Student Blogging Challenge Week 4: Emojis

You’ve been working hard to learn about some important topics for the first three weeks. Well done!

Let’s have some fun with emojis!

Week four of the Student Blogging Challenge is all about emojis -- the universal language.

Week Three Recap

Trophy image -- great workThere were so many great posts submitted again by classes and students.

You can find them all here.

Let’s take a look at just some of the fantastic work we spotted last week:

  • Georgia summarized the places you can find images and included a slideshow.
  • Mrs. Kimball made a Halloween themed slideshow for her class that included some information and tasks. There’s also the beginning of a story that others can complete.
  • Eshaan invites you to complete the story of when dolls come alive!
  • There’s a great farewell to summer poem on Frog’s blog.
  • Emily asks you to guess her sentence.
  • Nightshadebloom shared her own artwork.
  • Chris explains why you can’t take images off Google.
  • Emmitt shares some favorite images in a slideshow.

Flipboard

Remember, you can view more great work on our 2018 Student Blogging Challenge Flipboard.

Emojis

Do you like emojis? 😎😁😍

Emojis were first used on mobile phones in Japan in 1999 and become popular worldwide about ten years later.

Before emojis were emoticons (or smileys). Emojis are different to emoticons. Emojis are pictures, whereas emoticons are the punctuation you use to symbolise emotion.

Emojis look different depending on what sort of platform or device you’re using. As Emojipedia tells us,

Emoji is a standardised set of characters that is available on iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. While the artwork for each emoji character varies by platform, the meaning of each symbol remains the same.

Two years ago, a report stated that 92% of internet users use emojis. No doubt this number has grown now.

The great thing about emojis is that they’re a universal language! They can help people communicate, even if they don’t speak the same language!

More Emoji Fun Facts!

  • The original 176 emoji are on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
  • There are now 2,823 emojis.
  • New batches of emojis are added every year.
  • Oxford Dictionary named the Face with Tears of Joy Emoji 😂 as the 2015 Word of the Year.
  • The Face with Tears of Joy is the most popular emoji. Twitter tracks the most popular emojis here.
  • Emoji or emojis? In Japanese the plural is emoji but both are accepted in English.

Sources

Help With Emojis

If you’re using Windows 10 or a Mac computer, there is a simple way to choose an emoji as Tony Vincent demonstrates in the graphic below.

Call up an emoji keyboard in Windows 10 by holding down the Windows key and pressing period (full stop). Holding down the Windows key and the ; key also works.

On macOS, hold down Control and Command and press the space bar to make an emoji picker appear.

Both of these keyboard shortcuts require the cursor to be in a text box.

Tony Vincent add emojis graphicNot sure how to use emojis on your iPad? Check out this article. 

Week Four Tasks

This week there are four fun tasks to choose from to get creative with emojis.

Our graphic summarises the tasks and I will explain each task in more detail below. I’ve included some examples and ideas for how classes can approach each task.

As this topic hasn’t been used as part of STUBC before, we don’t have actual student examples to show you this week. 

Week four of the Student Blogging Challenge is all about emojis -- the universal language.

Task 1: Emoji Story Prompt

Thank you to Tony Vincent for this great idea about using emojis to help you create a story.

  • Go to byrdseed.com/emoji. You’ll see one random emoji on the screen.
  • Press “And then
” to add some more inspiration for your story with new emojis.
  • If you don’t like the emojis, just press “Start over”.
  • Take a screenshot of your emoji prompt.
    • This article shows how to take a screenshot on any device.
    • Click here to find out how to add an image to an Edublogs or CampusPress blog.
  • Write your story in a blog post. If you prefer, you could make an audio recording or even a video.
  • You could ask your visitors to finish your story in a blog comment if you like.

 

Tony Vincent Emoji Prompt Story generator

Task 2: Emoji Guessing Game

There are lots of ways you can use emojis to make fun guessing games for your readers

Emoji Quiz

Make a quiz for your readers using only emojis.

Have them guess something like:

  • Book title
  • Movie title
  • Book/movie character
  • Food
  • Word
  • Phrase
  • Country
  • Idiom

You could present this however you like — as a simple blog post, a video, a Google Slide presentation in a post. Or you might have other ideas.

Here’s an example of a video where viewers are asked to guess the Disney movie.

If you add emojis to a blog post like I’ve done below, they’ll be quite small.

🐟 + 🍟 = ?

Quick tutorial: Make an image

If you want a simple way to present your emojis so they’re larger, try making an image in Google Drawings or Google Slides. Google Drawings has a transparent background by default and Google Slides has a white background by default.

  1. Go to Google Drawings or Google Slides and open a blank presentation.
  2. Add a title (press on T in the toolbar in Google Drawings).
  3. Add the emojis you want. If you’re on a computer, try going to Emojipedia or EmojiCool and copying/pasting the emojis into your Slide/Drawing.
  4. When your Slide/Drawing is done, go to File > Download as > PNG image (or JPEG image). Save the image to your computer.
  5. You can then upload the image to your blog post (here are the instructions for Edublogs/CampusPress users).

Here is an example I made:

Globe flag and koala -- guess the country

Guess The Word

Tony Vincent demonstrates how to make a Guess The Word emoji puzzle in this graphic.

Want to make something like this? You could try a tool like Google Drawings, Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Canva. Just save your creation as a PNG or JPEG and upload it to your blog like any other image.

Guess the word with the emojis Tony Vincent

EmojiTranslate

Here’s yet another idea from Tony Vincent.

  • Write out a blog post as you normally would. This could be about anything — a pet, a school event, a favorite sport. The choice is yours.
  • Copy your blog post text. Go to emojitranslate.com and paste your text in the box.
  • Some words will be replaced with pictures. If you don’t want to use some of the emojis, just re-type the word.
  • Take a screenshot of your result and add it to a blog post.
  • Ask your readers to guess what it says in a comment.

You don’t have to use EmojiTranslate. You can always just make your own post and substitute some words for emojis.

Emoji Translate tool Tony Vincent

Task 3: Emoji Maths

Emojis aren’t just about writing. They can be fun to use in maths too!

There’s a popular site called Solvemoji.com where emojis are used in maths puzzles.

  • You could try making your own puzzles using a tool like Google Drawings, Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Canva. Just save your creation as a PNG or JPEG and upload it to your blog like any other image.
  • You could draw you puzzles on paper, take a photo of them and add them to your blog post.
  • Instead of making puzzles, you could solve some of the puzzles on Solvemoji.com and write your solutions and reflections in a blog post.

Here are some examples from the Solvemoji.com website.

Solvemoji puzzle -- fruit Solvemoji puzzle -- nature

Task 4: Emoji Art

Do you enjoy creating and making artwork?

There are a few ways you can make your own emoji:

  • You could draw a picture of an emoji and take a photo of it then upload it to your blog post.
  • There are lots of places online where you can find ‘how to draw’ emoji tutorials. For example, how to draw a peace sign hand on YouTube or how to draw heart eyes emoji on the How to Draw website. Under 13s should check with an adult.
  • If you have an iPad, you could use an app like Emoji Me Kids to make an animated emoji of yourself.
  • You could design an emoji in a program like Google Drawing or Google Slides. See the instructions listed in task two.
  • You could try Google’s Made With Code Emoji Project. This is lots of fun!
  • You could use emoji.ink to create an artwork using emojis. Tip: Use the slider in the bottom right corner to change the size of your emojis. Take a screenshot when you’re done.
  • You might have other ideas!
A quick picture I made with emoji.ink
Made With Code Emoji Project

Add your artwork to a blog post with a description. Don’t forget to include an explanation of how you made it and a link to a tool if you used one.

Final Tips

Add a visitor tracking widget to your sidebar

You will notice on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge blog we have some visitor tracking widgets to see which countries our visitors are from.

You can add these to your sidebar too. Find the instructions for Edublogs and CampusPress users here.

Because you need to use embed code, you’ll only be able to add these visitor tracking widgets with an Edublogs Pro or CampusPress blog. Embed code isn’t enabled on free blogs to prevent misuse by spammers.  

Using a different blogging platform?

  • You’ll find the instructions to add Clustrmaps here and there are instructions to add RevolverMaps here.

Not getting many visitors?

Try visiting other people and inviting them to visit your blog.

If you look on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge blog, you will see the links to the tasks that participants completed for the first three weeks.

Choose some people to visit. Make your comment a high-quality one — proofread it, ask a question, and show a genuine interest in the blogger. Then leave the URL of a post you’d like them to check out.

Which approach do you think would come across better?

Comment one

Hi Pip, Please visit my blog and leave a comment https://mrskathleenmorris.edublogs.org/2018/10/30/emojis From Kathleen

Comment two

Hi Pip, I really enjoyed reading your emoji story about your pet dog. I laughed when you described the tricks your dog performs. What's your dog's name? I've also written a blog about my pets. Maybe you'd like to drop by my blog sometime and take a look? The URL is https://mrskathleenmorris.edublogs.org/2018/10/28/pets Best wishes, Kathleen

Check back to see if the blogger replied to you too (if possible, tick the box to be notified of follow-up comments).

If you keep visiting a few of the same people over the coming weeks, you could really get to know each other!

Submit Your Post URL 

Examples of post URLS for STUBC

The Google Form

Student Blogging Challenge Week 3: Images and Creative Commons

This week’s topic is an important and useful one to know about. We’re going to explore how to use images easily, legally, and safely.

Some people find this topic confusing but don’t worry. I’ll break it down for you in this week’s post!

Week three of the Student Blogging Challenge is all about images and Creative Commons. We'll learn how to use images easily, legally, and safely.

Week Two Recap

Trophy image -- great workThere were hundreds of great posts submitted by classes and students.

Let’s take a look at just some of the fantastic work we spotted last week:

  • The McDowell Media students have made some great how-to videos to let everyone know how to comment on their blog. Also checked out the graphic they positioned on their sidebar as a handy commenting reminder.
  • Ms. Blessings’ grade two/three students have started visiting other blogs and shared some examples of the comments they left.
  • Mrs. Yollis added some comment starters to the end of her post. Is this something you could try this week?
  • 12th grader Rheinhard reflects on commenting in this well-written post. 
  • Rajyashori from India shared some of the great comments she left on various blogs in this reflective post. 
  • Sling’s class in Canada has completed some more fabulous work including this must-watch video on commenting.

Flipboard

Remember, you can view more great work on our 2018 Student Blogging Challenge Flipboard. Our commenters will be adding some notable posts and pages to the magazine over the coming weeks.

A Special Tutorial

A big thank you goes to Alethea Vazquez for creating a special tutorial this week.

Alethea has participated with her classes in previous challenges and is now a volunteer commenter.

Her tutorial demonstrates how to create and embed a Google Slide presentation into your blog post. 

Click here to find it.

You may remember, we shared Alethea’s slideshow in week one as a way of sharing the avatars and blurbs of all students in the class.

Many classes did a fabulous job of creating their own slideshows but if you were scratching your head as to how they achieved this, this tutorial is for you.

Google Slide presentations in blog posts are SO handy — you can share all sorts of student work or information.

Let’s Learn About Images

A blog without images would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it?

Images can really jazz up our posts, pages, headers, and widgets. Students and teachers also need images when they’re making a presentation, video, or other digital creations.

But where do we get those images?

Can’t we just use Google Images?

Do you know how to find pictures using Google? It’s so easy. You just type in the word you want, find the image you like, and save it to your computer.

But stop right there!

Should we be doing this? Should we be getting any image we like from Google and using it in our own work?

The answer is no.

As Ronnie Burt’s cat has told our community before


Just because you find it on Google doesn't make it free
Photo by Ronnie Burt used with permission

Most images on Google are protected by copyright. This means, they are not free to use and you can get into trouble if you do use them without permission.

You can use Google Images advanced search filter to find images that you are allowed to use but this isn’t as simple as it seems. You need to know what the usage rights mean and how to attribute correctly.

We have some easier options to share with you this week.

Including the source is not enough


A situation we commonly see on blogs is where someone uses an image they found online and then include a link to the site they got it from.

For example,

Image from Kathleen Morris www.kathleenamorris.com

Just because you link to the source of an image, does not mean you can use it. You would need to ask the image creator for permission.

Unless stated otherwise, everything on the web is protected by copyright.

Let’s take a look at some options for finding images


Where Can You Find Images?

Mrs. Morris recently updated a post on her blog that goes through the 5 main ways to find images for blog posts or other digital work.

Here is a summary. Feel free to use this poster on your blog if it’s helpful.

5 options for finding images Kathleen Morris

Let’s take a closer look at each option:

1) Making your own images is an excellent option

This can be done either by drawing, taking your own photos, using computer software, or using online tools.

Just be mindful of two things:

  • This can take a long time and leave you with less time for your writing or other work.
  • Many online tools have age restrictions (often over 13).

2) Many businesses purchase stock photography

We pay a hairdresser when we get a haircut, pay a baker for a loaf of bread, so why not pay a photographer for their work?

This is good to know about as an option but isn’t something schools or students would usually do.

3) Using Google Images is not usually a good idea

We talked about this above.

Most images that you find on Google are protected by copyright. Find out more about copyright by watching this short video.

4) Creative Commons is worth knowing about!

Everyone’s work is protected by copyright unless stated otherwise.

Many people are happy for others to use their work (as long as they give them credit etc.). They give their work a Creative Commons license to tell everyone what they can or cannot do with their image (or text, videos, music etc).

  • Copyright means the person who took the photo (or created the work) does not allow anyone to use it.
  • Creative Commons means the person who took the photo (or created the work) does allow people to use it IF they follow certain rules.
    • Usually, these rules mean saying who created the image/work and where it’s from.
    • Sometimes the rules state that you can use the image/work only if you don’t change it or don’t use it as part of something you’re selling.
    • These rules are called licenses.
    • There are a number of Creative Commons licenses creators can choose from.
    • No matter what license is used, you must always attribute the creator of the image/work (unless it’s a Creative Commons Zero license — see point 5). Attributing means crediting the author. In a blog post, this usually means putting the attribution under an image as I’ve done below.
Cute koala image
By Erik Veland [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a short video by Nancy Minicozzi that explains Creative Commons.

Plugins to make attribution easy

The trickiest part of using Creative Commons images is often the attribution (crediting the creator: saying who the creator is, where it’s from, what the license is etc).

If you’re using Edublogs or CampusPress, there are two plugins you can use to find and insert Creative Commons images without worrying about attribution.

5) Creative Commons Zero or royalty free images are the easiest choices

If your mind is spinning with all that talk of Creative Commons licenses and attribution, don’t worry!

Creative Commons Zero (CC0) or royalty free images are easy to use.

These are the least restrictive licenses so anyone can use the images freely and attribution is optional.

There are an increasing number of sites where you can find CC0 or royalty free images but remember:

  • Many sites contain inappropriate content if you search for it
  • Many sites have age restrictions

I made this comparison chart to show you about some of the best options to find images that you can use freely without attributing.

You can read a detailed description of each one in my blog post if you’re interested.

Comparison chart of free images teachers students Pixabay Unsplash Pexels Photos For Class Openclipart Pics4Learning

In the activity section below, you’ll also find some task cards to help you easily source images.

Help With Images

Adding an image to a post or page on your blog is quite straightforward.

If you haven’t figured out how to do this yet, check out these help guides:

Week Three Tasks

This week there are five tasks to choose from to help you learn more about using images. The third task links with doing either task four or five.

Here is a summary. I will explain each task in more detail below with some examples and ideas for how classes can approach each task.

STUBC week 3 tasks summary

Task 1: Educate Others

Many teachers and students around the world know very little about using images legally, Creative Commons, attributing Creative Commons images etc. You can help them learn while learning more about this topic yourself.

Do some more research into any of the topics discussed this week and make a blog post, poster, video, slideshow etc.

Example:

This video is the reaction of students in Mrs. Yollis’ class when she mislabelled their artwork. It helps people learn about the importance of correct attribution.

Task 2: Make An Image

Creating your own images for your blog posts is a great idea! You don’t have to worry about copyright and Creative Commons.

You can:

Remember, some online tools have age restrictions.

Add your image(s) to a blog post and tell us a bit about the images and how you made them. If you used an online tool, include the link so others can try it.

Examples:

Task 3: Image Task Cards

This connects with task 4 and 5. 

In the blog post Mrs. Morris wrote about images for teachers and students, she prepared two task cards.

Use of these task cards to find an image or a series of images to add to your post.

You could add a slideshow with some of your favorite images you found and write about why you like them. Or, you could use your images to complete task 4 or 5 below.

Tip: If you’re using Edublogs Pro or CampusPress, you can use the slider feature in the Live Shortcodes plugin to quickly add a slideshow to a post, page, or sidebar. Instructions are here. (Another option is the Metaslider Plugin) Find the instructions here.

Examples:

Task card for under 13s

 

Task 4: Write A Poem

Find an image using one of the task cards above. Or you can try one of the plugins we mentioned earlier if you’re an Edublogs/CampusPress user.

Now write a poem about your image.

Need some inspiration or advice? Check out Ken Nesbitt’s site which has lots of poetry resources.

Examples:

Task 5: Picture Prompts

First, find an image or series of images using one of the task cards above. Or you can try one of the plugins we mentioned earlier if you’re an Edublogs/CampusPress user.

Next, you have two choices:

1) Add an image with the start of a story and ask your readers to complete the story.

Examples:

2) Or, come up with a sentence and find a series of images to illustrate your sentence. Ask your readers to tell you what the sentence is in a comment.

Examples:

Tip: You might need to visit some other bloggers and invite them to look at your post and complete your story or guess your word. Remember to leave the URL of your post for them to click on.

 

Final Tips

Beware of advertisements

Remember, some of the free image sites have advertisements for paid image sites. We don’t want to click on those ads.

For example, on Pixabay, I typed ‘dolphin’ into the search box. The top row of results has a Shutterstock watermark on it. Clicking on this takes me to the Shutterstock website which is a site where you can pay for images.

Pixabay ad example

Note: You won’t see advertisements when using the Pixabay plugin.

Do you need to go back and fix images in old posts?

Have you been using images from Google on your blog so far? Whoops. You might want to go back and fix these up when you have time. Remove the image or replace with a Creative Commons image.

Have you tried using categories, tags, or labels yet?

Categories, tags, or labels are all ways to organize your posts. It’s a good idea to set up a category (or label in Blogger) called Student Blogging Challenge or STUBC. You can assign this category to all the posts you write for the challenge.

Submit Your Post URL ⬇

If you want a commenter and other participants to visit your blog, remember to fill in the Google Form below with the URL of the post or page you published for this week’s task.

Did you complete more than one task? Awesome! Please choose your favorite one to submit.

You need to submit the URL of your post/page

  • Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.
  • Don’t submit the URL of your blog or your dashboard.
  • Don’t include anything that includes the word ‘preview’. Others won’t be able to see the post.

This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress.

Examples of post URLS for STUBC

The Google Form

Student Blogging Challenge Week 2: Commenting

Great work on your first week of the challenge!

We now have 1550+ students and 135 classes taking part in the challenge!

Remember, the menu on the right sidebar of Mrs. Morris’ page can help you navigate this post.

This week we are talking about commenting. And not just any old commenting, quality commenting.

Week One Recap

Before we begin, let’s recap our first week


Our commenting team was SUPER busy! There were 720+ tasks submitted by students and classes.

A big thanks goes out to our lead commenter Miss W and her team of around 50 commenters!

For this week, we’re asking you just submit one task in our Google Form on the SBC page (if you complete more than one). This will make things more manageable for our commenters.

You’ll also notice some changes in the Google Form this week to make it clearer to distinguish between students/classes. The country name has also been added.

Some notable posts and comments

Trophy image -- great workWith so many amazing posts and pages written last week, it was hard to choose just a handful to showcase.

Let’s take a look at just some of the great work we spotted last week:

  • Musings From Mack is a sixth grade class from the US with a class blog and student blogs. They published a Google Slide presentation to introduce themselves on their class blog. They then created a“fun facts” list that links to the students’ blogs. Creative!
  • Ash Eryn from the Philippines is doing a great job of replying to her comments and engaging in conversations. Check it out. 
  • Zaprina from the US has made a creative About post that’s an acronym of her own name. It includes paragraphs and colored text.
  • Sling’s Class is a year 7/8 class from Canada with a class blog and student blogs. They published a Google Slide presentation to introduce themselves on their class blog. Their teacher Amanda also had the great idea of choosing a few global students and classes to visit. She placed these links on a page for the students to reference.
  • Mrs. Holliday’s second-grade class is from the US. They created some great avatars which they put in a slideshow. Their post ended with questions which is an excellent way to encourage comments. They have also received some comments from families. Fantastic!
  • Madison is a very talented writer in the fifth grade. She has done a great job of proofreading her About page and writing in paragraphs to make it easy to read.
  • Cashton is a seventh grader who has been busy visiting a few other student blogs. He wrote about the blogs he visited in a post and included the links.

Flipboard — Sharing more great work!

Flipboard is a digital magazine that brings together stories and articles from the web.

You can use Flipboard on your computer, or via the app on your phone or tablet.

iOS | Android | Window

Click here to view the new 2018 Student Blogging Challenge Flipboard. Our commenters will be adding some notable posts and pages to the magazine over the coming weeks.

 


A Commenting Story

You never know where a single comment might lead you.

I’ve made so many connections, just through commenting.

Here’s one story


I first began blogging with my grade three class back in 2008.

During the first year of our blogging journey, we received a comment from Mrs. Yollis’ class on the other side of the world in California, USA.

Comment from Linda Yollis

We replied back and forth and even shared a simple song with each other.

The commenting conversations continued throughout the following years with different groups of students. We had lots of Skype calls and worked together on projects.

I even had two different students visit Mrs. Yollis’ class on family holidays!

In 2012, my husband and I visited Mrs. and Mr. Yollis. Mrs. Yollis and I presented at a big conference for teachers called ISTE.

Even though I’m not teaching full time currently, our classes still connect — nearly 10 years later. For example, this year we made landmark videos together and collaborated for International Dot Day.

I have learned a lot from Linda and enjoyed the friendship.

This all started with a simple comment. Who will you meet through a comment?

 

The Benefits of Quality Commenting

What’s so special about commenting? Why not just publish blog posts?

Here are ten reasons why I believe comments are important:

  1. Comments turn your blog from a static space to an interactive space. This means it’s not just you talking. There is interaction.
  2. Back and forth conversations are fun and you can learn a lot.
  3. Because comments are not instantaneous (like online chat or text messaging), you can have more time to reflect, research, or think about your response.
  4. When someone leaves a comment, they can leave feedback, constructive criticism, or give you new ideas. This can help you grow and learn.
  5. A commenter might suggest something that you didn’t include in your post. You can learn new perspectives.
  6. When you have an authentic (real) audience, it’s more motivating! You know someone will read your post, so you will probably put more effort into it than if you were just writing something in a notebook.
  7. Commenting can be an ideal way for busy parents to get involved in the classroom.
  8. You can learn how to interact politely and how to have conversations.
  9. You can meet new people and form friendships.
  10. Students who don’t have their own blogs can enjoy the benefits of blogging by being a participant in the comment section.

Could you add anything to this list? Tell us in a comment!

What is Quality Commenting?

Which of these comments do you think is better?

Some students are young, learning a language, or just starting out and no one expects students to be perfect.

However, when we aim to do certain things in our comment, we will learn more and develop skills that we can use in all areas of our life. We’ll also have a better chance of forming strong connections with others.

So what makes a quality comment? Here are some ideas.

Elements of quality comments:

  • Written like a letter with a greeting, body, and sometimes a closing.

  • Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and spacing.

  • Questions, compliments, and/or relevant new information.

  • Making connections without revealing personal information like surnames, addresses, birthdays etc.

You won’t always include all of the above in your comments but these are the sorts of things you might aim for.

Quality commenting videos

This is a video about quality commenting that Linda Yollis made with her third-grade students back in 2010! Many classes still enjoying viewing it.

For older students, this video by Nicolas Weiss is popular.

Week Two Tasks

This week there are four tasks to choose from to help you learn more about commenting.

If you complete more than one, just choose your favorite to submit in the Google Form.

Here is a summary. I will explain each task in more detail below with some examples and ideas for how classes can approach each task.

This week there are four tasks to learn about commenting STUBC

Task 1: Commenting Guidelines

Come up with your own commenting guidelines. How would you like people to write their comment on your blog? Make a page, a slideshow, a poster, or a graphic that holds your commenting guidelines.

Examples

You might make a How To Write A Quality Comment poster like I did. Teachers, if you want to use this poster for your own class blog, feel free. You can grab a PDF copy here.

If you want to make your own poster, try a tool like Canva, Adobe Spark, Google Drawings, or even PowerPoint.

Of course, if you make your own poster, please personalize it and don’t copy my exact wording.

How to write a quality comment Kathleen Morris

More examples:

  • Student Aubrey shared some examples on her page to explain what sort of things make a quality comment.
  • Check out the creative way Mrs. Vazquez made a commenting poster using Thinglink. If you hover over the blue circles you’ll find more information.
  • Caleigh made a mind map to share key ideas.

Task 2: How To Comment

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. (Remember, if you change themes in future, you might need to change your instructions).

You could write it as a set of steps or perhaps create a video showing what to do.

Example

I made a video last year for my colleague’s class blog.

How to make your own video

  • I used a free Chrome extension called Screencastify to make the video above.
  • Loom is another good tool for making screencast videos if you use the Chrome browser.
  • If you use an iPad you can make a screencast without any special app. Tony Vincent shows us how to do that in this graphic


Tony Vincent screencast iPad

Tip: Find out how to add a video to an Edublogs or CampusPress blog here. If you have a free Edublogs blog, you won’t be able to embed the video into your post or page. This is to prevent misuse by spammers.

Example pages:

Task 3: Comment With HTML Tutorial

HTML is a computing language for making blogs and websites.

If you’re using Edublogs and you switch from Visual to Text in your post editor, you’ll see the HTML code that makes up your post. We’ll learn more about code later in the Student Blogging Challenge.

Switch between text and visual when you're writing a postYou can use some code in your comments to make your words bold, italic, or to add a link or symbol. ♄

Check out these tutorials to add HTML code to a comment:

Write a post about HTML codes that you know how to use. Show how to use the code and tell your readers what the different codes do.

Tip: If you want to include a demonstration of HTML code in a blog post, it can be best to write it in another program like Word, Google Docs etc. and take a screenshot of the code. Then insert the screenshot into your post like any other image.

  • This article shows how to take a screenshot on any device.
  • Click here to find out how to add an image to an Edublogs or CampusPress blog.

See this example below from Mrs. Yollis: she didn’t write it straight in the post. She made it into an image


Mrs Yollis' code

Task 4: Comment On Other Blogs

We know the benefits of commenting, so let’s leave some comments!

  1. Find around four blogs you’d like to leave a comment on. Check out the pink week one list on Mrs. Morris’ sidebar (the week two list will appear in a couple of days), or use the lists in the header area. There is a list of participating classes and one for students.
  2. Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog.
  3. 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. Include a link to the blogs you commented on too. Hint: make sure you copy the comment before you hit the submit button.

Example posts:

  • Figgy wrote a post telling us about the comments she left on other blogs.
  • Allegra wrote about the four blogs she commented on.
  • Sally wrote about her commenting conversations and included links.

Task 5: Organize Your Posts

Will visitors to your blog find it easy to search for a post they might be interested in commenting on?

  • If you use Edublogs or CampusPress, maybe you need to start using categories. You can also use tags once you get the hang of it. Start with categories.

Categories, tags, or labels are all ways to organize your posts.

It’s a good idea to set up a category (or label in Blogger) called Student Blogging Challenge or SBC. You can assign this category to all the posts you write for the challenge.

Final Tips

Encourage comments

A great way to encourage your visitors to comment on your post is to ask a couple of questions at the end of the post. You might make these bold or colored so they really stand out.

Try using open-ended questions. So, instead of saying, “Do you have a dog?”, you might say, “Please comment and tell me about your favorite animals”.

Safety first!

Remember when you’re commenting or writing posts, don’t yap about your YAPPY! Be internet safe -- don't share your YAPPY

Submit Your Post URL ⬇

If you want a commenter and other participants to visit your blog, remember to fill in the Google Form below with the URL of the post or page you published for this week’s task.

Did you complete more than one task? Awesome! Please choose your favorite one to submit.

You need to submit the URL of your post/page

  • Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.
  • Don’t submit the URL of your blog or your dashboard.
  • Don’t include anything that includes the word ‘preview’. Others won’t be able to see the post.

This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress.

Examples of post URLS for STUBC

The Google Form

Student Blogging Challenge Week 1: Introductions

Welcome!

It’s time to start the challenge and time for some introductions!

This post is quite long because we have some reminders to go through. Tip: there is a menu on the right-hand side of Mrs. Morris’ page to help you navigate the post (you might not see it if you’re reading this on a tablet).

Week one of the Student Blogging Challenge is all about avatars, About pages, and visiting other blogs.

Who is leading SBC this year?

My name is Kathleen Morris. I’m a primary school teacher in Geelong, Australia.

I wonder what hemisphere you live in? I live in the Southern Hemisphere so it’s currently spring.

I work with Edublogs to help teachers learn about the wonderful world of blogging while also teaching part-time at a school near one of Australia’s landmarks — The Great Ocean Road.

Here’s a photo I took just a few days ago at a beach called Jan Juc.

Photo of the beach near the Great Ocean Road STUBC

I have a husband who’s a teacher, a 5-year-old daughter, and a son who is 3.5.

I began blogging with my students in 2008. I have my own blog for teachers where I write about global collaboration, blogging, digital citizenship, online tools etc.

All of these things keep me very busy and I also enjoy doing a little running, hiking, reading, and cooking.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you, too.

About SBC Participants

So far we have about 1100 individual students and 23 classes registered.  Our participants represent 24 countries and 6 continents.  Are any of the continents of the world not represented? Why?

Student Blogging Challenge Participants Oct 2018 - 6 continents and 23 countries

Four Step Weekly Process

  1. Read the weekly post.
  2. Task. Complete the tasks
  3. Form. Once your post is published, head back to the weekly post on the Student Blogging Challenge site. At the bottom of the post, you’ll see a Google Form. Enter your blog post URL and details into the form if you’d like a commenter to visit you.
  4. Comment. Making connections is a big part of the challenge and the more you put in, the more you’ll get out! Take the time to visit another participants’ blog and leave them a comment. You’ll find the links to everyone’s weekly posts on the sidebar of this blog. Note: This link will appear on the sidebar in a few days.

Here is a summary of the weekly process. Feel free to copy this graphic and display it on your blog etc.

4 Steps To Participating in STUBC smaller

Stay Safe Online

Remember, as we’re sharing information about ourselves, we need to be internet savvy and avoid sharing too much information or personal details.

Mrs. Morris likes to tell her students to never share their YAPPY online. There is some other information that’s more of a ‘grey area’. These are things you should discuss with your teachers and parents.

Be internet safe -- don't share your YAPPY

We already did our avatars!
Check out what Mrs. Morris has to say about avatars:

Do you know what an avatar is? It’s simply an image that you use to represent yourself on the internet. It’s like a character that represents your online identity.
Kathleen Morris image

A lot of adults have a real photo as their avatar, like this picture:

 

It is a better idea for children to use a cartoon representation
of themselves (check with your teachers/parents if you’re not sure).Avatar example Kathleen Morris

 

We already wrote posts about our avatars, but check out these exemplars from former HMS students!!!!  As seen on the actual, worldwide post! Really!


Activity 1: Update your avatar
Make sure you added your avatar to your blog so that it shows up when you comment. Check here for instructions.

Activity 1.5 for 7th and 8th grade only: Update Doc for an “About Me” page on the class blog
Create a post that includes a short introduction, everyone’s avatar, and a link to their “About Me” pages.  See the Doc attached to the “LA Schedule for 10/8-10/12” assignment in Google Classroom.

Activity 2: Leave at least one comment on a non-HMS blog
Please see the information below for help.

One important aspect of blogging is commenting on other blogs.

Remember: The more you put into making connections during this challenge, the more you’ll get out!

There are two places you can find other participants’ blogs to visit:

  1. The pages at the top of the blog. There is a page for student bloggers and a page for class bloggers. These are sorted by age. Student bloggers have hobbies listed so you hopefully can find someone who is not only a similar age to you but shares some of your interests.
  2. The link on the right-hand sidebar of the blog. This will show you the spreadsheet of students/classes who have submitted their posts in the weekly Google Form. Note: This will appear mid-week when some people start submitting their posts.
Commenting advice

We’re going to talk more about quality commenting next week but for now, you might want to remember:

  • Write your comment like a letter
  • Ask a question, make a connection, or give a compliment
  • Leave your blog URL so the blogger can also take a look at your blog

Don’t forget to approve your comments and reply to any comments as soon as you can!  The following video by Mrs. Yollis’ third-grade class demonstrates how they approach commenting as a whole class activity.

Activity 3: Submit Your Post URL to the Google Form at the bottom of the SBC page
Do not submit the URL of your blog or your dashboard. Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.

  • If you submit more than one post/ page, you can fill out the form more than once.

This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs:Examples of post URLS for STUBC