Pimping Out WordPress 2.3 with Plugins, Pages, and More Resources - Beyond School

Pimping it Out (one for the Feed Readers)

S’rite. I be stylin’ my thang.

I’ve been adding plugins to my new self-hosted WordPress site like a drunk three-year old. Some work, some don’t, some gum up the whole works and inspire flights of colorful cursing. But it’s all fun, and very powerful, what the WordPress open development community enables with their many plugins (and if you’re using 2.3, this list of compatible plugins for it is a life-saver). I’m loving it.

So here’s an update of new features: an “archives by tags” page (see top navigation bar) that lists every post I’ve written (including all of the old Blogger posts, which I imported with a single button-push on WordPress 2.3) and, get this: organizes them by tags, in ascending order. That’s powerful. (You can get the plugin yourself via the link at the bottom of that page.)

I’ve also added a page called “hosting wordpress” that has four screencast tutorials that drag any masochists out there down the brambly path of my own trial-and-error (but ultimately successful) install of WordPress 2.3 on Powweb. You can do it too, for a few dollars a month. Then you’re free to add your own plugins, new themes (and see this list of 2.3-compatible WP themes to save yourself heartache), and all that to your heart’s content. It feels incredibly creative. Beware addiction.

The last page, so far, is a “Teaching Gallery” page. It has short descriptions, movies, and links to my own attempts to create 21st century projects in my school. So far, an overview of Project Global Cooling, the 1001 Flat World Tales wiki and blog, the Broken World wiki history textbook (student-created) and blog, and our current modern translation of King Lear, mafia style, on a wiki at King Lear Street Talk.

I’ll be adding more. Hope some of you feed-readers will drop in and poke around, leave comments and suggestions, questions, whatever.

Thanks to all who have stuck with me as I’ve switched horses.

For more posts on creativity, see

Photo Credit: “Pink is his color” by stgermh

If you like this post, please spread it:

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Written by Clay Burell

October 21st, 2007 at 9:04 pm

Posted in blogging, citizenship 2.0, creativity, language arts, lessons, project-based learning, teaching, web2.0, wordpress

Tagged with blogging, lessons, wiki, wordpress

4 Responses to 'Pimping it Out (one for the Feed Readers)'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Pimping it Out (one for the Feed Readers)'.

“He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise.” -Paul Klee

[Is your fiancee considering black and pink for your wedding colors?]

[Reply]

diane

21 Oct 07 at 11:39 pm
This is just so fun, D. Time to switch gears and read my AP Lit students’ blogs now.

By the way - you are so creative, you should consider jumping in to self-hosting your blog. I’ll Skype-Yugma you through. I’d love to see your touch with all this freedom.

[Reply]

Clay Burell

21 Oct 07 at 11:47 pm
Clay,

I can see the usefulness of the pull down archive menu. Does this site allow for more widgets or images ? (I do have to wrestle with photos on my present site). Guess I’d better take some time to examine and ponder each of your links.

Will the tutorials give an enthusiastic but technically dense mature user an Excedrin headache? (See, even my expressions are archaic!)

Maybe I should save all this for Winter (shudder) break.

“I will do such things,–
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.”
King Lear, 2. 4

P.S.
Love reading your students’ blogs. What a luxury to be a non-grading observer!

[Reply]

diane

22 Oct 07 at 11:33 am
Wordpress Plugins are soooo addictive. I finally went with the Semiologic Pro package that has about 70 plugins already pre-packaged. Doesn’t mean I didn’t add a few more, though.
Tracy’s last blog post..Feds Investigate Infomercial King Kevin Trudeau

[Reply]

Tracy

11 Apr 08 at 5:01 pm