Go Digital With Your Classroom Charts

I assume that storage is an issue in your classroom. I mean, your secret snacks, Keurig cups and yoga mat take up more room than you'd think. Now, if you throw in a fat stack of classroom charts on top of it all, you have yourself a bonafide disaster zone.

One way to alleviate this problem, without losing the secret stash of Abba-Zabas, is to go digital with your charts. Simply begin taking pictures of the charts you know you'll want to reuse next year, and either store them on your phone or create a blog.

You can use Blogger to create your blog. It's FREE, it's easy and it's what I use for this blog. Here are the initial steps to beginning your beautiful blog.

Visit www.blogger.com and click Sign In.
Sign in with your district Google account.
On the left, click the Down arrow.
Click New blog and enter a name for your blog.
Choose a blog address or URL.
Select a template. (I recommend Dynamic View for this blog.)
Click Create blog.

Voila! You have a blog! Now it's time to add those classroom chart pics. An easy way to manage this is to add them directly from your phone. To do that, simply dig into the settings of your new blog. Follow these simple steps.

Click Settings > Email
Enter a secret word in the "Posting using email" box.
Click "Publish email immediately" to publish posts as soon as you send them OR click "Save emails as draft post" to save. This option allows you to preview before posting.
Click Save settings in top right.

Bingo! Start taking pictures of your classroom charts. Then, simply email them to the Blogger email address containing the secret word you entered just moments ago. I recommend typing the title of the chart in the subject line. Within seconds, your chart is posted to your blog (if you chose Publish email immediately).

I'm sharing links to two classroom chart blogs already in motion. You'll notice that they both chose the Dynamic View layout using the Flipcard option. It makes viewing the charts easier on the eyes.

http://nodateachcharts.blogspot.com/?view=flipcard

Paula Noda - 4th grade teacher
http://classroomcharts.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Roberts - Digital Lead Teacher at Point Loma High School

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