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=**Blogging With Students**=

__Snowball Activity__ 1. On a piece of paper, write your thoughts, reactions, and comments to this quote: "The most important things for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change". (John Seely Brown) 2. Write your name under your comment, crumble into a snowball and throw across the room. 3. Pick up another snowball. Read the previous comment. Add your own. 4. Lather, rinse, repeat at least three times. 5. Return paper to original author.

__ What does blogging look like in[| my classroom]? __ 1. Used across the curriculum a. English: write [|fan-fiction]for a novel,[| publish creative writing], post essays. b. Social Studies: [|reflections on current events], [|responses to global issues],[| share possible solutions to environmental problems]. c. Health: [|share personal mission statements], [|favourite healthy snack]. d. Math: [|unit vocabulary mosaics]using [|Image Chef] e. Art: [|photo essays] 2. Usually students’ writing is used as formative assessment, sometimes students’ writing is used as summative assessment. 3. Blogging is offered as an activity for early finishers in any subject.

__ The Power of Blogging __ 1. [|Students enjoy writing with their peers as the target audience]. It makes their writing more authentic. 2. Our class has made connections with other students around the division, the country, and the world. 3. Students have shared their own writing and ideas on their own time a. [|Aleksi: Canadian Gurls parody song] b. [|Justin: Hunting creative writing]

__ How to Get Your Class Started in Blogging __ 1. Star t with a paper Snowball Activity. 2. [|Generate blogging rules together]. [|Our class blog rules]: a. Choose your words carefully in a way that is respectful of others’ thoughts, opinions, and feelings. b. Participate often by responding constructively and appropriately to other blogger’s posts. c. Do not reveal personal information. 3. Provide a curriculum-based question for students to answer. Our class started with discussions surrounding [|the toxic spill in Hungary]after completing an assignment using //What In The World//. 4. Encourage students to read each other’s writing and leave appropriate comments. 5. Learn to [|develop constructive comments]. Use [|Mrs. Yollis’ class video]. 6. [|Visit other class blogs and leave quality comments]. Use #comments4kids and #classblogs twitter hash tags.

__ A Few Blog Hosting Options __ 1. [|Kidblog] (this is what I use for my own class blog) a. Easy to use, lots of teacher control, a great first class blog b. Completely FREE

2. [|Edublogs] (this is what my 7 year old uses for her personal blog) a. Somewhat more complicated to navigate b. A lot of customizable options c. Can be used for free, need to pay for the "premium" features 3. Other options available that I haven't looked into personally a. [|Class Blog Meister] b. Use [|Blogger]for a main class blog, each individual student has their own personal Blogster account that is linked to the class blog page. This is what [|Mavis Hoffman uses in Major]. c. [|Posterous]

Questions? Email me! aimee.whitbread@lskysd.ca