Monthly Archives: April 2012

Classroom and Student Blogs: Advice from the Masters

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I’m a big fan of learning from the masters. We look to the masters when learning art, music, literature, sports – even prayer and meditation.

This post is dedicated to the blog masters – those who post advice for teachers with classroom and student blogs. Wisdom of the masters + personal experience has led me to embrace the following pieces of wisdom:

Bookmark Great Examples of Kid Blogs

Before diving into blogging, you should check out some examples of classroom blogs and kid blogs. Bookmark your favorites – you can use the great ones as examples for your students.

Many know Adora Svitak from TED talks. She keeps a blog.
A Second Grader’s blog: Nick’s Picks
A Third Grader’s blog: Jarrod’s Awesome Blog
My Fifth Graders: 5a3dragonslair.edublogs.org
Blogs by High School students in Norway are linked to Ann S. Michaelson’s site

Need more? Check out the Edublog Award Winners.

Start with a Classroom Blog

By “classroom blog”, I mean the one that you control.

No need to fear first steps. Online real estate is free. If you want to start slowly and deliberately, consider signing up for the Edublog Teacher Challenge. The challenge takes you through blog setup in a step-by-step fashion.

You can play around with a couple different formats. I’ve tried Blogger. Blogger is easy because it links to your Gmail account. The cautions with Blogger are twofold: Google may “suggest” to students that they check out blogs that are inappropriate. Google, by nature, will also have advertising.

Consider going through Edublogs. When students write on Edublogs, they are only exposed to other education blogs – blogs with safe content. My only complaint with Edublogger is that you cannot keep track of the users who sign up for your blog. I hope they will add that feature – I want to know the email addresses that receive direct email feeds.

Other teachers have successfully used Kidblog.

Generally, professional bloggers use WordPress. You can start with a WordPress.com site. Like blogspot, WordPress is open to everyone in the world (not just kids). But, my experience is that wordpress.com users are more committed to good content.

Video tutorials are available to help you get started on Blogger and WordPress.

Unsure about what to put on your class blog? Here are 65 ideas.

The two most Twitter-mentioned classroom blogs are Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom and Leopold Primary School (Australia). Use their posts as examples.

Begin the year by teaching Good Commenting

I don’t recommend giving students personal blogs too early in the year. Students should demonstrate responsibility first. I like the steps that teacher Kathleen Morris takes with her students.

Prior to writing full blog posts, students need to learn how to write quality comments.

Video tutorials exist to help students make comments on WordPress and Edublog sites.

Video tutorials also exist to help students make comments on Blogger sites.

A colleague of mine started student comments with a discussion about responsible use.

One of the biggest reasons to have a classroom blog is for students to practice commenting in a controlled environment. I don’t find that students post inappropriate things, but I DO find they type their last names. I both delete the last names and conference with children who sign with full names.

Helping Student Get Started

One of the easiest ways to help students get started is to have them sign up for the Edublogs Student Blog Challenge. Students receive emails with links to instructions on how to make their blog look great. And, students link up with other student bloggers.

Getting Parents Involved

Next year, I want to make a more concerted effort to get parents involved. A few of my students’ parents have made nice comments on student posts. Kathleen Morris has been far more intentional and has experienced the subsequent success.

Let parents know that students LOVE to receive comments. Comments are one of the biggest motivators for students to continue writing.

If you Want to Assess

I don’t formally assess student blogging. I want blogging to become something students want to do. Instead of formally assessing students, I point out to them ways in which I see their writing improve.

That said, sample rubrics are available.

Safety Stuff

The biggest lesson is to keep identities anonymous. When commenting, students should not use full names. When students create blogs of their own, they should be careful with the “About Me” page. I encourage students to put a Wordle on their “About” page – using words they would use to describe themselves.

I highly discourage names attached to pictures.

I don’t tend to advertise the location of my school. Viewers could deduce the location from the school uniforms, but the name of the school shouldn’t show up in Google searches.

Mrs. Ripp has a great post guiding students to think about how the Internet is like the mall. She also includes a letter to parents regarding safety.

Who do you believe are the master blog teachers? What have you learned from them? What links would you recommend?

If you like what you read, consider subscribing to Expat Educator (below).

Math Stories, Part 1: Fractionland

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Illustration done using kerpoof.com

I love teaching math. I get excited about turning 11-year-old mathphobics into students who “Feel the math love” – one of our classroom mantras.

The self-contained classroom allows me to mix math and storytelling. You see, there’s a magical land that only a few teachers know about. And, I must politely ask that this story not be told to teachers in other grades because they may think Mrs. Abercrombie has run a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

But the land does exist. It’s called [lean in for the whisper] Fractionland.

Fractionland has its share of cultural anomalies. For instance, residents of Fractionland believe that the prettiest and most handsome fractions are the ones with the smallest digits in their numerators and denominators. Every year they have a beauty contest. 1/2 always wins.

Although other fractions cannot be as beautiful as 1/2, Fractionland mothers always insist that their fraction family members leave the house looking their best. You see, when fractions sleep fitfully, they toss and they turn and they flip and they snore. And when they wake up, they look nothing like themselves.

Just the other day, 1/3 woke up from a fitful night’s sleep and walked into the kitchen only to hear her mother gasp. 

“What’s wrong?” asked 1/3.

The family was too horrified to explain. Instead, mom reached into her purse, pulled out a mirror, and held it up to her daughter. The beautiful 1/3 now looked like 9/27 – a hairy, awful beast she had only heard of by reading Fractionland’s secret stash of banned books.

1/3′s face turned green. “Whatever shall we do?” she asked.

“Well, you can’t leave the house looking like that,” her mom said, stating the obvious.

As any good Fractionland mother would do, she plopped 9/27 down in a chair and took out the scissors.

Dad put down his newspaper. “Looks like she needs about three snips off the top and three off the bottom,” he said.

“Hmmm…,” mother contemplated. “That would work,” she said as she backed away from her daughter to get a better look. “But I reckon the problem is more serious. I’m thinking about taking nine off the top and nine off the bottom.” As mom cut, 1/3 contemplated the unfairness of life – the older she got, the worse she looked in the morning.

Mother finished her clipping, grinned with satisfaction, and held the mirror up to her daughter. 1/3 smiled. She twirled. She sang, “I feel pre-tty… oh so pre-tty.”

Mother escorted her daughter to the door and kissed her on the cheek. As they exchanged fraction family smooches, 1/3′s younger brother came barreling down the stairs.

“NOT so fast,” mother said, grabbing her son’s arm. You are not leaving the house looking like 15/20.”

Mother marched her son to the kitchen and made him sit until he looked like his true self.

What did 15/20 need to look like before he left the house? What is the moral of this story?

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10 Steps for Managing Cooperative, Project-Based Groups

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I’ve become a contributor to one of Scott McLeod’s tech blogs, 1 to 1 Schools. In my latest post, I talk about Book Club Prezis in the context of managing cooperative, project-based groups.

In the post, I break down management into 10 minilessons or steps:

  1. Content comes first.
  2. Choose and defend presentation format.
  3. Divide and conquer tasks.
  4. Develop a timeline for completion.
  5. Group members work as individuals.
  6. Individuals comment on group members’ work.
  7. Groups reflect on their work.
  8. Groups see the work of other groups.
  9. Students and teachers comment.
  10. Celebrate.

To see the expanded explanations, click here.

What are your experiences with cooperative, project-based groups?

If you like what you read, consider subscribing to Expat Educator (below).