Types of Blog Posts!

Here is a reminder of the types of blog posts you should be creating.

Types of Posts (use a different post each week):

 

  •       Passion blog

○       Write about something you are passionate about. Find something that you love or hate and share your passion with your readers.

○       Instead of simply gushing about (or bashing) your topic, your goal is to share your knowledge about the subject and perhaps persuade us to feel the same way.

 

  •       Class-related response

○       Respond to something that we are reading/discussing in class.

○       By “respond,” I mean that you should present your understanding of, opinion about, or confusion about the topic.

○       You can discuss a literary text that we’re reading, a language issue, or other topics we address throughout the year.

 

  •       Outside text response

○       Respond to a text of your choice. Texts can be books, TV shows, films, blog posts, news articles, news broadcasts, videos, or more.

○       By “respond to a text,” I mean that you should discuss something you’ve seen or read outside of class and share your response to it. The text could be something that made you think, confused you, made you happy, made you mad, interested you, or more.

○       Remember to provide a well-embedded link to your source text (near the beginning of your post so your reader will know what you are referring to early on).

 

  •       Interdisciplinary post

○       Write a post about something you’re learning in any of your other classes. You can discuss concepts, articles, media, experiments, etc. Writing is a thinking process, so blogging about a concept from another class can help solidify your thinking about it.

 

  •       Current events post

○       Write a post about a current events topic. Explain the event and share your thoughts about it. To find current events topics go to the link below: http://www.timeforkids.com/news

 

  •       How-to

○      Inform your reader how to complete a task or situation that you are especially good at. This can include steps or directions, but it must be written by you (No copying and pasting directions from online!)

 

  •       Respond to a quote that is meaningful to you

○      This can be any quote you particularly like. Include the quote itself and your interpretation or significance of the quote.

 

  •       Journal Entry

○       Write a post about your day or a day you had recently. Use narrative writing techniques in your post. Make sure what you write about is school appropriate.

Challenge Activity!

Interview a friend or family member who is older than you. Type a paragraph
expressing what was different about that person’s childhood as opposed to your
own childhood and address what things are similar about your childhoods. You can then post this paragraph on your blog.

Week 7 Blog Challenge!!!!

Week 7: Let’s talk school

It has been interesting reading posts from students in different countries of the world. I wonder how similar or different your school day is! So this week’s theme is all about school. I am going to give you some suggestions but what you post about is up to you. Use one of my ideas or think of something for yourself. Check out what these three students have done:

Kaiya – lunch time choices

Brooke – interview a staff member – make sure they know beforehand you will be putting it on your blog for the world to see

Maraya – report on an event at school

I have included a few videos and links  you might like to check to give you ideas for posts.

So what could you do for a post this week?

  • Create polls about how people get to school or work, or favourite school subject or …..
  • What is your weekly timetable like, compare with other students – time you start and finish school, number of lessons each day, breaks during the day, days in year you go to school
  • Choices of subjects at school – remember to explain abbreviations you might use eg LOTE , ELA
  • Your dream of what you will be doing once you leave school
  • If you were principal for a week, what would you do? If you were a teacher for a week, what would you do?
  • Research the history of your school and create an about my school page
  • Research a famous person who attended your school
  • Technology in your school
  • What do you do at break times?
  • School bell has gone – what do you do now?
  • Food you eat at school – what is in your lunchbox or your school meal – good activity for taking photos
  • If you could improve your school, what would you do?
  • Your ideal school – maybe include a map of what it would look like
  • How has schooling changed over the last 100 years? Maybe interview parents, grandparents and ask questions about schooling – use an audio app then embed in blog
  • The view outside your classroom window – maybe explain plants that might be seen, the weather, seasons etc
  • Hold a debate about uniforms or school starting times or subjects or …..
  • Anything else that relates to schooling around the world

If you create polls or surveys, make sure you contact me so I can publicize on Twitter to get other classes around the world to join in. Use #16stubc or #globalclassroom if you are doing it yourself.

Check out this gallery of classrooms around the world

Martha Payne’s blog turned viral overnight – check out this interview and her blog about school lunches  Make sure you read her very first posts on her blog.

Collaborate with some other schools to create a video like these global classrooms did – Dancing around the world

Teachers:

Check out how you can connect with other schools using Skype in the classroom – Here is link to Hello Little World Skypers  Perhaps join in some of their projects.

Make more global connections by listening to the archives of recordings from the Global Ed Conference that has just been held. Maybe join the Global Education Network that has over 24000 members around the world.

Remember to leave a comment here including a post URL telling me which activity you have done. If your post is great, it will be added to the Flipboard Magazine.

From http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/

Week 6 Blog Challenge!!

Thank you to Miss W. for another fun blog challenge!  http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/

Week 6: Time to visit

content-marketing_cover

Creative Commons License Hurca! via Compfight

There are two activities this week and they are in the form of a game. They involve visiting other blogs, leaving quality comments and writing a post about the comments you left.

Admin this week

I have asked mentors to get back to me with those students who have not been doing the activities relating to the challenge. I have coloured their country pink on the student participant list. I will be deleting these students from the list over the next week if I feel they have not really been participating in the challenge.

Out of 106 comments left on the challenge blog over the last couple of days only 61 included the URL of the actual post I needed to visit. Many students are still leaving just the URL of their blog rather than the post. I only visit and flip to the magazine when a post URL is left here.

Before playing the games, make sure your blog is ready for visitors.

  1. You have lots of interesting posts for visitors to read and comment on.
  2. Visitors can find posts by using tags or categories on your sidebar.
  3. You have a visitor widget to see where your visitors are coming from.
  4. You have at least five student blogs from other places around the world on your sidebar.

Game week is all about visiting other blogs.

Remember one of  the main aims of blogging includes commenting and carrying on conversations with the author of posts and their other readers.

A good commenter will have:

  • read the post carefully,
  • checked out the links in the post
  • read the previous comments before they leave one of their own
  • added to the conversation with a quality comment – remember that video from Mrs Yollis’ class.
  • included a link to their own blog or a similar post on their own blog

Game 1: 

This is a game we have run for many challenges and allows you to connect globally.  Those who have taken part in a challenge before know the game of  ‘Count Out Three’. Here are the instructions:

  1. click on a blog on the student list or class list– count one
  2. now click on a blog from the new student’s blogroll – count two
  3. finally click on a blog from that new blogroll – count three
  4. leave a comment on an interesting post at this third blog.

Teachers: If you are moderating student comments, please make sure you are up-to-date with that this week as students can be very disappointed when they think they have no comments, yet many are in the moderation queue ready to be published.

Students: Make sure you are also replying to any comments that have been left for you.

Do this activity at least three times and finally, write your own post saying which blogs you visited and which posts you left a comment on. Why did you choose that post? Remember to include a link back to the post you left a comment on.

Game 2:

This is a new one I have thought of for this challenge. Many great student posts are being flipped to the #16stubc Flipboard magazine, but I am not sure how many of you have actually checked them out. So here are the instructions for this game.

  1. Click on the flipboard magazine link here
  2. Click on the title of the post of what looks like an interesting image or a catchy title
  3. You should now be taken to the actual blog post, read it and leave a comment
  4. Come back to the magazine again and repeat two more times

Write a blog post mentioning the blog posts you read and the comment you left.

Get to it – start visiting and leaving quality comments that show you have read the post. 

How many quality comments could you leave this week? Can you leave 10, 20 or maybe 50?

Write a post about the commenting you have done this week or throughout the challenge so far.

  • What have you enjoyed about commenting?
  • What is annoying about commenting?
  • How have you found interesting posts to comment on?
  • Are your posts getting lots of quality comments? Why or why not?

Create a list of great comment starters to help new students to blogging. There are some lists on the web but try to create your own. Here are a couple of examples from Anne Davis:

  •  Another thing to consider is…….
  • I can relate to this…….
  • This makes me think of…….

Write a quick post then include 5 great examples of comments as part of the post – use some interesting comment starters for each comment.

Week 4 Blog Challenge!!

Week 4: Guest Posts

Serious but Happy

Aikawa Ke via Compfight

Different activities this week but first some posts worth visiting. These students and classes have been leaving the URL of their POST so I could visit easily. Many of you are only leaving URL of your blog rather than the actual post, so I only approve those comments but don’t visit.

Students:

Classes:

Lots of posts have been added to the #16stubc Flipboard magazine – is one of your posts in there yet? Over 500 posts are there from the two sets of challenges in 2016.

Now to this week’s activities

Instead of me writing a post, I invited some other teachers, educators and mentors to create posts on their blogs. So you will need to choose where to go. You can visit one or as many as you like.

Remember if you leave a comment on the post, make sure it is a quality comment. If you include a link in your comment make sure it goes to your blog or the post you have written on your blog.

Mike Farmer

A retired science teacher (living in Spain) and mentor in the challenge invites you to discuss the Gaia hypothesis. Visit here if under 12 years old, here if 12 and older.

Mrs Yollis

Grade 3 teacher (from California) who creates videos for the challenge, invites students to talk about playing outside at school. PS Make sure you leave excellent comments here – maybe include some HTML code to impress Mrs Yollis and her students. Leaving a comment here will be different to your normal Edublogs blog.

Mrs Smith

Grade 6/7 teacher (from Vancouver Island, Canada) invites you to discuss how prepared you are for emergencies where you live. This includes a survey she would like you to fill out.

Eugene

Member of staff at Edublogs, invites you to visit, virtually, his country South Africa – lots of activities to choose from here

Still got time left this week?

  • Visit other classes and students taking part in the challenge.
  • Read the #16stubc Flipboard magazine – link on sidebar
  • If you have some favourite blogs you visit, make sure you have them linked on your sidebar or in a page on your blog or in a special post. You will need these links in a couple of week’s time when we play a game.

Week 2 Blog Challenge!!!

Thank you to Miss W. for the fun blog challenges.  We are excited to work on the week 2 challenge! http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/

Week 2: Time To Comment

Admin for week 2:

When visiting many blogs last week, I noticed your pages in Edublogs often didn’t allow for comments to be written. You might need to do the following:

  1. Go to your about me page and open it in your dashboard.
  2. In top right corner, click on screen options and make sure Discussions is ticked. Close screen options.
  3. Now below the writing area for your page you should see a dropdown labelled Discussions.
  4. Make sure you have ticked the boxes about leaving comments.

Each week, I am going to highlight some well written and interesting posts for you to check out. Remember to check Flipboard as well.

Elena and her avatars, Issaka loves magic and eSports, Victoria and her experiences,

About week 2: Commenting skills

This is another important week in the challenge. Blogging is all about having your voice heard and connecting with others who might like to read and comment on what you have written. But, as in many things we humans do, there are some protocols bloggers in schools like to follow.

Check out these videos about leaving quality comments. The first video was created for one of the very first blogging challenges back in 2009 by Mrs Yollis’ grade 3 students and it has been seen by thousands of students who have taken part in the blogging challenges since then. This video is suitable for all ages but specifically primary/elementary school or lower. But those in middle/high school or older might like to check out the second video which is more suited to an older age group.

Teachers: You might want to visit the post about teaching quality commenting on the Teacher Challenge blog. It has an excellent video about the possibilities of blogging through commenting. It also includes the videos below and others you might want to share with your class. You also find out about commenting and blogging guidelines, paper blogging and other ways to use your blogs to connect globally.

Using Edublogs? Check out these posts about comments: Comment overview,  managing comments,

Mrs Yollis and her third grade class

Nicolas Weiss – Leaving high quality blog comments

 

Activity 1: Create a ‘How to comment’ page on your blog

Many themes and blogging platforms have different ways to leave a comment. You might need to click on the title of the post, or click on a number in a circle or click on the words ‘Leave a comment’. Write a page for your blog explaining how to leave a comment. You could write it as a set of steps or perhaps create a video showing what to do. Be creative. Here is an example on  my family history blog. Mrs Yollis created a video showing how to comment on her blogspot blog.

Activity 2: Make a set of commenting guidelines

Explain what you expect when someone leaves a comment on your blog.

  • What type of comment is acceptable?
  • Which type of comment will you put in the trash?

Here are some examples:

Huzzah commenting guidelines,  a Glogster poster about commenting, WarriorKat used a variety of tools for her guidelines, notice how Sophie included a link back to Mrs  Yollis’ blog where she got her information from, Emme created a PowToon, Darcey included some interesting points, Kyndal has her guidelines here, Meghana used Canva to create a poster,Taylor included some great commenting tips

Activity 3: Leave a comment on this post – you might be able to combine this with activity 4

Each week the best posts published in the Student Blogging Challenge are featured in our Flipboard magazine.

To check your posts we need you to leave a comment with a link to your post on this blog whenever you finish a weekly activity.

So your activity is to practice leaving a comment below with a link to your post for an activity you’ve completed this week or last week.

But first you need to know the difference between your BLOG link and your POST link

  • Blog link: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org
  • Post link: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2016/10/02/gday-my-name-is/

If your teacher is moderating and approving your posts, you will need to wait until this has been done before leaving me a link in a comment.

Activity 4: Use some HTML in a comment

Did you check out Mrs Yollis’ blog? She includes a page with some HTML (code) you can use when commenting especially on blogspot blogs. If leaving a comment on an Edublogs blog, here is a post explaining the HTML to use.  If you want to leave a link to your blog that looks neat and tidy, check out this post.

Activity 5: Visit other student or class blogs

Visit 4 other blogs on the lists above the header area. Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog. Might be the About Me page or another post you found interesting.  Write a post on your blog mentioning who you visited, which post you left a comment on and why, then include the comment you left. Hint: make sure you copy the comment before you hit the submit button. Here are some examples from previous students in the challenge: Allegra but try to include a link to the actual post you left a comment on, Meghana who has linked to both the student’s blog and their blog post where she left the comment.

Will visitors to your blog find it easy to search for a post they might be interested in commenting on? Maybe you need to start using Categories and Tags or Labels (blogspot) orCategories (weebly) or Categories (Kidblog) or make sure you have an archive section.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE

There will be a special post during the week relating to Blog Action Day on October 15. Make sure you visit the challenge blog again about Wednesday for this post.

Week 1 Blog Challenge!!

Week 1: G’day, My Name Is ….

avatarbigrealsueMiss W or tasteach

Whenever you see either of these avatars or images on the world wide web, you will know it is me. I am a retired teacher who began blogging with students in 2008. I still blog with teachers and students in Tasmania, Australia. I also blog about my family history and whenever I travel, Davo the Tasmanian devil keeps a blog about his adventures with me. But the event I enjoy most is running the Student Blogging Challenge twice a year, with the help of the staff at Edublogs.

Teachers – Remember you can adapt the activities to suit what is happening in your class at that time or you can cut and paste parts of it on to your class blog. Just remember to give credit where you found the ideas by linking back to the challenge post somewhere on your post.

Students – Most weeks there will be lots of activities to choose from. You don’t have to complete them all. But by early November, your mentor or I must see your ‘About Me’ page or post as well as two other posts relating to the challenge. If they can not be found, your name will be taken off the list of students participating, especially if you have been given a mentor.

Mentors – They are there to give you some clues about blogging, reminding you of the challenge as well as carrying on conversations in your posts. Remember to read and reply to their comments politely and in a timely fashion.

This challenge we have many new students and classes taking part so let’s get some admin out of the way before we start our activities for this week. Anything written in bold and blue is a link you can click on to take you to another blog or website.

Admin for week 1

  1. Check that your name appears only once on the list of participating students. Leave a comment on that page if I need to remove your name from the list – give me your name, URL and age so I can find you easily.
  2. If all the students in your class have blogs and your teacher has a section called ‘My class’, you should have a widget called ‘Class blogs’. Make sure this is on your sidebar.
  3. Add the challenge badge to your sidebar – here is link explaining how to do that.
  4. Can visitors leave comments on your blog posts? If your country is in bright pink, then you might need to change your privacy settings. Check this post for how to do thisusing Edublogs, Blogger and Kidblog.
  5. Once you have done your activity for this week, remember to come back here and leave a comment on this post. Include a link to your blog post so I can try and visit in the next week. Great posts will be added to our Flipboard magazine on the sidebar.

With so many new students and teachers taking part, you might like to start with this video created by the team at Edublogs. Here is a PDF activity about blogging terms that you might want to use after watching the video.

Time now for the two activities for this week

Activity 1: Create an avatar to use on your blog.  There are many different avatar creation sites on the web. I have been to many of them and created lots of different avatars. Some you just save and download to your computer to then upload into your blog. Others you need to use the snipping tool to save a square image of your avatar. It is always best to save as a jpg format.

Here is a symbaloo of websites to use for avatar making. Feel free to add this to your blog. Along the bottom are pages where teachers have listed lots of sites as well as shown examples. The easiest to do are on the right hand side and look like my avatar.

 

To add your avatar to your blog, if using Edublogs, check here. If using blogspot, check here.  Teacher might need to change some settings in Kidblog to allow students to add own avatars.

Did you find a great avatar site not mentioned here? Write a post about your avatar and how it represents you. Include a link to the website where you created the avatar.

Activity 2: Write or update your About Me page.

Whenever I visit a blog for the first time, I always check to see who the person is that is writing the blog posts. Do they have similar interests to me?

If you already have an About Me page, you might want to create an About my State or Province page as well. Be creative:

What is the difference between a page and a post?  Check out the information here.

If using Edublogs, below are instructions for creating your page. If using blogspot, check here. If using weebly, check here. If using Kidblog, you will need to write a post.

  1. Login to your blog, go to Settings> Discussion and make sure the default setting is ticked for allow people to leave comments> save the changes at the bottom
  2. Now go to the dashboard>pages>add new
  3. Change the title to About Me or something similar.
  4. If you only have one row of icons above the box, click on the last icon called the kitchen sink or toggle. This opens a second row which allows you to change font colours.
  5. In the box, write a bit about yourself remembering to be internet safe. Make sure you have checked out the pages from other students mentioned – many of them have been blogging for a while.
  6. In the area under the page writing box, you should see a Discussion box – open this and make sure you have ticked Allow comments.
  7. When you have finished click the big  button on the right side of your screen – probably says update or send for review.
  8. Once you have saved your about me page, go back and delete the sample page.
  9. If your theme doesn’t show pages in the header area, then you will need to go to dashboard> appearance> widgets and drag across the Pages one to your sidebar.

Finished the work for week 1?

Then head off to the class or student list above the blog header and start visiting other blogs. You might not want to comment this week but maybe check them out. Are there any students with interests the same as you? Do you have a mentor yet? Have they left you any comments?

_________________________________________________________________________

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/

Welcome!

Welcome to blogging in Mrs. Opdyke’s ELA class.  Please read below to know what is expected of you every time you blog.  Have fun!  I am excited to read your blogs!

 

Blogging Assignment Sheet

Mrs. Opdyke’s ELA

(Adapted from Ms. Kristen Barnett’s Blogging Assignment Sheet)

Objectives:

  •       Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
  •       Write routinely over shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks and purposes
  •       Use blogging as a way to express ideas, analyze texts, and develop your writing skills

Instructions:

  •       Posts are due on the day blogging is an assignment at independent station. Your goal is to finish in class. If you don’t finish in class, save it as a draft and finish it for homework.
  •       See types of posts listed below for ideas.
  •       Cite sources, including images.
  •       Your blog = your work
  •       You will write weekly blog posts about a variety of topics. You will have a great deal of freedom with your choice of topics. Write about something you enjoy!
  •       You will also comment on at least one of your peers’ posts per week.

Logistics:

  •       Length:

○       Posts should be two paragraphs minimum. You need at least five sentences per paragraph.

  •       Format:

○       single space paragraphs

○       double space between paragraphs (to indicate a break in paragraphs and to give your reader’s

eye a rest)

  •       Tone/voice:

○       You should write your posts in your own style. This might mean being witty and clever, or it

could mean being serious and straightforward. There is no one way to do this, as long as you

remember to be school appropriate.

○       Your voice may change from post to post as you figure out what works best for you, and that

is absolutely fine (even encouraged!).

○       You may express your opinions in your posts, but remember that any time you take a side

for anything, you need support for your argument.

  •       Comments:

○       Be respectful of others even if you disagree with their points.

○       Your comments should contribute to the discussion. Don’t just write, “I like your post.”

Explain what you liked about it.

Academic Integrity and Blogging Etiquette

  •       Your posts should be your own work, written by you. Simple as that.
  •       If you refer to outside content (articles, images, videos, etc.), link back to the source. Use an embedded link rather than MLA citations, as that is the convention of the blogging genre.

Side Notes:

  •       Remember, once something is on the Internet, it’s always there. Think before you post!

 

 

Types of Posts (use a different post each week):

 

  •       Passion blog

○       Write about something you are passionate about. Find something that you love or hate and share your passion with your readers.

○       Instead of simply gushing about (or bashing) your topic, your goal is to share your knowledge about the subject and perhaps persuade us to feel the same way.

 

  •       Class-related response

○       Respond to something that we are reading/discussing in class.

○       By “respond,” I mean that you should present your understanding of, opinion about, or confusion about the topic.

○       You can discuss a literary text that we’re reading, a language issue, or other topics we address throughout the year.

 

  •       Outside text response

○       Respond to a text of your choice. Texts can be books, TV shows, films, blog posts, news articles, news broadcasts, videos, or more.

○       By “respond to a text,” I mean that you should discuss something you’ve seen or read outside of class and share your response to it. The text could be something that made you think, confused you, made you happy, made you mad, interested you, or more.

○       Remember to provide a well-embedded link to your source text (near the beginning of your post so your reader will know what you are referring to early on).

 

  •       Interdisciplinary post

○       Write a post about something you’re learning in any of your other classes. You can discuss concepts, articles, media, experiments, etc. Writing is a thinking process, so blogging about a concept from another class can help solidify your thinking about it.

 

  •       Current events post

○       Write a post about a current events topic. Explain the event and share your thoughts about it. To find current events topics go to the link below: http://www.timeforkids.com/news

 

  •       How-to

○      Inform your reader how to complete a task or situation that you are especially good at. This can include steps or directions, but it must be written by you (No copying and pasting directions from online!)

 

  •       Respond to a quote that is meaningful to you

○      This can be any quote you particularly like. Include the quote itself and your interpretation or significance of the quote.

 

  •       Journal Entry

○       Write a post about your day or a day you had recently. Use narrative writing techniques in your post. Make sure what you write about is school appropriate.

 

 

Assessment:

Your Posts:

  •       I will be randomly grading your blog posts throughout each marking period.
  •       To earn full credit, do everything in this list:

○       Write posts in your own personal style/voice.

○       Be informative, persuasive, entertaining, and/or reflective (depending on type of post).

○       Organize your ideas in the way that best makes sense for the purpose of the post (two

paragraphs minimum).

○       Proofread for grammar and spelling errors.

Your comments:

  •       You will earn full credit if:

○       Your comments show that you read your peer’s post, and you make a valuable contribution

to the discussion.

○       Your comments are respectful in nature. When you disagree with your peer’s argument, you

present your opinion without being rude or inappropriate.