Creating a Blogging Community

If you haven’t completed this form letting me know your WordPress URL, please do so now.

WordPress

The first conversation we had about blogging took the form of a Chalk Talk. For additional protocols you might think about using in your future classroom, this National School Reform Faculty site has an extensive list of “protocols” to promote brainstorming with a group. Below are some photos from our Chalk Talk. What do you think we might add to this conversation?

I hope you’ve had an opportunity to explore the WordPress dashboard and customize your blog. In case you haven’t learned about creating categories, I thought we’d start class off today with this short tutorial.

Let’s explore a few more WordPress functions to help you blog. Go ahead and open WordPress as we try each of these functions.

• inserting a photo
• creating a link
• inserting video
• managing widgets

What else would you like to learn about WordPress?

Exemplar Blogs

According to the survey, none of us read blogs on a daily basis (including me). Let’s spend some time today looking for a blog we COULD see ourselves reading everyday. Over the weekend I found a blog that is extremely relevant to my research interestes. My husband gets a little obsessed with sports, hockey being his first love. Here’s a blog about his favorite team with the namesake of his favorite player, Datsyuk. My son loves origami and found this one. I even found a link to the 50 Best Blogs for Art History Buffs. Let’s see what you’re able to find that interests you.

If you’re having trouble finding something, or you are interested especially in education blogs, check out these top education blogs of 2011.

Commenting on Classmates Blogs

I’ve created a page with links to all of your blog sites. I’m going to ask you to leave a comment on a classmate’s blog for homework (this will be part of your blog project grade). Let’s brainstorm the substance of an ideal comment.

Chapter 7 Reading

Chapter 7 in your book concerned writing and technology. There was a specific section about blogging starting on page 171. According to the book, there are several reasons to utilize blogs in the classroom:

• Providing classroom experiences beyond the ‘walls’ of the classroom
• Posting on a blog may appeal to different learning styles
• Blogging could enhance the expertise of the blogger on the targeted subject
• Blogging and the evidence of outside readers and their comments can be motivating to writers
• Promoting self and critical reflection
• Promoting collaboration and the development of virtual communities between learners
• Promoting analogical thinking

There is even an example of how one teacher structures blogging for their students: In your paragraph you need to make sure that you follow the Paragraph Structure that we have been working on as a class.

• 1. S— statement.
• 2. E— explain your statement.
• 3. E— example of your statement [ quote].
• 4. E— explain what your example shows.

Do you think this is a useful structure for blogging in this class? You may find these 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers helpful.

Transfer Blog Postings from your Google Site

Now that you have a WordPress site, you should copy and paste your posts from your Google Site to WordPress. You can also keep these in your Google Site.

For Wednesday:

1. Finish creating your WordPress site and copy and pasting your Google Site blog postings. If you haven’t completed this form, do so now so that I can make a class list of WordPress sites. When I have everyone’s site, I’ll post them on our blog so that we can access these easily.

2. Add a few widgets to your blog, such as a calender, recent posts, twitter updates, categories, etc. You don’t have to include all of these widgets, but practice showing a few of these or others on you blog.

3. Choose a classmate’s (or more than one) blog and leave a comment. You should reference our brainstormed list of what makes a substantive comment.

***To earn a late pass, create a category concerning a personal hobby and blog about it. Try to include photos to make your post more visually appealing. Hopefully you’ll choose to blog throughout the semester about your hobby. I love to knit and crochet and have often thought of starting a “tutorial” type blog that would help other people enjoy this hobby.