The use of unquoted internet sources which have been slightly grammatically modified, yet comprise the post (either in its entirety, majority or any significant portion) is unacceptable.

Remember that contract you signed at the beginning?

If you’re curious about what plagiarism is, check this link out.

Note this: “The duplication of author’s words or phrases with footnotes or accurate references, but without quotation marks.”

http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/plagiarism/

In less than a week, you will be in front of your class presenting two things: your blog and your blog food. Here are some guidelines to help you along the process of preparation for that moment:

Your food must be:

- sufficient to give everyone in the class a small sample. Don’t bring a little tea cake; but unless you really want to have leftovers, don’t prepare a feast!

- representative of your blog. There needs to be a clear, obvious connection to your blog. None of this “I interpret this loaf of bread to explain some of the complexities in the financial markets of Spain and Portugal” business.

- creative. This doesn’t mean you have to be the next Iron Chef, but please put some fore-thought into what you’re making and why you’re making it.

- written down in a recipe. Make sure to bring in the recipe of how to make your food item. Now, for some people, this will be difficult, since they are creating something for which there may be no recipe. In that case, write down the culinary process as best you can.

Your presentation must be:

- 3-5 minutes. There it is. You have a time limit. Some will want more than that; some will want less. Be forewarned.

- a presentation of your blog as a whole. Tell us (a) why you chose the subject you did, (b) why your subject is important, and (c) what topics you generally covered in your blog.

- a presentation of one particular post. Take one post, summarize it, and read at least one section of it to the class. Your time is in your own hands on this one. Stay within the 3-5 minute limit.

- concise. Do not waste time or words. Think of what you will say before you say it and say it clearly. Anything less will be confusing; anything more will be boring.

~

Have fun! This is your time to share with the rest of the class about something that is important to you. So what better time to embrace the moment and speak from your heart? If you show your own zeal for the subject, everyone else will catch on and be interested as well!

Monday offered some productive discussion of widgets in class. However, some people missed out! The following should do a bit to catch people up to date on things.

The main reason we are talking about widgets is because the “Links” or “Blogroll” widget is an essential part of your blog, as it is graded on your rubric.

Curious about what a widget is? Check out this explanation. It covers just about everything I said in class (and a few things I didn’t).

Trying to remember how to put an image in your side bar? Check out this explanation.

Just want to add some text links on your own? Click here

~

Curious about how to start your links for your blogroll?

1. Start by clicking the “Manage” tab.

2. Then click the “Links” category.

3. Click “add new” if you don’t have any links yet.

“add new” will send you here:

4. Once you are there, add all the links you want. Make sure to categorize them in the “blogroll” category that you see at the bottom there.

5. Finally, when you’re finished with that, go to “Design” and click on the “Widgets” category to go here.

Then click “Add” on the “Links” widget.

Woohoo! Your blogroll is up!

This image is from here.

While everyone is still beginning to create a focus for their blogs, let us turn our thoughts and keyboards to that which is the most important part of our topics.

Consider the matter which, without it, your entire subject is rendered meaningless.

Consider the essence of your subject.

Let me give an example:

The Essence of Cooking

Culinary mastery, arriving at a profound understanding of flavor and texture combinations, would be nothing without the simple matter of fact that it is important to enjoy even the necessary things we do in life.

One of France’s most famous chemists, Hervé This, said, “We eat only what we know, which may be a primeval urge meant to protect us from danger, but it is also irrational. People waste huge amounts of energy by failing to cook rationally.”

Though we need food to live, it is creativity in the midst of our meal creation that makes the act of cooking something special to humans. Therefore, it is important to master this ability to cook well if we want to fully engage in our humanity.

What constitutes “good” food?

How do different cultures define themselves with their cuisine?

What, if any, are the over-arching patters that unite different cultures in their cooking?

These are the questions we will explore in this post, in order to capture the essence of what it means to master the art of cooking.

“Cooking for someone,” This notes, “is a way of telling them, ‘I love you.’”

Quotes taken from “Food, Glorious Food” at New Scientist online and “The Father…” at wired.com.

This begins to explain why and how food is important. A complete post would deal with the rest of those questions.

Hervé This is an expert in the field of molecular study of food.

Who are the experts in your field of study? What do they say about the essence of your field? Why do they care? Rarely is an expert 100% correct; but quite often they understand the core principles of their field better than the rest. This is what gives them a deep-seated passion for that study.

• Compose your next post delving in to the essential matters of your subject.
• Make one of your citations a well-recognized expert in the field.
• Your blog will be graded based on parts 1-3, 5 of the rubric.

Today you will be doing 2 things: grading your peers and finding an image related to your subject matter upon which you will base your next post.

#1. Use your grading sheets to evaluate the Introduction post and “Help” post of the blogs above and below your own blog on this website (within your own class section). That means you will have evaluated 4 posts by the end of the class period. Remember the Introduction post only had to be at least 225 words.

#2. With the remainder of your time find an image that relates to your subject matter, about which you will write your next post. In this post you will

• cite where you found the image,
• analyze the content of the image, and
• give scholastic commentary on a specific topic in your subject through the image.

Note: This means that your next blog will be held accountable for meeting the requirements in sections 1-3, and 5 of the rubric. Check out the rubric to see what that entails.
This assignment will be due at the beginning of class on Thursday.

~

Need help creating hyperlinks? Check out this helpful explanation.

Need help finding/customizing/inserting images into your blog? Check out this helpful tutorial created by one of our own! Or check out this basic explanation of how to insert images from another website. To upload an image you created, check out this basic explanation.

Looking for inspiration?

Consider how this Brazilian economic journal used images in an advertising campaign:

And no, you can’t use this image or all the other cool ones like it. But maybe you can find something better.

When you look around the computer lab today, you will find several students who have yet to finish their first post. Some were helping with the blood drive, others were experiencing technological disturbance, and some were gone on a field trip.

The question is this: what are you going to do about it?

As we discussed yesterday in class, giving significant assistance and encouragement to someone else is not only compassionate and magnanimous, you stand a chance to gain a 30% boost in your assignment. Especially if you’ve already finished your first one, you are in a prime position to maximize your grade in this unit by giving a helping hand. But whomever you help must come to me on their own, recognizing you for going out of your way. No begging or nudging your buddy to put in a good word for you.

Don’t stop there!

Now that you’ve finished your first post, take this theme of help into your blog for your second post.

How does the idea of “help” apply to your subject matter?

Be as creative as you like.

Follow points 1-3 of the blogging rubric. This includes the 400-600 word count.

ACHTUNG!

Check the new Due Date Calendar for regular updates on when assignments are due.

Check the new Various and Sundry Matters page for a) finding out about grading policies and b) posting questions about this unit which may help others. It will function as a FAQ guide for all types of questions not addressed in any other part of this blog.

Here’s your agenda for today:

1. Right click on the Rubric page on this blog and open it in a new window.
2. Log in to your blog and click on the “write” tab.
3. Write your introduction to the blog following sections 1-3 of the rubric.
   Except your blog only has to be at least 225 words.
4. Answer the following questions for your audience as you write:

• What are you going to write about?
• Why does it matter to you? (It is ok to use “I” because of this)
• What does this blog have to offer that is unique?

Still not sure about where to start?

Check out my About this Blog page over there on the right for an example.

Upon finishing, click “publish”. Your blog is now available to the public!

Dwight Schrute from The Office
(USA Today)

Now that you’ve finished, write the main address to your blog at the bottom of this post as a “comment”.

You’re done, nice work!

You have now begun to create your own blog!

Here are the first steps to getting started:

1. Create a username
2. Create a password
3. Create a url name

How to create your username:

• Make sure it’s fun, catchy, and in some way relates to your blog
• Make sure it doesn’t use your real name

How to create your password:

• Make sure you can remember it
• Make sure it’s “strong”

How to create a URL name:

• It must relate to your subject-matter
• The catchier it is, the more people will check your blog out
• Think of a funny phrase, word, or combination of words that relate to your subject

Now, spend some time getting to know other blogs that deal with similar subject-material to what you want to write about.

1.  Find 3 blogs that you feel are great examples for you to look to as you blog.  You may use the blogs on this sidebar as a reference, but you may not write about them specifically.

• Write down their names, addresses, and give a brief summary of each.
• Explain the visual effects that you like, colors, graphics, and the general layout
• Explain the way each author writes that makes him/her effective.

2.  Explore each of these 3 blogs.  As you do so, find 10 topics that interest you and relate to the subject-matter of your blog.  Write them down.

3.  Finally, write down one paragraph explaining your blog to me as if we had never discussed it before.  Since you have at least 10 topics written down, you should be able to look at that and get a clearer picture of what kinds of posts you will be writing.  Your paragraph should describe your blogs look, topics, and tone, giving the reader a sense of what to expect as a regular viewer of your website.

*This paper will be due at the beginning of next period.  That means you can finish it outside of class if you want.

**Additionally, since you can’t access email in the school library, you must have validated your new WordPress blog before class begins on Thursday. Those who fail to fulfill this step will find themselves floundering behind the rest of the class.

If you need to, you can access your email from one of the computers in our classroom.  See me after school to do this if you can’t access the Internet from your home.