Ready: What’s the best for the class blog…

Eternal clockMy students say it is time for them to start blogging. That means our class blog must be updated. What should I include? Whats should you include as you begin the journey?

These three blogs show excellent samples of what to include:

Dare to Care Denise Krebs

I learned much from the netiquette of Denise Krebs, Dare to Care blog here. These rules are carefully and positively written for students. When I re-read mine, I realized a few things over the past years had been deleted when transferring from wikis to blogs to Google Sites.  I added in again the parts about respecting others’ files and work, keeping personally identifying information off the internet, and sharing passwords only with one’s teacher. Her class blog is simple, yet elegant. I noticed easily what students needed to know under Pages and Categories.  Her categories is helping me think through my own assignments, and setting them up with categories relevant to our tasks.

Kids in the Mid Miss Wyatt

Again, this class blog sets up all the resources students need, including the guidelines again. I love the idea of creating links pages. I’ll be reviewing the Literacy Links here to help me create one for my students. I think I will survey my students, too, on topics of interest to them so I can pre-search sites for them. Notice that under “All Your Posts” students can click to others’ blog posts to comment. This is done with a link to a shared Google Reader.  Clever, isn’t it?

Teaching Techie Marsha Ratzel

Once again, excellent guidelines for students. Note in this post how she has enticed and encouraged steps to earning one’s own blog. I love this idea of earning one’s blog through appropriate and frequent commenting, which is what drives good bloggers. Students write WHY someone should read their blog.  Another great idea to focus students on their audience, purpose, and passion. Students follow protocols for drafting their posts on the class blogs. Comments, class blog, own blog. Browse around on the class blog and the reflection blog to see just how this teacher enhances learning through blogging.

Any one interesting in blogging will learn much from these three bloggers. I plan to share these with my students — the teacher blogs, class blogs, guidelines, and assignments — so my students can help me plan our work with blogs.

To these three colleagues, I present you a big thank you apple for helping me help my students.

apple4teacherthankyou


Photo Credit:

Time Flickr CC  by Robbert van der Steeg

Apple Thank You Badge Flickr CC by Sheri Edwards

3 Comments

on “Ready: What’s the best for the class blog…
3 Comments on “Ready: What’s the best for the class blog…
  1. Pingback: Blog with students – Visit these Week 2 | Teacher Challenge

  2. Wow, thank you, Ms. Edwards, for the sweet apple! I am very proud to be included in your blog post. I’m anxious to get going on the “Get Your Students Blogging” challenge. I’ve fallen a bit behind, so I’m trying to catch up by doing a lot of reading and writing over the holiday weekend we are having now. Nice post!

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