Month: April 2018

Well, this is our second last week in the March challenge for 2018. Over the last 8 weeks, you have learned a lot about blogging if you have done most of the activities and checked out the links included in my posts.

It is now your time to do your best and show your teachers, the special commenters, and Miss W what a great blog post looks like.

The one and only activity for this week:

Write a post on one of the following topics

• Money
• Bucket list
• Favourite

Don’t forget to include the essentials of a great post:

1. A catchy title.
2. At least one visual whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool.
3. An interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through.
4. It has been well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else.
5. It has been proofread and spellchecked.
6. At least three paragraphs.
7. At least two links to other websites on similar topics.

When you have finished your post, please go back to Miss W’s page and fill in the form at the bottom of the page so our commenters can visit. Those posts covering the seven things mentioned above will be added to the Flipboard magazine.

Still more time left this week?

• Visit other student and class blogs.
• Read posts and leave comments.

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

Complete one of the games (red).

Game 1: Count Out Three

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 about the game ‘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
5. Repeat steps 1-4 two more times.

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.

• Here is how Rachel, Mia, and Olivia wrote their posts for this challenge a few years ago. Notice how Jazzy included links in her post.
• Yacob looked at the blog overall, not just the posts.
• Thanumi created a video about this week’s challenge.

Game 2: Flipboard Three

Many great student posts are being flipped to the 2018 #stubc Flipboard magazine, but Miss W is not sure how many of you have actually checked them out. So here are the instructions for this game.

1. Click on Flipboardboard magazine: link here
2. Click on the post title 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 comments you left. Why did you choose that post? Remember to include a link back to the post you left a comment on.

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 students new 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.

 

Miss W wonders how many comments you have received on your blog. How many are from your teacher or classmates? How many from a commenter in the challenge?

But most importantly, how many are from other people around the world?

When she first began blogging back in 2008, Miss W had a personal blog and after a week of writing posts, she had only 6 comments yet her Clustrmap showed lots of visitors had been there. Why weren’t they commenting?

So she wrote a post titled “Why has no one commented?”  Suddenly, Miss W had 16 comments on just that post. Here are some hints from the educators who left comments:

Write for yourself, put your heart into it, and you will start to see your map light up like a Christmas tree!  David

I still find those posts I expect to get a lot of comments don’t – whereas posts I didn’t expect any response to seem to get more.  Tim

What also helps to enhance comments is writing posts that give guidelines, how to’s or provide explicit opinions on things that are relevant. If you keep your posts open to interaction and truthful to yourself, the comments will start coming in. Inge

I’m here because YOU commented on MY blog, so you can see how that can help you make connections! In my experience if you practice what you preach and take the time to read and share on other blogs, more people will be inclined to do the same for you. Kate

Tried and true way to get comments – make comments. Susan

One person told me a couple of ways to develop readers, and this may also help with comments. And that is to treat every post as a conversation. If someone comments on your post, you comment back, and from your own blog. Cathy

Commenting Activities

1. Follow Cathy’s example – if someone has commented on your post, comment back. If they have left an URL, check it out and leave a comment there as well
2. Follow Kate’s example – read at least 10 blogs and comment on those that really interested you

Visiting Activities

1. Follow Susan’s example – visit some blogs from the free choice or global issues posts and leave some comments – include your blog URL if you want them to visit your blog – or leave your post URL if you want them to visit a specific post to comment on. Miss W also included some great posts to visit below.

Writing Post Activities

1. Follow Inge’s example – write a post that gives guidelines or how to do something or expresses an opinion. Invite visitors to comment by finishing with a question.
2. Follow David’s example – write a post for yourself showing your voice and putting your heart into it.

 

When you have finished commenting and visiting (doing at least one activity per section) for this week, write a post explaining:

• Which activities you did
• Which blogs you went to: include links
• Which posts you read and /or commented on: include links and why you commented on certain posts
• What you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy about this week’s activities

 

Great posts Miss W spotted when checking out comments:

• Mrs. Vazquez’s class created a Thinglink explaining about commenting on their blog and also have a great image for their zoom story.
• Give your opinion on pizza by visiting Figgy’s post here.
• Arabella wrote a great story with an unexpected ending
• Ben certainly researched for his expository on dinosaurs.
• Rajyashoril asks what are some of the problems facing democracy and how can they be solved.
• I can tell McKenna wrote with passion on Jerry Lee Lewis.
• Lily notices lots of little things.
• Shanta looked at one topic for her photo gallery – grass.
• Check out the conversation happening between Allison and Shanta – also note how Allison has started her Blog Buddies list on the sidebar of her blog.

 

This is a guest post from Kathleen Morris. 

Kathleen is a primary school teacher from Geelong in Australia. She began blogging with her students in 2008.

Kathleen writes on her own teacher blog and also on The Edublogger. 

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All About Quotes

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

~Dr. Seuss

Have you ever tried adding a quote to your blog post? A quote is simply where you write someone else’s words.

You might use quotes from:

• well known people
• books or movies
• other bloggers
• your teachers or friends

Reasons To Use Quotes:

• You can back up your thoughts and make your writing more credible (that means true or believable).
• The readers of your posts can get new ideas by hearing from others.
• A quote can be an interesting way to start or end your blog post.
• You can learn a lot from researching quotes.

How Do You Put A Quote In Your Post?

You can just type your quote into a post and put it in quotation marks, but to really make it stand out and break up your text, try blockquotes.

Using blockquotes is easy. Below are the instructions for Edublogs.

When you’re in your visual editor:

• type the quote
• highlight the words in your quote
• click on the quotation mark icon

It will then display like this…

You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~A.A. Milne

Note: The way the blockquotes display depends on your theme.

Where Can You Find Quotes?

You might already have some favorite quotes stored in your memory.

You might do a Google search for articles on your topic and find quotes from others.

You might browse your favourite blogs or books for quotes.

There are some online collection of quotes such as GoodReads Quotes and LitQuotes (Note: these aren’t designed for children so we recommend only teachers or older students use these sorts of sites).

Using Quotes The RIGHT way

We know we can’t just take images that we find online, and we certainly can’t copy others’ writing and publish it as our own. So, many people might wonder about using quotes.

It’s fine to use quotes from others but there are a few things to be aware of:

• Make it obvious which words are your own, and which words belong to someone else (you do this by using quotation marks or block quotes).
• Make your quotes brief. Perhaps a few sentences. Never copy the whole post.
• Always include the person’s name (also link to their site, article, or book if you can).
• If you’re using blockquotes, the attribution could be before the quote, inside it, or below it.
• If you shorten a quote, use an ellipsis (…) in place of the missing words.
• If you’re adding any words or corrections to the quote, use brackets.

Do one of the following activities.

Now you know a little about the how and why of using quotes, it’s time to get creative! Choose one or more of the following activities.

Activity One: Make Your Quote Visual

Write a blog post that has at least two visual quotes.

There are many ways to add quotes to an image. You can do this offline using a program like PowerPoint or Paint.

There are also many online tools for turning your quote into an image. Some of these include:

• Canva
• Adobe Spark
• Google Drawing
• Quozio

Here’s an example I made in Canva.

Don’t forget to add the image you create to your blog post.

Activity Two: Quote other students

Interview some of the students in your class or around the school and include at least five of their quotes in a blog post.

You could choose a specific topic to interview students about.

For example:

• opinion on your school uniform
• favorite things to do at lunchtime
• best places to play around your town
• reasons why your school is great

Activity Three: Explore a quote in a post

Choose a quote from a fellow student’s blog post as a topic for a post of your own. Write the quote at the top of your post. Explore the quote in detail and add your own thoughts and opinions.

You might want to look back at some of the posts from the Global Issues topic in Week Four for some inspirational quotes.

Activity Four: Make a post full of quotes

Create a blog post that is a compilation of at least five quotes.

For example:

• If you were studying World War Two, you could put together a collection of important quotes from this time in history.
• If your class went on an excursion, like the museum, you could add quotes from all the students about the day.
• If you were studying a divisive topic, like animal testing or closing a local library, you could interview members of the community and include their quotes in the post.

Still more time to spare?

Complete another of the above activities or consider doing the following:

• Visit the blogs of other students and classes involved in the challenge. Leave a comment of one of their recent posts. Don’t forget a question and compliment can be great to include in comments.
• Leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite quote with Miss W.

 

Pedro Luna Guillen via Compfight

The first few weeks of the challenge were mainly learning about blogging skills you need when working on public sites on the internet. You should have learned the following so far:

• Avatars – what they are, how they are used, and how to create one and upload it to your blog
• About me pages – the difference between a page and a post, what is private information, and what you can say on your blog, being a good digital citizen
• Commenting – what makes a great comment, what you expect from a comment on your blog, guidelines for blogging and commenting in your class
• Images, sounds, video – what is creative commons, how to find safe and usable images, what is an attribution and how to write it, websites with great images, creating your own images, using images for puzzles and games, an image paints a thousand words when writing a story or poem
• URLS – the difference between a BLOG URL when leaving a comment on someone’s blog you are visiting and POST URL when filling in weekly form or commenting on the challenge blog

 

This week’s activity is free choice

Have some interesting posts for your visitors to read when they get to your blog.  Miss W will not going to give any clues as to what to put in your posts but remember the following, especially if you want a post flipped to our magazine. Also take note of the page titled ‘Post ideas’ above Miss W’s header.

Having read many student posts, Miss W came up with the following essentials in a great post. Be sure to include all in your post!

1. catchy title
2. includes at least one visual (with attribution) whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet or glogster
3. interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through
4. well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
5. shows it has been proofread and spellchecked
6. written in paragraphs – at least three of them
7. includes links to other websites on similar topics – at least two of these

Those posts covering the seven things mentioned above will be added to the Flipboard magazine. Many students are forgetting to add links to other websites relating to the topic they have written about. Remember links show you have researched your topic well and found opinions of others to include in your post.

Help here from Edublogs for adding links to posts.

 

Still more time left this week?

• Read some of the posts in the Flipboard magazine – your teacher might want to create a class Flipboard magazine to add to your class blog
• Visit other classes this time in the lists above the header of the challenge blog or in the list included below
• Reply to any comments left on your blog especially if from a commenter.
• Check out the posts written by classes and students that are in our Google spreadsheets (Your posts on sidebar)

Remember YOU have to visit other blogs, leave comments and the URL of your blog before you will get any comments on your blog. This is how the conversations and connections get made – by visiting and commenting on other student and class blogs.

Check out these class blogs for students aged 7-9. Many students have their own blogs in the sidebar.

Creative thinkers, Penguinville, Mrs Avnor, Smith Kid Bloggers, Mrs Kundhi, Mrs Moore, CW East, Friends of 3rd Dimension, 3E News, La Decouverte – leave comments on the Welcome post for this blog

No form to fill in this week, instead leave a quality comment on Miss W’s post explaining your choice for your post. Also explain what you have done to improve your blog ready for your visitors in a couple of weeks.

 Carlos ZGZ via Compfight

Think globally, act locally (Miss W)

Locally

• My recycling bin has more in it every week than my normal rubbish bin.
• I have a worm farm that chews up any extra fruit and vegetable rubbish I might have left over.
• Whenever I go for a walk, I pick up any rubbish especially on the beach nearby.

Globally

• I sponsor a Panda with World Wildlife Fund
• I sponsor a child in Sri Lanka to improve the lifestyle of the child, their family, and community. Have sponsored since I received my first pay cheque as a teacher back in the 1970s.
• I donate to Kiva with micro loans of $25. I have made 69 loans so far and 8 friends I have invited have also made loans

What could you do about some of these world problems?

Here is a great website with lots of information about many topics below.

There might be some that are more specific to your area of the world. But this week research one of the following topics:

• hunger
• water
• racism
• use of resources
• global warming
• specific aspects of the environment
• unemployment
• war and unrest
• use of land
• terrorism
• HIV/Aids
• child labor
• women’s rights
• education and literacy
• another global issue of your choice

Do at least one of the red activites.  You cannot do an activity that you have already completed (in previous SBCs).

Activity 1: Research one of the above topics

 

Create a post that includes links to where you researched and some images with attribution. You might also want to include a poll or survey, a collage of images, a slideshow you have created. You may have found a great video you could also include.

Here are some links to where you might get some ideas –  ACEE – student voices, Global Oneness project – bringing the world to your classroom, students and teachers becoming Global Citizens

Activity 2: Global issues in your classroom

Have you or your class taken part in some work associated with a global issue? Create a post about what you were involved in. Maybe it was a global activity rather than an issue – eg Pi day, Global Read Aloud, Earth Hour.

Here is a wonderful newish website about projects students and classes can join in.

Activity 3: Visit other blogs

Visit at least ten other blogs not from your country. Leave comments asking questions about some of the issues they might have in their country. Make some comparisons between the countries taking part in the challenge. Write a post about your findings.

Activity 4: Be creative

Use a web 2.0 tool to be creative about global issues. This might be a poll or survey, a quiz, write a poem, create a poster, draw a picture, write a story or cartoon about a superhero saving the world – just be creative. Check out the tools to use in the sidebar of Miss W’s blog.

Activity 5: Do something

Do something about a global issue. Click on the links below to games and activities for kids about global issues. What did you choose to look at? Write a review in your post.

• Kids go global  – website
• Free Rice – we have a group you can join here
• Check out the habitat of two different cities – how does it compare with where you live? – primary/elementary students
• Environmental Intelligence – traffic, trash and pollution – primary/elementary
• We Stories– website
• Generation On – make your mark on the world
• Youthink – stories and ideas of how youth are changing the world

Action Aid resources, Know My World, iEarn in many countries of the world, World Savvy, Kiva – help entrepreneurs around the world

Still more time to spare?

Visit students and classes from the other countries involved in the challenge. Leave a comment or question relating to a global issue that might be affecting them.

Leave a comment on Miss W’s blog telling her the global issue you think is most important to be solved. It might not be one of those mentioned in the post. Give reasons why it should be the first issue solved.