Technology Updates!

Oh my! What I have learned in the past few days! My mind is literally spinning and my eyes are blurry! I have been seeking out ways to steam line my blog and add some privacy to my life on the computer. Here’s what I have been working on and how you can do it too…

1. I created a gmail account to go with my blog. I have been reading some posts about the dos and don’ts of teacher blogging. One of the dos was to post you email for blogger to communicate with you. I have to say that us teachers love to put rules on things and I don’t necessarily agree with all of them, but as I am beginning to communicate with other teacher bloggers, I realized that I wanted an e-mail that wasn’t my personal one and wasn’t my school one. I created an account through gmail and connected it to my regular e-mail so that I still get the messages in the same place, but have a separate account.

2. I linked the new e-mail to my blog through this tutorial:

http://www.bloggertricks.com/2008/01/email-me-htmljavascript-code-for-your.html

3. I moved all my teaching blogs to Google Reader with my new account. I know that it is another place I will need to check, but the fact that I can check my blogs at work without having my other subscriptions open for everyone to see is an advantage. I don’t check the other blogs at work, only teaching ones, so it made sense that I separate them. Here’s how I did that:

http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=69982

4. Next, I learned how to blog through Windows Live Writer! I like Blogger, but the window to type in always annoyed me. I learned about Windows Live Writer from Mrs. Carroll at The First Grade Parade! It is so intuitive if you use other Windows programs. I am just figuring out the tricks now.

http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/07/little-blogging-tipwindows-live-writer.html

5. Next, I learned how to make blog buttons scroll through this great tutorial:

http://lilcountrykindergarten.blogspot.com/2011/08/create-your-own-button-slideshow.html

Love, love, love this! I stopped adding buttons because the page was getting so long, but this is a great solution!

6. I also learned how to provide a code for my blog button! Everyone else has one and I had no idea how to do it. Done! Here is the tutorial:

http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-button-with-text-box-for-code.html

Next, I want to create a Linky Party, but I was too frustrated last time I tried to create one. Alas – I’ll save that for another day!

I hope someone finds this helpful!