Setting up your blog

Originally posted 8/3/11.

The infamous Trapper Keeper...
where paper went to die.

When I was growing up, the fun part of beginning the school year was the back-to-school shopping day. My mom would take me to Wal-Mart, and we'd go up and down the aisles, buying me pens and Trapper Keepers (do you know what these are?) and folders and all the other stuff I needed to be a successful student. Even though we were just shopping, it was the amazing time of newness, and, I think in my head, it symbolized new opportunities and experiences I was going to get.

For TAPA students, back-to-school shopping my have lost its zeal with iPads being the new tool du jour, but we still need to get some new tools to make this semester more productive. For students in my classes, instead of simply turning in assignments to me (which I will inevitably not grade for a while, and once I do grade, will be buried in a file folder until I eventually realize that I need to turn them back to you), each class member is responsible for a blog which they will post to multiple times a week. Being that this is your blog, and not just a place to put Webb's assignments, I'd hope and expect that you'll do writing above and beyond the requirements for class—make this school project more than just a school project! Here's how to do it:

1. Go to Blogger.com and sign in with your TAPA account. The username should be your TAPA email address (e.g. stew-dent@tapa.tp.edu.tw) and your password should be whatever you changed it to earlier.
2. Complete the blog registration, using your TAPA email address. Also, accept the terms of service.
   
3. From here, click on the top right of the middle section of the page, where it says Create a Blog.
   
   
4. Complete the blog creation registration. Also, select a theme for your blog (not pictured; you can later change the theme to further personalize to your liking.)
   
   
5. On completion, Blogger will ask you to start blogging. Click to follow and create an initial blog post. You may either save it as a draft (not published), or you may publish the post to the entire world!
   
6. From here, continue on to the two options of how to easily publish from your iPad: through a secret email address or through Blogsy.