Wohoo! It’s now time to make your blog dreams a reality! In the Create part of the Design Cycle, we get the chance to actually create what we designed and planned. In this case, it’s an awesome blog that represents you and your learning here at YIS.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Use the Criteria list on the Grade 6 Technology blog to make sure you meet all of the criteria for excellent blog design:

Here’s what you need to know:

Wondering about how to do any of those items above? Here’s some help:

1. How to add widgets to your sidebar (remember to include: search, categories, links, archives, and meta).

2. How to create a custom Navigation Menu to make it easier to find your pages and posts (remember to include: Home, About Me, and School as your main pages, and then add all of your school categories indented under the School page). Here’s a great video to show you how:

3. How to add a custom header (you can edit in Photoshop first, or any other photo editing application).

4. How to add links to your sidebar (share anything you think your readers might enjoy).

Good luck! Please let me know if you have questions!

Here’s how to earn a 5 – 6:

Make sure:

• Your enhanced blog demonstrates all of the criteria for excellent blog design, including all of the elements listed on the assignment sheet (and above),
• Your enhanced blog design is exceptionally creative and/or professional and includes either a custom header or background and/or links to other websites.

Well done Grade 6! We have completed the Investigate stage of the Design Cylce, and you have completed some really fantastic Investigations. Here are a few that really jumped out at me, as being especially fantastic:

• Ayana
• Freddie
• Ashley
• Aitor
• Emma
• Idan
• Grace
• Kanna
• George
• Sara
• Deven
• Emily

Please stop by and leave them a comment!

Why do you think these are especially fantastic? What do they all have in common? Does looking at these posts help you make yours even better?

Well done Grade 6! You are now ready to complete the Plan stage! Your last step is to write your Plan Reflection blog post.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Write your 4 paragraphs for your reflection. Make sure to use the Plan Reflection Brainstorm we made in class as a guide:

• 6A Plan Reflection Brainstorm
• 6B Plan Reflection Brainstorm
• 6C Plan Reflection Brainstorm

2. Add the pictures of the work we have completed during the Plan into your blog post. Make sure you include:

• Your selected Blog Design from Flickr
• Your How to Grow a Blog .pdf from Google Drive

Remember: to add your Blog Design follow these steps:

1. Go to Ms. Cofino’s Flickr Collection
2. Go to your class’s set (6A, 6B, 6C)
3. Find your picture
4. Click on the Share button above your picture
5. Select “Grab the HTML/BB code” (see picture) –>
6. Copy the HTML code (you can use any size, but I would choose small or medium)
7. Go back to your blog
8. Change to HTML view (not Visual view)
9. Paste the HTML code
10. Done! When you switch back to Visual, you will see your beautiful blog design!

Remember: to add your How to Grow a Blog .pdf, follow these steps (you can also use the directions & video here):

1. Go to Google Docs
2. Find your How to Grow a Blog .pdf document
3. Click on Share in the upper right-hand corner
4. Click on Change
5. Choose the visibility: “Anyone with the link can view”
6. Copy the URL
7. Make a screenshot of part of this page by clicking Cmd+Shift+4
8. Go back to your blog
9. Upload your screenshot by clicking on the Upload/Media button
10. Choose your screenshot
11. Change the Link URL to the one you just copied from Google Drive
12. Select “thumbnail size”
13. Choose right or left alignment
14. Click “insert into post”

To earn a 5 – 6, make sure:

• Your reflection is extremely detailed.
• You have described and justified your choice of blog design
• Your reflection includes a description of your planned next steps in specific terms.
• You have included both pieces of work from this part of the project (How to Grow a Blog and your selected Blog Design). Both screenshots link to the full version on GDrive or Flickr.

Due Dates:

• 6A: 22 Nov
• 6B: 20 Nov
• 6C: 20 Nov

The best way to help your blog grow into the amazing blog you imagine, you need to plan exactly what you’re going to do step-by-step over the next few months. To help you plan for your amazing blog, we’re going to use a simple worksheet called “How to Grow a Blog“. This worksheet will guide you through the process of developing your blog into just what you want!

What does this worksheet mean?

Think of your blog like a flower! What do you need to do to help flowers grow? Plant the seeds in good soil, give it sunlight, water it, and take good care of it. That’s exactly what you need to do for your blog!

Here are the descriptions for each section of the worksheet:

The Right Habitat: Seeds & Soil: these are the foundation for your blog. What do you need to do right now, today, this week to make your blog better? How do you need to change the way your blog looks? What about the blog posts that you write?

Habits & Commitment: Sunlight & Stems: this is what helps your blog blossom into a beautiful flower. What will you do every day or every week until the end of the school year to make your blog continue to grow? How will you engage your readers? How will you connect with your audience? What will you do to improve your writing? These are things you will do regularly over the next few months.

The Goal: Petals & Blooms: this is your goal: an amazing blog! What do you want your blog to look like in May? How many visitors will you have? What will people see when they visit your blog? What kinds of posts will you have? This is what your blog will look like when you are really proud of it!

To complete your worksheet you need to:

1. Open the How to Grow a Blog worksheet
2. Click on File, Download to download a Microsoft Word copy
3. Save your Word document in your Technology folder on your laptop
4. Delete all the text in the boxes and write in your own answers
5. Save/Print your finished Word document to PDF
6. Upload the PDF to your Google Drive (into your Gr6 Technology folder)

We’ll be using your worksheet next lesson to plan out how to make your blog amazing!

To earn a 5 – 6, you need to:

Make sure that all 3 sections of your How to Grow a Blog worksheet are complete and include extremely thorough, thoughtful and detailed ideas for developing your blog.

Due Dates:

• 6A: Wednesday 14 November
• 6B: Tuesday 13 November
• 6C: Mon 12 November

We are now ready to begin the Design stage of our Becoming a Blogger project!

The first step toward good blog design is to draw several different rough draft designs on paper to see what you like best. Remember to follow our class criteria as you create your designs.

Here is your assignment for this week:

Imagine your blog a few months in the future. What does it look like? What are the important features? How does your theme represent the main topic or idea of your blog?

Demonstrate what you want your blog to look like by drawing a rough draft in color pencils of at least 3 different blog templates. Use a separate page for each template. They should each be roughly the size of one A4 page.

If you’d like to see some examples from last year, please take a look here (and check out the example from Keina on the right).  Remember the qualities that make some of these examples really great:

• neat drawing
• lots of color
• clean space on the page
• bold black outlines
• all details included (widgets, header, post area, titles, etc)

Each of your templates should reflect the qualities of a good blog that you learned about in the investigation. Here are the class criteria we created:

• 6A Blog Criteria
• 6B Blog Criteria
• 6C Blog Criteria

Don’t forget to include a custom header (if you want one) and which widgets, tags and categories you plan to use.

Earn extra points: draw more than 3 rough drafts. Include lots of detail.

Due Dates:

• 6A: Thurs Nov 8
• 6B: Tues Nov 6
• 6C: Tues Nov 6

Here’s how to earn a 5 or 6:

Draw:

• You included 3 or more carefully-drawn templates which are carefully drawn.
• All of your templates are exceptionally detailed.
• All of your templates demonstrate good blog design.
• All of your templates clearly reflect your personality.