Creating a Secure Classroom Blog

Kathleen Bartos

Technology Integration Specialist
Westlake City Schools

  1. Go to http://www.21classes.com
  2. Click on Sign Up for a Free Account
  3. Follow the steps to sign up for an account
  4. When you have completed the form, click PROCEED
  5. When the next page loads, click PROCEED
  6. Click LET’S GO
  7. This will open your new blog portal!
  8. Choose the layout you prefer, then click SAVE AND CONTINUE
  9. The next screen allows you to choose the layouts available to your students.  I have always left all checked so that students have a variety of layouts to choose from. 
  10. Click SAVE AND CONTINUE
  11. Step 3 asks you to set up the registration for your students (users).  Here you are going to deselect all but First name and Last Name.  At the bottom of this page select Registrations need to be confirmed through portal administrator.
  13. Click SAVE AND CONTINUE
  14. Click BEGIN!

 

Accepting Students

  1. Log into your blog
  2. Click on the Community and Members button
  3. Click on SHOW ALL
  4. There will be a list of people who want to be accepted into your blog.  Click in the ACCEPT column next to the child’s name, to allow them access.  Click DENY if it is someone you do not know (anyone who is not a student in your classroom!)

 

 After All Students are Registered

  1. After you have allowed each child to register, you need to remove the link to SIGN UP NOW.

  2. Click on STUDENT ACCOUNTS

  3. Scroll down to SIGN UP SETTINGS

  4. Deselect "

 

Monitor Settings

  1. Click on MORE OPTIONS
  3. Under Extended Members and Community, select
    Blog defaults for member blogs (Visibility, Comments, Trackback)
  5. Under the Comments section, click on the drop down arrow and select FOR YOUR USERS ONLY (will have your name instead of the word YOUR).
  6. Deselect everything else on this page!
  7. Click SAVE

Monitoring Comments

  1. Click on FEATURE INDEX
  2. Click on Feature Index By Category
  3. Under the Statistics section, click on Statistics Report. 
  4. Select ACTIVATE and then choose how often you want an email letting you know that students have added content to their blogs (daily, weekly, monthly).  I recommend at least weekly!
  6. Click SAVE SETTINGS

 

Adding Content to your Homepage (Portal or front page of your blog)

  1. From your Dashboard, click on Portal Content (Portal is the front page of your blog... also called Homepage)
  2. Click on the pencil icon across from the entry you want to edit
  3. Now this screen should look like a word processing document.  Make any additions and/or changes then allows click PUBLISH when you are finished.

Adding a New Entry

  1. From your Dashboard, click on Portal Content.
  2. Click on New Entry

Deleting an Entry

  1. From the Dashboard, click on Portal Content.
  2. Click on the garbage can icon across from the entry you want to delete

Adding Categories

  1. From the Dashboard, click on Portal Content
  3. Click on CATEGORIES
  4. Click on CREATE NEW CATEGORY button (upper right)
  6. Name your category.  For Example:  Language Arts
  7. In the “Link to…” field type:  home/LanguageArts (Home means your first page of the blog and then you type a forward slash and the name of your category without any spaces)
  8. The TYPE SETTINGS area should be set to Display Entries (you can choose Message Board if you want it to be a Threaded Discussion area!)
  9. In the AUTHORS area, choose ONLY THE OWNER OF THE WEBLOG, so that students cannot overwrite any entries you have posted.
  10. Click SAVE SETTINGS
  11. Repeat steps 4-10 for each category you want to add

 

To Add Sub-Categories (The categories listed down the left side of the page)

  1. Click on CATEGORIES
  2. Click on the category you want to add a sub-category to
  3. For example:  If you want to add categories to the side of the homepage:
    1. Click on the Plus sign and folder icon across from the HOME category
    2. Name your category (EX:  Guided Reading)
    3. In the “Link to…” field type:  home/GuidedReading (Home means your first page of the blog and then you type a forward slash and the name of your category without any spaces)
    4. Click SAVE SETTINGS