Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!
Welcome to the third student blogging challenge. You are about to start leaving a positive digital footprint on the internet.
Looking through the list of participants, we have very few who have taken part in a challenge before so the activities will be new to you all. A reminder that some activities will be for beginner bloggers or those wanting to improve their blog (BB) while other activities will be for those wanting to improve their commenting skills (BC). Each week you can choose to do as many of the activities as you like or your teacher might choose the one they want for that week.
Whatever happens – Enjoy your blogging!
When you meet someone for the first time or join a new class, you usually have to introduce yourself. Most blogs have a page called ‘About’ or ‘About me’ or ‘My profile’.
Activity 1. Write or update your ‘About me’ page. Tell your readers your first name only, a bit about your interests but remember to be internet savvy and not give out any personal details. Check out these from students in my class - Allira , Jess and Nicholas. If you wrote your ‘About’ page last year, things will have changed – so update the information or improve the layout of what you have written to make it easier for your readers to understand.
Because Sue Waters (from The Edublogger) and I want to know which students are more interested in doing activities relating to commenting, we would like everyone to do the next activity.
Activity 2. Write a post to answer the following questions.
- Why did you join the blogging challenge?
- Do you want to take part in the commenting section more than the better blogger section? Why?
- What do you hope some of the activities include?
- Finally, what do you hope to get out of the challenge by the end of the ten weeks?
- If doing the commenting challenge, leave a comment on this post for me to read.
Because we can’t all meet face to face (f2f), we have to have an online identity to represent us. In the top right corner of my blog, you will see a grey haired lady. I love wearing thongs on my feet and drinking iced tea. So that is a picture representing me – these pictures are avatars.
Activity 3. Create an avatar to represent you. Visit one of the websites on this post or do as Mr Toft’s class has. You might create a blog avatar to have visible on your blog and create a different one for your user avatar which will be seen whenever you leave a comment on someone’s blog. Remember to save your avatar to your own computer as a jpeg file, then when uploading to your blog use the ‘alternative upload’ in Edublogs especially if you don’t have to crop the image.
Activity 4. Still got more time to spare this week? Want to win a competition run by The Edublogger? Visit this site to read about the competition. There are 16 chances to win a 12 month Edublogs supporter subscription which will allow you to have threaded comments and other plugins. Check out the conversation between Lauren and Sue in the comments of that post. Lauren, one of our blogging challenge participants, has already won one of the subscriptions with her post which can be read here.
September 7, 2009 @ 1:39 am
[...] Miss W’s Blogging Challenge Fall 2009: #1 0 Comments Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!) [...]
September 7, 2009 @ 1:41 am
Hello Miss W!
I am really excited for the challenge this fall. I learned so much from the challenge last year, and I am super excited to learn more about commenting!
Thank you for your comment on my blog. I have added the comments to my sidebar. I just wanted to let you know that I subscribe to your blog through Google Reader, so I am able to keep up to date with the challenges that way.
Thank you so much for doing this!
-Abbey
[Reply]
laurenc604 Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I am so excited too! Abbey and I are in the same class, and I think the blogging challenge was a great chance for both of us to explore the ways we can blog. We are grateful for the chances that you have given us. Thanks!
~Laurenc604
[Reply]
September 7, 2009 @ 7:32 am
Our whole class joined because we are interested in blogging. We would like to take part in the commenting section more so we can try improve our commenting. We hope that the activities include fun facts and hard challenges so we can spend more time on them. We are hoping to get better commenting skills so after the challenge when we comment on a other blog we can leave amazing and super cool comments.
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 7th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Grant and Calvin,
Looks like the two of you are already very good at writing comments. Are you allowed to write your own posts on your class blog or is your teacher the only one who has permission to post?
[Reply]
Catherine Bryars Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Hello Grant and Calvin!
My name is Catherine Bryars and I am in Dr. Strange’s class at the University of South Alabama which is located in Mobile, AL. You two already seem to be very good at leaving comments. So, it will be exciting to see how much better you can get at that, because you are already pretty good. This is the website to my class blog, http://bryarscedm310fall2009.blogspot.com and I would love to hear your comments as you both improve. Of course ask your teacher first and if she needs to talk to my teacher here is his class blog, http://www.edm310fall2009.blogspot.com. You guys are doing great so keep up the good work!
[Reply]
September 7, 2009 @ 7:42 am
Hello Mrs W
This is Shannon and Savannah from Morrinsville Intermediate New Zealand
We are not sure about some of the activities but we are slowly getting better we look forward to more challenges in the future.
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hi Shannon and Savannah,
Are the students in your class authors on your class blog? If not then you might suggest to your teacher that if you become authors, you could write posts and I reckon, then you could have your own avatars. But I think you need a google account first – not sure what the age minimum is for that. Perhaps your teacher could look into that.
[Reply]
Emily Carlson Reply:
September 21st, 2009 at 11:26 am
Hey, Shannon and Savannah!
My name is Emily and I’m new to blogging too. I received as an assignment for my computer class at the University of South Alabama in the US. If you have any tips for me let me know!
[Reply]
September 7, 2009 @ 10:51 am
We might be ambitious but I’d like my students to be involved in the commenting challenge, as well as the blogging challenge. We are new to the skill of adding comments, and we would like to improve in this area!
Thanks,
Mr B.
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Looks like most people will be doing both sorts of challenges, so I will just include three or four each week, some commenting others improving the blog. Everyone can then choose which activities they want to complete.
[Reply]
September 7, 2009 @ 11:04 am
Hello Miss W. I am looking forward to have my class and I do the commenting side of the blogging challenge. I want them to learn to do comments that show some thought and lead somewhere… to further conversation I guess.
That said we are going on camp this week and then next week I am going to visit the lovely Gold Coast of Australia for a week. The following week I will be back in school and then we have two week’s holiday. While we may be behind for a while we will get there!
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Miss T,
I will be leaving the activities up till the end of this year, so you can continue them whenever you wish.
[Reply]
September 8, 2009 @ 8:45 am
I did activities 12 and 3. I liked it.
[Reply]
September 8, 2009 @ 8:50 am
I did activities 12 and 3. I liked it.
*Mom is having issues with edublogs using her avatar instead of Isaac’s.
[Reply]
September 8, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Kia Ora Mrs W
I would love to have my students have more time on posting however Blogger has an R13 rating and therefore my students can plan a post and write it up but I primarily upload their work.
students make the videos and most of the slideshows.
We are very much looking forwrd to more challenges.
I myself have only been blogging for this year.
Miss F
Morrinsville Intermediate School
New Zealand
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Kia Ora Miss F,
So you get the heavy workload – but it is worth it. Maybe you could have some students in charge of a world map in the classroom, plotting where you leave messages and who visits your blog. Spreads the load a bit.
[Reply]
September 8, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
I joined the blogging challenge because Mr Casey encouraged me to help our class take part in this. We would be more interested in the best commenting section because we do not all have our own blogs we just have a class one. I hope that some of the activities include creativeness and by how many comments we post. By the end of the 10 weeks that we have for the blogging challenge I hope to understand about blogs more then I already do now.
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Amber,
I think you will enjoy the challenges. No-one has complained about them being tough only fun and enjoyable in the previous challenges I have run.
[Reply]
September 10, 2009 @ 2:21 am
We are excited to learn how to blog and blog with others from across the seas. Thanks for putting all of this together!
9th Grade Class
[Reply]
September 10, 2009 @ 11:01 am
[...] is from Ms. Wyatt’s Blog Challenge Activity 1. Write or update your ‘About me’ page. Tell your readers your first name only, a [...]
September 10, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
Hi Miss W,
My name is katie and I am from Australia. I think the blogging challenge is a great idea. Cna you please tell me how you came up with the idea.
[Reply]
September 11, 2009 @ 10:25 am
[...] is from Ms. Wyatt’s Blog Challenge “Activity 1. Write or update your ‘About me’ page. Tell your readers your first name [...]
September 13, 2009 @ 1:56 am
Dear Miss W.,
Thanks for organizing a fabulous challenge for all of us! I will be joining the comment challenge with my third grade students from California. We look forward to improving our commenting skills and meeting other interesting bloggers from around the world.
Thanks again,
Mrs. Yollis
[Reply]
September 14, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Dear Ms. W.,
I’m going to have my students participate in the better commenting challenge this year. I think it’s a fabulous idea, and something that they will definitely benefit from. Right now, I give assignments where the students have to 1st-respond to my question; 2nd-post their own related question; and 3rd-repsond to one of their peers’ questions. They post these comments on our class blog. My students are ESOL students from around the world in grades 9-12.
We’re looking forward to it!
[Reply]
Miss W. Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Mrs Nogueira,
Thanks for having your students take part in the challenge. I am not sure what ESOL stands for. Are the students doing online work rather than being in one classroom in reality?
[Reply]
September 14, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Hi
Bye
[Reply]
September 15, 2009 @ 7:20 am
Hi Ella_rox_ur_sox Said,
Why did you write Hi Bye?
[Reply]
September 15, 2009 @ 7:25 am
Hi Mrs W,
Why did you start a blogging challenge? I Quite like the blogging challenge!!!!!!
[Reply]
September 16, 2009 @ 10:39 am
[...] Here’s Ms. Wyatt’s latest Blog Challenge: [...]
September 17, 2009 @ 8:58 am
Hi Miss Wyatt!
I would love to do the Better Commenter section (actually I am going to try to do both sections!) and I wrote a post on Activity 2.
Thanks!
-Dominique
[Reply]
September 17, 2009 @ 9:02 am
[...] challenge. I signed up for the one last Spring and it was lots of fun! For Activity 2 under her Welcome!Welcome!Welcome! challenge there are some questions to post [...]
September 18, 2009 @ 8:40 pm
nice job with everthang peple!!
[Reply]
September 19, 2009 @ 2:30 am
[...] Week 1’s assignments [...]
September 20, 2009 @ 10:22 am
Hello, Miss W,
I am a little behind time with this challenge, so I am going to try to catch up this weekend. So, first let me answer your questions. I joined the blog challenge to become a better blogger myself. I teach around 100 students, so I do not think I will have students with their own blogs as it is too much to keep up with. However, I wouldn’t mind creating several blogs for each of my classes to get them involved in writing posts. So, I want students to participate more in the commenting section. Last year, I did not require students to comment, and they really never did. This is disappointing. I love the thread feature of edublogs, and I think this will help encourage students to participate more. I hope some of the activities include ways for me to get my students commenting more. I really hope some of the activities include ways to involve my students more. Our school district has strict rules about posting student comments without teacher prior approval first, so this is also a concern. Finally, by the end of this challenge, I hope that I have learned how to incorporate my classroom blog within my lessons. I do not want it to be a separate item but a part of our class. I also want to find ways of involving all students more.
[Reply]
September 23, 2009 @ 9:31 am
[...] instructions posted here! Uncategorized | Comment (0) Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and [...]
September 29, 2009 @ 1:49 am
hi this is very excting i wil be happy to talk to all
[Reply]
September 30, 2009 @ 7:15 am
Hello Mrs. Wyatt’s class!
Thanks for initiating this blogging competition once again. We’re very excited to be part of it and so that we can learn more about blogging this year. We’re finding your blog very interesting and helpful to look through.
We’re a 6/7 class just like you and we’ve started the school year learning about different Web 2.0 tools. Our school is on Vancouver Island in B.C., Canada. We’re enthusiastic about the upcoming year and earning our individual blogs.
Division 2
[Reply]
October 1, 2009 @ 2:00 am
hi im leaving a comment – the end
[Reply]
October 5, 2009 @ 1:28 pm
[...] Welcome! – activities include ‘About me’ page, avatar and post about why join the [...]
October 6, 2009 @ 12:07 am
[...] Miss Wyatt’s post gives some directions and examples of ways to write your “About” page. We have already reviewed the advice to be “internet savy” by making wise decisions about our writing and blog content. [...]
October 6, 2009 @ 8:14 am
I would just like to let you know that I wrote a post for activity 2 and it can be found at http://ehorne.wonecks.net/
Thank you!
[Reply]
October 13, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
hey………i don’t know how to make a blog avatar. can i get a little bit of assistance? please and thank you
[Reply]
October 14, 2009 @ 12:23 am
Yall need to check out my blog so have fun doing it.
[Reply]
October 20, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
[...] additional help with this activity, you can visit Mrs. Wyatt’s Blogging Challenge instructions or explore the “About” pages created by [...]