Global Classroom

Student Blogging Challenge

A place to connect with other classes that are blogging: Check the site via this link Student Blogging Challenge

Some screen captures with information are below:

Using Blog Rolls to Connect Classes

Some examples:

Here's a blog roll from a class that participated in the Global Read Project, showing the other classes with which the class collaborated with through blogging:

Link to the Blog on KidBlog

Feel free to visit this blog for Mr. Boylen's 7th grade lit classes and to read and write replies.

Example: student's book report accessible through the class directory:

"The Battle of Gettysburg"

Note the extensive blogroll on Mr. Boylen's 7th Gr. Lit. Classes {for connecting with other classes to share reactions to books as well as to discuss other topics}

For Mr. Boylens' Eighth Grade Classes: 8th Grade Language Arts

And the blog roll:

Looking for Reading Posts and Connecting with Classes Globally Across Continents

Check this post: Blog Walk (good assortment from schools in England, New Zealand)

Note # Visitors Map and Country Flag #s (as of Nov. 8)

Here is a link to one of the blogs I found in the post: Room One @ Auroa School in New Zealand

The main class blog has a blog roll to students' blogs and blogs from classes around the world. Quick screen shot to show some of the other classes' blogs.

Screen shot of a few visitors, illustrating various places from around the world.

From Blog Walk, I found the Room One @ Auro School, New Zealand blog.

Here's a student's post on the blog; the student created the About Us page, which has received more than 15 replies. Here is a screen shot of part of her post.

I posted a comment on the blog, and then received this comment on one of my blogs within less than an hour's time.

After receiving this reply, I contacted a teacher in Iowa to see if he wanted his 7th and 8th graders who blog to connect with the classes in New Zealand. I found out that the Iowa teacher's students had already made contact with the New Zealand students. Because I used Twitter to initiate the discussion with the Iowa teacher, a teacher in Hawaii who teaches Japanese jumped in, and then another from Canada. Within a day, we were doing a Google Hangout to organize a cultural project involving classrooms from several countries. Within the next few days, more teachers joined in what is now billed as the Food Cultural Exchange Project. Classes have joined from Washington state, Japan, where students will blog in Japanese and English, and England.

20 Day Blogging Challenge: Presents ideas and topics for cross-class blogging

Looking for More Examples of Student Blogs for a Public Audience? A few examples follow:

Excellent Source of Information on Globally Blogging and Connecting Classes

Kathy Cassidy, a first-grade teacher explains the process of how her students blog on iPads. These students publish their posts for a global audience. Read her "Blogging in the Primary Classroom with One iPad"

  • Kathy Cassidy's book Connected Classrooms

[Online version from Powerful Learning Practice at: http://plpnetwork.com/connectedkids/]

Screen shot of Cover and part of Tables of Contents showing chapters on blogging.

For more ideas on student blogging, check this post:

Examples of High School Blogs

1) Looking for some examples of high school students blogging in English class and sharing their thoughts about literature, Starr Sackstein is experimenting this year with her AP Literature blogging. Here's the link to find the blogs, and once on this page, check the images and click to redirect to an individual student's blog: Literature Blogs

Here's a screen shot of what the listing will look like once you go to the Literature Blogs page.

In this post, Starr Sackstein offers suggestions for students blogging: "19 Ways to Use Blogging with Students"

2) David Theriault is another high school English teacher who uses blogging with his students.

2013-2014: Access to his students' blogs was organized with a Pinterest board.

  • Re-Framed Blogs
  • For David Theriault's thoughts on students blogging, check this blog post: "Blog Share"
  • On the "Blog Share" web page, scroll down to see links to this year's students' blog, with over 100 shared. David asks others to crowdsource the blogs on social media with a hashtag: #cloudwriting. See this tweet he sent me:

3) Catlin Tucker

  • Catlin offers her thoughts on her students blogging in this post: "Crowdsourcing as a Class with Blogger." The post also offers ideas for classroom management of the blogs. She notes in her post:

Last year, Catli#n had her students blogging as a 20% Project. You can read about that here: "20% Time Meets Blogging"

4) Gary Anderson uses a Ning to share his students' blog. Look around the Ning and scroll to find links to the students' blogs. The Fremd High School Ning.

5) Meeno Rami, another high school teacher, has her students blogging, for example:

English 3 and also uses the Twitter hashtag #comments4kids to solicit readers:

Screen shot

Link to Zack's post: "Review of Digital Fortress"