Student Blog Guidelines and Expectations

This year we are going to really expand our use of the student blog websites by adding more content to it.  Your student website will be like your online portfolio, documenting your work here in the class.  All of your videos and Inside Scoop radio files will now be posted on your own site so your parents can see everything that you do.  If you are serious about media and are considering a career in it down the road, then what you first need to do is create your own Vimeo account.  Vimeo is an online video hosting site much like YouTube but the difference is that Vimeo is used more by professionals and is still accessible in school.  YouTube is filled with all kinds of junk that any fool can post to and it's blocked in school.  The reason you want to create a Vimeo account is that you're going to want to post all of your work to your Vimeo page so that you start to build your online media portfolio that you will use long after leaving my class.  At some point, I will have to remove your student blog site and if you don't have your own Vimeo account, you'll lose all of your work along with it.  By having your own Vimeo site, you can keep adding your work to it all through high school so that when you apply for colleges, you'll have someplace for college recruiters to see your work.  Get your parents to help you sign up for a Vimeo account if you are serious about media.  

If you aren't sure about how serious you are, you can just upload your videos to Weebly using these instructions.
Expectations
1) You are required to post two blogs to your blog page each week, by Sunday night at midnight.  One will be on the topic that I post to my blog page each week and the other will be on a topic of your choosing.
  • My required blog topics need to be written in the constructed response format, using 5 paragraphs.  The first paragraph is your introduction, the second, third, and fourth paragraphs are used to explain your three answers or reasons, and the fifth and final paragraph is your conclusion where you restate the question and your answers.  Take a look at this former student's page as an example.
  • Your own topic needs to be about something related to media.  It could be a movie review, an app review, or some cool shots you saw in an online video.  This blog post can be shorter.  It doesn't have to be 5 paragraphs long but it does need to be long enough to explain your topic.  
2) You are required to create an "Inside Scoop" page where you will import any and all Inside Scoop radio files that you are a part of this school year.  
  • On this page you'll create two columns.  One column will be for your due dates and the other will contain your completed audio files. 
3) You are also required to create a page for each of your projects every quarter.  On this page you'll document your entire project, from start to finish.  You'll post your topic, issue, angle, and story (script).  You won't have to turn anything in anymore.  Everything will be posted to your website, including your video.  On your home page, you will create links to each of your project pages.

4) In addition to creating a project page on your website, this year I'd also like you to post your video to one of my project pages in Weebly. I will grant you access to this project page and to submit your video file, you will post a new blog entry onto this page.  You can get to the 1st quarter project page here.
Guidelines
1) Your website is open to the WORLD.  Anyone can see it, therefore you need to be careful on the kinds of things you post.  
2) Don't ever be a bully.  Do not tease, make fun of, or post unflattering pictures of anyone.  If you have to stop and think about it, that's a sign that it's probably not appropriate.  If there is any doubt, don't do it.  Refer to guideline #1.
3) If you choose to post pictures, make sure you took them or they were not pulled from a website.  You need to own the pictures you post.  Do not post someone else's pictures.  Refer to guideline #1.
4) Proofread, proofread, proofread!  I cannot stress this enough!  BEFORE you hit the "Publish" button, be sure to thoroughly read through anything you've written and look for any errors.  Refer to guideline #1.
Assessment
Your quarter project blog will be graded based on this rubric.