You all know that we’re a tiny bit WordPress crazy for a large number of reasons (too long to list here). And just in case you didn’t know, this includes our classroom blogs, secondary department blogs, library blogs, secondary and some elementary student BlogFolios (ePortfolios), as well as our district blogs. (The school websites, although wordpress-based fall into a slightly different category.)
We’ve made some updates (backend and frontend) that have taken us to the next level. These can be grouped by communication (always the most important) and aesthetics (who doesn’t like ‘cool’). You’ll see new themes to choose and old themes retired from the list of theme options. Each theme has its own look and feel. It’s all about personal choice. New plugins such as WP Smush (optimizes images for web), Easy Google Fonts, new MailPoet 3, and Post Grid offer a wider variety of options. As well, there are the tried and true:
- Gravity Forms (survey collection, signup form) – a powerful drag/drop tweakable form to collect all types of information. As an example, we helped one of our schools to use it for students to sign up for their own day of pro-d – Wow! Better yet, the information is stored within the blog so no need to be worried about where it lives.
- News Announcement – a scrolling information list to share reminders that pop out
- Google Language Translator – no need for explanation here
If you or someone you know would be interested in a bit of face-to-face support or want to see what others are doing to get your innovative juices flowing, hop over to the Staff Development calendar for a new session called: Make Your Blog Site Work for YOU! (Wed May 2nd; 3:30pm at Schou-TLC).
We’re interested in hearing how you’re using your blog or if you would like your blog to do certain things. Drop us a line here or email our team. We’d love to hear from you.