with “dots” for each of your visitors.
2. Flag Counter – Lists the most common countries that your visitors are from and shows the flag from each country.
3. Who’s Among Us – With an account, includes some nice stat collection tools.
4. My Web Counter – Simple and free visitor counters with many custom looks and designs.

Talking Avatars

1. Voki - Add a speaking and highly customizable avatar to your blog.  Record you voice, create a character, and much more!
2. Read The Words – Human avatars that will read text or recorded audio right in your blog.
3. Site Pal – A paid widget that can make scarily realistic avatars using uploaded photos of you or students.

Miscellaneous

1. Clock Link – 100′s of different and unique clocks of all types.
2. AccuWeather – The most complete collection of weather widgets to show current conditions and forecasts.
3. Box.net – Create a file dropbox or upload widget for students to submit files for your review.
4. Feed Wind – Display the latest posts from another blog anywhere on the web.
5. Sweet Search – Place a search box for a trusted and safe for students search engine.

Google Apps

*These widgets also will all work with Google Apps for Education users too!

1. Google Calendar – Embed a list of upcoming events or a month view of a public Google calendar.
2. Google Talk Chatback – Put a badge in your sidebar that lets users chat with you live when you are online. Your blog’s visitors don’t even need a gtalk account to chat with you.
3. Google Maps – Embed a Google map – complete with directions, street views, and more.
4. Google Gadgets – Choose from hundreds of different widgets, including games, trivia and more.

Multimedia

1. Flickr Slideshow and Badges - Easily add photos from your flickr account to your sidebar.
2. Facebook Photo Gallery - Show off your public facebook photo galleries right on your blog.
3. SchoolTube MVP - Share popular videos from SchoolTube.com with easy sidebar access.
4. YouTube - Place in YouTube channels or top trending videos.
5. Mixpod – Create a music play list and share it on your blog.
6. RadioTuna – Pick a genre and play music for your visitors.

Languages

1. Google Translate – Instantly translate your blog into many different languages.
2. Transparent.com Word of the Day – Audio and visual word of the day. Customizable in many of the world’s languages such as Spanish, French, German, Chinese and many more.
3. Reverso Translation – Translorts, verb conjugators, and more in many different languages.

Reading

1. Shelfari - Show off your favorite books for others to see.
2. Education Atlas – Free thesaurus and dictionary widget with many features.
3. SitePal Widgetbox – Mentioned above, but this widget will allow readers to type in or copy and paste words to be read out loud.

Science & Math

1. Science Score – A science question of the day. Students can even enter to win prizes.
2. Wolfram Alpha – Quite possibly the best resource on this list – Wolfram Alpha contains hundreds of customizable math and science widgets, including unit converters, weather tools, graphing calculators, problem solvers, and much more. This might be the only resource math and science students and teachers need for their blogs!

History

1. Info Please – Nice looking “this day in history” widget that displays multiple events and updates every day.
2. Timeline Index – 30 different timelines showcasing several different periods of history – including US presidents, world history outline, philosophers, and explorers.

Widget Sites & Collections

1. WidgetBox.com – The definite go-to place to find and build your own widgets. Edublogs uses several widgets from here on our main site!
2. SpringWidgets.com – Another great source for widgets from many of your favorite sites on the web. User reviews and comments help you find the perfect widget for your blog.
3. Widgipedia.com – Like the two sites above, wigipedia is a huge and growing collections of widgets of all types and sizes.

How To Embed

1. Choose the widget of your choice and copy the html code for it.

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

4.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

5.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for your widget, click Save and then Close.

6.  You should now see the widget in your blog sidebar!

Related Links

• Edublogs Curriculum Corner – Embedding and using blogs with other technology
• Edublogs Support – Upgrading up to 50 student blogs to enable embedding

Since there are thousands and thousands of widgets to use, we are certain to have overlooked a few of your favorites.

Leave a comment below with any that we missed so that we can add to the list!

So what do you need to know to do this?

To start with you need to understand that you need to:

1. Write HTML code which links to the location of your image
2. Add your HTML code to a text widget in your sidebar

Now that I’ve said blah blah HTML code twice…you’re probably thinking that I’ve made it too hard already.

It’s not but I first need to explain what is HTML code and then show you it’s really easy when you know my trick

What is HTML?

HTML is short for “Hyper Text Markup Language” which is a language used to tell a browser how to organise the layout of a web page it has downloaded from the Internet.  It influences if text is bold, italics, a heading, bullet points.

When you write a post or page inside your blog dashboard you don’t worry about how to write HTML because the Visual Editor does it for you. If you click on the HTML tab it shows the HTML code in your text.

Here’s the Trick!

As I said you need to use HTML but that doesn’t mean you can’t cheat with writing the HTML code.

Instead use your Visual Editor to do the work for you!

Cheating is as simple as:

1.  Open up a draft post in your blog dashboard
2.  Click on Add an Image to upload your image to the post

• Ideally resize your image before uploading to 170 pixels wide because this generally the best width for most blog sidebars

3.  Insert the title for your image (this displays when a reader hovers their mouse over the image)

4.  Change the link URL — if you want to link your image to a website

• In this example, I’ve change the link so it goes to http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/01/30/excerpt-from-my-upcoming-book-on-teaching-english-language-learners/ instead of the image URL

5.  Click on Insert into Post

6.  If you want to add any text below your image — just write it!

7.  Now click on the HTML tab and copy all the HTML code.

8.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

9.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets

10.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

11.  The widget will automatically open — add a title to your widget, paste the HTML code and click Save

• If you want to insert lines for better text spacing you need to add the HTML code <br/ > (means insert line break)

12.  When you check your blog you should now see it nicely displayed in your sidebar!

• Belows what it looks like in Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… right sidebar
• If you check it out on his blog you’ll see that hovering over the image displays the image title and clicking on the image takes you to the post on the book

Enjoy!

P.S. Don’t share this tip with Larry Ferlazzo as he pays me in chocolate for each image I add to his blog sidebar

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Why?  Because visiting blog to check for new content is time consuming.

Most people read the latest posts from their favorite blogs by subscribing using RSS or email subscription.

Email is extremely important for:

1. Readers who prefer to receive latest posts using email subscription
2. Private blogs — these don’t have RSS feed because only logged in users or logged in registered users are allowed to view the content

Email options

There are three main options for adding email subscription to your blog:

1. Feedburner email subscription – all blog users except private blogs
2. Email Subscription Widget – Edublogs supporters only
3. Subscribe2 email subscription- Edublogs Campus only

Feedburner email subscription

Feedburner is one of the most common free services used by both bloggers and podcasters to manage their RSS feeds.

It’s popular because it provides bloggers with the ability to easily analyze their subscribers in terms of:

1. how many subscribe by RSS
2. which feed readers they use
3. how many subscribe by email.

Your email subscribers are sent an email of your full post that day after it is posted.

Setting up a Feedburner email subscription is as simple as:

• Step 1:  Creating a Feedburner RSS Feed For Your Blog
• Step 2:  Adding the Feedburner Email Subscription to Your Blog
• Step 3: Redirecting all your feed through Feedburner

Email Subscription Widget

The email subscription widget is the fastest and easiest way of adding email subscription to your blog.  It sends an email immediately when the post is published.

Readers click on the link in the email which takes them to the post on your blog.

Just go to Appearance > Widgets and drag the email subscription widget into the desired sidebar.

Subscribe2 Email Subscription

Subscribe2 is the most sophisticated email option with lots of management choices for both readers and the blog owner.

Email notifications can be either:

1. Latest posts
2. Daily or weekly digest of posts
3. Plain Text – Excerpt; Plain Text – Full Post or HTML – Full Post

Bloggers can monitor their email subscriber; easily adding and removing subscribers inside their blog dashboard.

Subscribe 2 also provides the ability to send out emails to all confirmed subscribers; for those occasions when you want to send an email but not write a post.

Setting up a Subscribe email subscription is as simple as:

• Step 1: Setting up Subscribe2 email notification
• Step 2: Using Subcribe2 Email notification

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

To celebrate the success of the challenge while also creating an opportunity to collect examples of student work we’re giving away twelve Edublogs supporter 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

1. Your own choice of topic but must include embedded media, created by the student or class, such as a SlideShare, video, comic strip, podcast, quiz, poll.  Here’s the chance to demonstrate how creative you can be!
2. Your story of how blogging has helped you connect to a global audience and what this connection has meant to you.  e.g. the friends you have made, what you have learnt about other cultures, how you are able to share your passions with others, how you are able to use blogging to share your views on topics
3. What difference has blogging made to your life at school and home e.g. how has it changed how you learn, the challenges of blogging and how teachers might make the process easier

Any class or student blogger can enter, including bloggers not currently participating in the 2009 Student Blogging Challenge, but you must:

1. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you have entered, with a link to your post plus your Grade/year level.
2. Explain in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links).

For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

This post has been written on “my story of how blogging has connected me to a global audience” as part of The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

The four best post for each topic will win and you can submit posts for as many topics you like.  And off course all winners will get a badge they can add to their blogs

Remember we’re looking for the best — so here is your chance to demonstrate your blogging and creative skills!  You have until April 30 to enter.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Students love seeing the red dots grow as their readers, from around the World, visit their blog.

Please Note:

• Edublogs supporters and Edublogs Campus can use the ClustrMaps widget to add a ClustrMaps to their blog sidebar.
• The ClustrMaps widget is designed to provide a quick and easy way of adding a ClustrMaps to your blog sidebar without having to grab the HTML embed code from the ClustrMaps website.
• It’s as simple as adding your email address and agreeing to ClustrMaps terms & conditions!

On free Edublogs blogs you need to follow the instructions below for adding ClustrMaps to your sidebar using a text widget!

Creating Your ClustrMaps

1. Go to ClustrMaps.
2. Enter your blog URL (e.g. your blog URL should look similar like this http://theedublogger.com/) and email address then click on Make My Map.
3. Copy the HTML code for Option A.

Adding The ClustrMap To Your Blog Sidebar

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard
2. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) NOTE: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets
3. To add a text widget, drag it from the Available Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right
4. Drop the widget when you see a dashed line appear – this indicates the widget is in place
5. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Clustrmaps, click Save and then Close.  If you have trouble with the text widget or it doesn’t open — try changing your theme just in case there is an issue with it.
6. You should now see your ClustrMaps in your blog sidebar and the dots will start appearing after 24 hours.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you need to grab new HTML embed code for your ClustrMaps just log into your ClustrMaps Admin area using your blog URL and password (sent in the original signup email from ClustrMaps).

Remember if you are an Edublogs supporters or Edublogs campus users you use the ClustrMaps Widget to add it your blog sidebar.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Your options

The size of most embed code can be adjusted by pasting it into a simple text editor like Notepad and changing its width and height.  Really handy to know when you need to make an object smaller to fit the size of your post or sidebar.

However for a Flickr SlideShow there is a simpler option!  FlickrSliDR or Flickr slideshow! These “third party’ website lets you use the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group and tags or any user/group to customise a Flickr slideshow to the dimensions you desire.

Adding a Slideshow to your blog sidebar

Both FlickrSliDR and Flickr slideshow create exactly the same SlideShow; which of the two websites you use is your choice.  Width of blog sidebars is dependent on your blog theme; however in most cases 180 px wide x 180 px high will work fine.

Once you have grabbed the embed code from FlickrSliDR or Flickr slideshow go into your blog dashboard and add it to your sidebar using a text widget (Click on Design > Widgets).

Examples of Sidebar Slideshows

Below is an example of the size of a Flickrslideshow you would add to a blog sidebar.  I’ve used the fdsflickrtoy tag from images4education.  If you want to learn more about adding images to your in-class and online activities raise student interest I recommend you join images4education (you will be able to catch up with the weekly tasks).

Created with flickr slideshow.

Check out Ms. Kreul’s class blog to see a cool tour of their class created using FlickRSLiDR widget embedded in their side bar.

FINAL THOUGHTS

To learn more about using Flickr check out:

• Quick Start Tips For New Flickr Users: Part I – setting up your account
  
• Quick Start Tips For New Flickr Users: Part II – using as part of your personal learning network (PLN)
• Quick Start Tips For New Flickr Users: Part III – doing cool stuff with Flickr
  

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It’s Christmas at Edublogs and, in the spirit of the season, Edublogs Supporters will find themselves with a few extra treats wrapped up under the tree.

Specifically there are four new plugins which may well prove popular, just head over to your ‘Plugins’ menu to check them out.

Threaded Comments

First up there’s Threaded Comments, a plugin that does exactly what it says – adds threaded comments to your blog. Why not jump over here and have a play with them, not bad huh!

Below is a screenshot from a threaded comment on yesterday’s post. Threaded comments means you can reply to specific comments = cool!

I’ve switched on threaded comments on The Edublogger so feel free to test them out.

Twitter Tools

Then, there’s the return of Twitter Tools – an immensely powerful Twitter integration plugin that allows you to tweet from your blog and blog from your tweet! If you’re a Twitter fan, it’s got the lot.

Your twitter tool options are:

1. Send a tweet to your twitter network whenever you write a blog post
2. Create a blog post from a tweet
3. Displays your tweets on your blog and post tweets from your blog

However I wouldn’t recommend having both a) Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog? and b) Create a blog post from each of your tweets? set to Yes. If you choose this combination it grabs each tweet and creates separate blog post for each tweet then send a tweet to your twitter network to tell them you’ve created a blog post. I managed to spam my twitter network with 20 instantaneous tweets and was sent to the twitter penalty box.

I suggest you stick to “Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog?” as shown in the screenshot below. You can edit your Twitter Tool options using Settings > Twitter Tools.

To display tweets on your blog and be able to send tweets from your blog you’ll need to add the Twitter widget to your sidebar (Design > Widgets). If you want to add the Twitters widget you will first need to activate your Widget Pack plugin.

If you look at my left sidebar you will see these widgets how these widgets work.

Greet Box

And, in case you happen to also be a Digg/Google/Netvibes/Delicious/StumbleUpon/etc. etc. etc. fan – the new plugin ‘Greet Box’ will allow you to display specific (and rather spiffy) messages to visitors to your site coming from those sources… for example, you could invite a new visitor to subscribe to your RSS feed… or a Digg visitor to Digg your site.

What happens is when a person clicks on a link to one of your posts from any of the services listed they will see a greet box displayed.

You can alter the messages in the Greet boxes and choose whether they are displayed above or below your posts by going to Settings > Greet Box.

Snow

Oh, and of course, it being the season for it, there’s also Snow… yep, you want a gentle fall of the seasonal white stuff on your blog, then turn this on and your Xmas wish will be granted!

Check out Local District 4 Instructional Technology News blog to see what snow falling down through your blog header looks like!

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