After two children and a bit of a blogging hiatus, I’m back! And I have an exciting new role ahead in the blogging world. What are you up to?
blogging
Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum
To realise the many educational benefits of blogging and ensure your program has an extended life-span, blogging needs to be prioritised and planned for. It should to be integrated into the curriculum; busy classrooms rarely have time for “add ons”.
There’s Blogging and There’s Blogging…
Blogging is becoming increasingly common in schools, but are all blogging programs helping to improve student learning outcomes? This is an issue I was discussing with a member of my professional learning network recently. There seems to be two main schools of thought on educational blogging programs: The unrestricted program: this may involve all students […]
Student Blogs: Digital Portfolios
As we have introduced a 1:1 netbook program in grade four this year, I have changed my approach to student blogs. Rather than having a system where students can earn their personal blog, all students in my class now have a blog as a digital portfolio. As always, we began the year focussing solely on […]
Benefits of Blogging by Linda Yollis and Class
My good friend in Los Angeles, Linda Yollis, recently created this excellent video with her second and third grade class about the benefits of blogging. This video may give you more of an insight into what you could get out of blogging with your students, or you might like to share it with your staff. […]
Our World, Our Numbers Global Project
My class is currently involved in a wonderful global project called Our World, Our Numbers. We launched Our World, Our Numbers alongside our blogging buddies on Monday 25th February. In late 2011, many of us worked on a global project called Our World, Our Stories. This latest project is based on a similar format with a […]
The Benefits of Educational Blogging
In August 2017 I wrote a comprehensive post on the benefits of educational blogging for The Edublogger. Find that updated post here! 2013 is the sixth year that I have maintained a classroom blog. When I first began I didn’t know much about blogging at all and I didn’t realise there could be educational benefits […]
A Guide to Involving Parents in Your Class Blog
This is an update of some of the posts I’ve written in the past about getting parents involved in blogging. About parents and blogs One of the many benefits of having a class blog is the strengthening of home-school relationships. A class blog can provide a virtual window into the classroom. After having a class blog for […]
10 Tips for Introducing Blogging into Your Classroom
With the new school year beginning in Australia, many teachers will be introducing blogging into their classrooms. Some teachers will be continuing an established blogging program with a new cohort of students, while others will be introducing blogging for the first time. If you’re totally new to blogging you may like to check out Five […]
Getting Started with Global2
Yesterday I ran a professional development day for teachers called Technify Your Teaching in 2013. While my colleagues Matt Limb and Simon Collier ran sessions on iDevices, Google Apps, Evernote and web 2.0 tools, I presented workshops on blogging with my team teaching partner, Kelly Jordan. One of our sessions was on setting up your […]
Developing Blogging Skills: Simple Rubric
I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a blogging scope and sequence for a while. However, something about that idea makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like the thought of limiting blogging skills to certain age levels. For example, a number of my grade two students were sourcing and attributing Creative Commons materials for blog […]
Technify Your Teaching in 2013: PD Opportunity
As well as this blog and my class blog, I write Tech Tools for Teachers. This is a collaborative effort with my colleagues, Matt Limb and Simon Collier. Each fortnight we review an online tool and provide step-by-step instructions on its use. In January of this year we ran a professional development day called Technify […]
Instructions for Using Creative Commons Images in Blog Posts
Many bloggers are not aware that you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement. I teach my student bloggers to “do the right thing” by using their own images or Creative Commons images in their […]
Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog
I have revised the posts I have written in the past to create a nine page, five step guide to beginning a class blog. Feel free to view, print or download the document to help you get started on your blogging journey. Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog If you’re having trouble with the […]
Tips and Topics for Student Bloggers
Recently, I wrote two posts about quality student blogs. You can find them here and here. I have also written a guide to setting up student blogs here. A new group of students in my class are almost ready to earn their own blogs. I wanted to compile the tips I offer my students in […]