Help Wanted: Blog Ideas

Life became busy, and my blog was pushed to the wayside.  There is something special about connecting with readers on topics that we find important.  Nothing compares to having a network where we can share and gather ideas, provide a support for our day-to-day tasks, have a laugh, or learn something new.  

In the past couple of weeks, I have had an urge to become an avid blogger again.  However, knowing myself, I need a plan.  The best plan for me would be themed days.  I wouldn't necessarily post every day of every week, but it would provide me a guide of ideas to post. 

This is where I need your help.  What would you like to see posted?  What themes would you like?  Here are some of my ideas.  Be sure to add, comment, or question.

Monday: Make-it Monday (Crafts, recipes, instructional tools, etc.)
Tuesday: Tech Tuesday (Favorite technology tools and websites)
Wednesday: No Words Wednesday (Picture of something important)
Thursday:  Throwback Thursday (Influences, ideas, etc. from the past)
Friday: Finally Friday (Free post)
Saturday: Strategy Saturday (Instructional strategies)
Sunday: Simply Sunday (Words of inspiration, rest, and refreshment)

Thank you for your help and continued support!

~Cara

Adding Tabs to Blogger

Have you noticed how some blogs have each topic of their blog organized neatly under tabs at the top of their pages? Would you like to know how to do that?  It is super easy!

1)Go to DESIGN at the top of your blog.
2)Select PAGES in the left column.
3)Choose NEW PAGE at the top of the screen.
4)Select BLANK PAGE.
5)Name your page, and add your information.
6)Click PUBLISH.
7)Change SHOW PAGES AS to the location where you want the tabs to show. I chose TOP TABS.
8)Click SAVE ARRANGEMENT on the right of your screen.

Viola! That's it! 

~Cara

Feeding Your Blog into Facebook and Twitter

My blog feeds directly into Facebook and Twitter. When I write a blog post, it automatically shows up in my Facebook and Twitter feeds. How did I do this? Follow these simple instructions.

 *This post was updated on January 20, 2013 with new directions.

Facebook:

1)Create a Facebook page. 

• While logged out of Facebook, scroll to the very bottom of the page. You will see CREATE A PAGE. Click that.
• I chose COMPANY, ORGANIZATION, OR INSTITUTION.
• Under category, select EDUCATION for educational blogs.
• The company name will be the name of your blog.
• Agree to the terms, and click GET STARTED.
• Follow the onscreen instructions. If you have a personal Facebook account, you will use that. Otherwise, you will need to create a personal account.
• Continue following the onscreen instructions for setting up your page.

2)Make sure you are logged into Facebook, and enter this into the address bar. http://apps.facebook.com/rssgraffiti/?ref=ts Be sure to authorize the app.

3)Once the app is authorized, you should see this screen. 

4)Click ADD A NEW PUBLISHING PLAN.  Enter the name of your Facebook page, and click CREATE PUBLISHING PLAN.

5)Beside SOURCES, click ADD NEW.  Enter the URL of your blog, and click ADD SOURCE.  You will see the following edit screen.  Choose the options for your posting.  Click SAVE.

6)Beside TARGET, click ADD NEW.

7)Under CHOOSE TARGET, select the Facebook page you created.  Click SAVE CHANGES.

8)Be sure to slide the arrow to ON.

9)You can now begin promoting your Facebook page on your blog. By adding this code, you will be able to create a FIND US ON FACEBOOK gadget like you see on the left side of my page. Be sure to change the highlighted section to the URL of your Facebook page.

<div id="fb-root"></div>

<script>(function(d, s, id) {

  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];

  if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}

  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;

  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";

  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);

}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

<div class="fb-like-box" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teaching-My-Calling/260520777320839" data-width="292" data-show-faces="true" data-stream="false" data-header="true"></div>

Twitter:

1)Sign up for a Twitter account. You will put in your blog name later, so use your real name here. If you already have a Twitter account, you will have to use a different email address. Click SIGN UP.

2)Change your username to your blog name. You are limited to 15 characters, so you may have to get creative. Click CREATE MY ACCOUNT. You will need to confirm your account before making any changes.

3)Go to the website http://twitterfeed.com/.
4)Sign up for an account.
5)Fill in the FEED NAME (blog name) and Blog URL. You do not have to change anything else on that screen.
6)Under step 2, click TWITTER. Make sure you are logged into your Twitter account.
7)Click the AUTHENTICATE TWITTER button. You will see your Twitter handle once it is authenticated.
8)Click ALL DONE. If everything is right, you will see CONGRATULATIONS. Your blog posts will now automatically feed into your Twitter.
9)You can now begin promoting your Twitter profile on your blog. By adding this code as a gadget, you can create a FIND US ON TWITTER button. Be sure to change the highlighted section to your Twitter URL and Twitter name.
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/TeachingCalling"><img src="http://twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com/follow_me-a.png" alt="Follow TeachingCalling on Twitter"/></a>


I hope this helps! Be sure to leave your Facebook page and Twitter profiles as a comment, so I can follow you. I would appreciate you following me, too!

~Cara

How to Repost a Blog Post

It is the little things that get me excited! Have you ever wanted to repost a blog post to a more recent date. Rather than linking to the post, rewriting it, or copy and pasting, there is a very simple way. And, it doesn't even remove your comments.

As part of the Everything's Intermediate Virtual Teaching Expo, I am giving away three tickets. (Don't forget to enter!) I wanted that post to be front and center. If you use Blogger:

1. Go to DESIGN (top right of your screen). 
2. Select POSTING. 
3. Choose EDIT POSTS.
4. Click POST OPTIONS at the bottom of the screen.
5. Change to AUTOMATIC and then PUBLISH POST.

This post should now be at the top of your feed. The previous comments are still there, too. 

~Cara

Creating Screenshots

Have you ever wondered how bloggers use only a small screenshot from a website in their posts? I have the answer for you. This is an easy to use, FREE option. I use Promethean's ActivInspire. You do not have to be a Promethean user to download and use their software. On a side note, the software will work on your Smart Board or any other interactive whiteboard that you use.  But, back to the purpose of this post.


To create a screenshot (or portion of a screen shot), open ActivInspire. On the toolbar, select the DESKTOP TOOLS icon. It looks like a little blue square with tools on it. 

You will see a little blue circle with the same icon on your webpage. Be sure you have the webpage open where you will make the screenshot. When you hover over the middle of the circle, you will see a ring of icons. Hover over the camera icon, and you will see the several camera options. I always use the AREA SNAPSHOT.  The other options are also available, but they require a still hand to use because you are actually drawing the boarder.

The screen will go gray, and you will see a white box. Stretch that white box around the image you want to capture. Once you have selected the area you are going to capture, choose MY RESOURCES. I always change the location to a place easy for me to find-My Desktop, My Documents, etc. The image will be saved to that location. It does take a couple of minutes depending on the size of your picture.

Now, simply insert your image into your blog posts.

You can take it a step further by adding arrows. To do this you will need to save the image to CURRENT PAGE.  Add your arrows using the SHAPE icon in ActivInspire. Then, you will take another screenshot of that image by using the camera in the menu bar. On the menu bar at the top of ActivInspire, select TOOLS>CAMERA>AREA SNAPSHOT. Again, select MY RESOURCES.

ActivInspire also offers a free screen recorder. We will explore that in a future post. To download  a free version of ActivInspire, please {visit Promethean Planet}. 

~Cara

Adding a Personal Signature to Blogger

Recently, I was asked how to add a personal signature to each blog post. It is actually a very easy process


1)Create your signature. You can get as simple or as complex as you would like. I wanted my signature fairly simple, so I used My Live Signature. Another site that is easy to use but makes fancier signatures is Glitterfy. Those who are more advanced can create their own signatures through Paint, Photoshop, etc., but I'll leave that for another day. There is no need to install anything or register on either site


2)Glitterfy is pretty self explanatory. Enter your text. Change the color, glitter, and size. Click GLITTERFY TEXT.


3)If you choose My Live Signature, the easiest route is to click PROCEED on the home page. Then, select USING THE SIGNATURE CREATION WIZARD. Follow the onscreen directions. Once you have created your signature, select WANT TO USE THIS SIGNATURE? This will generate you HTML code that you will need in a later step.

4)Once you have created your signature, you will need the HTML code.

Glitterfy

 My Live Signature

5)Copy your HTML code.


6)Now, in your Blogger account, go to DESIGN>SETTINGS>FORMATTING>scroll down to POST TEMPLATE. Paste your HTML code there. I entered this line of code first. <font face="Arial">...</font> I found it gives me a space to start my blog post without having to change my normal blog font. Change the highlighted part to the font you normally use. Then, just delete the dots when you begin writing.

7)Follow {these steps} to delete the gray shadow around your signature once it is published.

~Cara

Add Pinterest Pin It Button to Posts

Up to this point (and you will see on past posts), I have had a Pin It button on my blog. I used the button provided by Pinterest. The downside was that it would only pin my blog button. I wanted to be able to select the picture I would pin, so I went Googling.


I found {this post} that gave me directions for exactly what I wanted. I will summarize the directions, so you can add the Pin It button quickly and easily to your blog, too!

1. Once you are logged into your blog, click DESIGN at the top of the screen. 
2. Click EDIT HTML.
3. Check EXPAND WIDGET TEMPLATES. Be sure to back up your template before making any changes.
4. Click CTRL+F.
5. Copy and paste this code into the search box at the top right. <data:post.body/>
6. Once you have located that code, copy and paste this code directly beneath it. <a href="javascript:void((function()%7Bvar%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)%7D)());"><img style="margin: 0 0 -5px 0;" onclick="doPinIt();" src="http://chykalophia.com/images/pinit-compact.png" alt="Pin It" /></a>
7. Click PREVIEW to make sure there is no problem with the code.
8. If everything is OK, select SAVE TEMPLATE.

Now, you will have a Pinterest Pin It button that will allow the pinner to select any picture on the page.


Happy Pinning! 

~Cara

P.S. To follow my Pinterest boards, click {here}.

Comment Signature

Do you wonder how bloggers sign their comments with a clickable link like this Teaching...My Calling  instead of this http://teachingmycalling.blogspot.com? It is super easy!

Simply, copy and paste the following code into your comment. You will need to change the text I have highlighted in orange to your URL and blog name.

<a href="teachingmycalling.blogspot.com">Teaching...My Calling</a>

I have not found a way for it to be automatically inserted into my comments, so I keep it on a document to copy and paste it each time. If you know a way, please share!

~Cara

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Remove Shadows Around Blogger Pictures

Do you notice that gray shadow around images that you post on your blog? Do you find them as annoying as I do? I found a simple remedy for removing those shadows thanks to Southern Speakers.


1)Go to Dashboard>Template Designer>Advanced>Add CSS


2)Copy and paste the following code into the big, blank box. Be sure to click enter at the end of the code.

.post-body img, .post-body .tr-caption-container, .Profile img, .Image img, .BlogList .item-thumbnail img {   padding: none !important;   border: none !important;   background: none !important;   -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;   -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important;   box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent !important; }

3)Click Apply to Blog


You now have a nice, crisp blog with no shadows around your images.


~Cara
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