FAQ

What is the YoungArts MasterClass Teacher Network?

The Teacher Network, a series of classroom blogs created by educators teaching the YoungArts MasterClass study guide. The Teacher Network allows for educators to create lessons and activities from the study guide and provides students with the opportunity to comment, and ask questions on the activities and resources provided by educators on their specific classroom blog. Conversely, the Teacher Network serves as a repository and an additional resource for all educators interested in or teaching the study guide.

Why Should I Use the YoungArts MasterClass Teacher Network?

It’s easy to use, easy to manage: Just write and click “Publish,” and it automatically organizes your site’s content by Posts, Topics, and Tags. Each Teacher Network site is like a blog, but streamlined for teachers and students.

It’s networked: Your site is automatically networked with the other YoungArts MasterClass Teacher Network sites. By creating a network of great sites, we hope educators will be inspired to see out related content.

I’ve never used WordPress before; what do I need to know?

The YoungArts MasterClass Teachers Network is built on WordPress, an open source application. It allows us to improve and expand our offerings with the support of WordPress’ elegant back-end code. By being part of the YoungArts MasterClass community, you’ll also benefit from the knowledge of the greater WordPress community: many of the questions you might have can be answered by checking the WordPress support pages of user-contributed help and advice. The YoungArts MasterClass Teacher Network gives you all the flexibility and benefits of WordPress, but in a unique network of streamlined sites and tools.

How do I register as a teacher to create my classroom site?

In order to create a Teacher Network site for your classroom, educators should first sign up here. After signing up, you will immediately receive an email with your username and a system generated password. The email will also provide a link to your profile page where you are encouraged to change your password to something easy to remember. After logging in, you will be automatically taken to the page where you can create your Teacher Network site.

How do I add users to my site?

As a teacher, you can use your Network site to share questions, ideas, and links to online resources with your students. You can also grant your students access to “respond” to posts on your site.

Here’s how:

Once a student request access, teacher will automatically receive an email with information about that request. Go to Full Dashboard on your Teacher Network page (image). Go users and change the role of the user (student) from subscriber to author. Students can now be able to post response to posts on that specific Teacher Network.

***Tip:

Educators should encourage their students to create usernames that are easily identifiable, e.g., Josh Smith (username: joshsmith/jsmith). This will make it easier for educators to grant access, especially if the activity is specific to a classroom.

How do students register to participate?

First Time Users

For a student to create a Teacher Network account, they should go to the specific post they want to participate in. Under “Request Access Before Respond”, click the Key Icon (image) and they would be taken to the signup page (image) where they would be asked to provide a desired username and an email address. After clicking request access, they will immediately receive an email with their username and a system-generated password. The email will also provide a link to your profile page where you are encouraged to change your password to something easy to remember. The administrator (educator) of that post will have to approve the request before student can post responses.

Registered Student Users

Once a student registers for an account on the YoungArts MasterClass Teacher Network site, they can use that account to login and request access to as many other sites as possible, pending administrator approval.

How do I add images, video, and other embedded objects to posts?

To upload an image or file from your computer:

• In the Edit Post pop up box, click the Add Media Icon above the post’s body text area.
• In the box that appears, click “select files” to find the appropriate file from your computer.
• Once you’ve selected a file, the image you select would be automatically added to your “Media Library”.
• You can edit the image or file. Add a title, caption, description, and determine the size and placement of the image or video within the post. *Tip: for larger images or videos, it may be helpful to use a scaled-down image size to avoid weird breaks in the post.
• Click “Insert into Post” to immediately insert the image or file where your cursor is in the body.

To add video using Vialogues (best option)