Welcome to the new set of challenges for March 2011!
Here are a few tips about navigating the blog and getting the most out of the challenges.
- Every weekend, here in Australia, I will be posting a new set of activities for the week. Complete as many of the activities as you want.
- To find the post with the activities, look on the right sidebar under ‘Latest challenge posts’.
- If you want to be emailed as soon as I post a challenge, then fill in your email address in the right sidebar above the clustrmap then hit the subscribe button.
- If you have a Google Reader or Netvibes etc, then subscribe by RSS – top of right sidebar.
- If your teacher wants to join our mailing list to receive a newsletter every month or so, then have your teacher fill in the mailing list on the left sidebar.
- To find the students taking part in the challenge, look in the header and click on ‘Students – March 2011′
- If you are participating as a class and want to find other classes to link up with, check in the header for ‘Classes – March 2011′
- If you are a teacher/educator commenter and want to link your class with some classes of the students you are commenting with, please contact me and I will give you their teacher names to allow skype etc. Often though, students will have their class blog listed in their blogroll on their sidebar.
- If you want me to visit your blog post, you need to leave me a comment on my post or include a link from my post on your post. Here is a page to show you how to create a link in your post .
- Most of the instructions in the challenge are given for Edublog users, but there is a link for Blogspot users in the ‘Get Help’ section on the right sidebar.
OK, time for the activities now.
Students:
The first week of activities involves lots of things which I hope you have already done to your blog. Just go down the page like a checklist and tick off as you get the activities completed.
Activities in purple are for beginner bloggers, those in green, suggestions for more advanced bloggers. Anything in blue and underlined is a link to another blog or post. Remember to right mouse click, open in a new tab when clicking on a link.
1. Are you on the list?
Some students filled out the wrong registration form and joined as a class. Please check the page in the header labelled ‘Students – March 2011′. Find your age group – check very carefully if your name is on there. If it isn’t then click on this link to fill in the correct registration form.
If you find your name on the list, you will probably find the name of a teacher in the same colour as you. This teacher or educator is going to visit your blog over the next ten weeks and leave some comments on your posts. Try to create conversations with these people – most of them have their own blog as well. Find out about them by visiting the post linked here and check out the comment they left.
Some students don’t yet have a commenter allocated. This will happen in the next few weeks.
If you are on the list, you will probably have received a ‘Welcome to the challenge’ comment from Miss W or tasteach. I usually leave these comments on ‘About’ pages or a post you have written about yourself. If you have not received a comment from me yet, please leave a comment below on this post and include the URL of your blog so I can come and visit you.
2. Changed your theme.
All Edublogs blogs begin with the same theme. There are over 100 different themes to choose from. Some have one sidebar, some have two sidebars, some allow you to change the headers. But you need to decide which theme suits you best. Check out this post about themes To change your theme, go to your dashboard > appearance > themes.
You might like to write a post about why you chose that particular theme. How difficult was it to choose? What were you looking for in a theme?
If you have been blogging for a while, is it time for a blog makeover? Have a look at some of the newer themes that are now available and update the look of your blog. Write a post explaining the changes. Perhaps a ‘before’ and ‘after’ shot of your blog.
If you use Kidblogs you don’t have a choice of themes, but you could write a post about what you would like to have in a theme.
3. Written your ‘about’ page.
Remember pages stay in the one place and are located in your header or in the ‘Pages’ widget. What you will be writing normally are posts and they will gradually disappear off the bottom of the major column on your blog. If using blogspot, you have an ‘About’ area in your profile, those using Kidblogs will need to write a post about themselves instead. Check out the example ‘About’ pages below:
About pages – students I have found when leaving welcome comments
Be creative but internet savvy when writing your about page. Those students from Mr Puchinsky’s music class might like to re-write the lyrics of a song or nursery rhyme and tell about yourself in the new lyrics. If you are a singer, why not use Audacity or Vocaroo to record your song about yourself and embed it in your about page in your blog.
If you have already written an about page last year, you might need to update it for this year. Things will have changed. If you know of a great example of an ‘About’ page, please leave a comment on this post.
Make sure you have added the ‘Pages’ widget to your sidebar. Dashboard> appearance> widgets> drag ‘pages’ across.
4. Write a post about why students and classes should visit your blog.
Why is your blog going to be interesting? What will you be posting about? What could they learn from reading your blog? Make sure you hyperlink back to this challenge post somewhere in your post. That way, I will get a trackback or pingback and I will be able to visit your blog to read your post, otherwise I won’t know if you have written anything about this challenge.
eg. This post is for Challenge 1 in the March 2011 challenge. Highlight ‘Challenge 1′ then use the Link icon – chains joined – and copy and paste in the URL below
http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2011/03/05/challenge-1-march-2011/
This is one of the most important skills to know when blogging – how to make a link – if unsure check out this post for Edublogs or this post for blogspot.
If you have been blogging for a while, write a post highlighting some posts you have written that you would recommend new bloggers read. Remember to give an explanation why – what will they learn from reading that post? Make sure you link to the posts you are recommending so your readers can actually visit them.
5. Visit the student list then leave a comment here …
Check out the page called ‘Students – March 2011’ and visit ten blogs where students have similar interests to you and leave a comment on their blog. Then come back here and leave a comment mentioning a blog you found really interesting – remember to tell me the student’s first name, country and blog URL so I can then go and visit them as well.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classes
Each week you will need to have visited the blog of the class on either side of your name on the ‘Classes – March 2011’ page. This will make sure each class gets visited by at least two other classes. Remember to check out any student blogs that are on the class sidebars.
Then choose some other classes from the list that you would like to visit – students of similar age perhaps. Add links to these classes on your blogroll to make it easier for your students to visit them.
If you are a teacher commenter you might also like to add the classes or student blogs you are visiting to your blogroll.
1. On your class blog, write a post about why students and classes should visit your blog. What will they learn from reading your posts? Are there any skills your class has that they could pass on to other classes and students? Perhaps highlight and link to some great posts your class has already written that newer blogging classes would find useful or interesting.
2. Make sure your class about page is updated.
Check out these below. Each page is so different. What do you and your students think should be included in a class ‘About’ page?
- Mrs Partlow in Washington State, USA – notice they have updated as their avatars are no longer on that page
- Mr Mac in South Australia
- Mr Toft in Ontario, Canada
- C-O Connections in Texas, USA
Check out at least ten other class blogs from the list. Write a post in your blog about the similarities and differences you found while reading their ‘About’ pages. Remember to include links back to those class blogs.
3. Introduce the world to your classroom or school.
Create an animoto with images of your classroom or school taken by your students. This might be included as a post or on your about page. Make sure you join the free education version where both you and your students can create longer length animotos.
4. Visit your buddy classes (those on the side of your class on the ‘Classes – March 2011′ page.) Introduce yourself and get a conversation started.
Have pairs of students in your class visit a different class blog and check it out. What did they like about it? What caught their eye? Did they find an interesting post?
Now on your class blog, write a post about visiting other class blogs. Highlight those things your students found interesting and add links back to the blogs they visited.
Next week we look at avatars – fun, fun, fun
PDF 
I am a middle school teacher who retired in 2012 but still loves teaching. In my spare time I enjoy tracing my family history and helping others with their genealogy as well as chatting with my friends around the world. But most of all, I enjoy travelling and visiting new places.
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volunteered for commenting on childrens blogs – have not been notified which blogs I am to do yet – please let me know thanks
Hi Claire,
If you check out the page in the header of this blog ‘Students – March 2011′ and head down to the beginning 11 year olds, you will find your group. I did notify everyone as a reply comment on the post about teachers/educators wanted.
I hope you will visit my blog!!
I already posted this challenges are great!
I was checking out some of the other blogs in the challenge as it is said to do above and I came across a brilliant one by Bree from New Zealand; http://breemb4.edublogs.org/. There was so much in it and it was very enjoyable to read!
Aisling
This is my challenge 1 post
Ok… wheer are the others! Are they the same as the one’s from the last challenge? If not, hpw can I get ahead?
Utau,
The idea is not to get ahead but do one week’s activities then spend time visiting other student or class blogs and leave comments on their posts.
Oh, SOMEBODY VISIT MY BLOG!
http://utauhoshina.edublogs.org/
ok my blog is http://anj1.edublogs.org/ please come to my blog just please post the comment on the newest post my about me is hard to find…
This is random, but some of my widgets wont work. Is it becuase I have the free version?
Utau,
Some widgets don’t work in the free version like Voki but I think you can put it in a post just not in a sidebar.
I tried, but it keeps on just leaving the little link thing that comes with most of them. I’ve tried one’s off widget box and stuuf and it wont work
I hope you’ll visit my blog.
Hi Abby,
I already visited your blog and left a comment on your ‘About’ page.
The blogging is really fun but many challenges, good luck
I found someone name Kyle in and I found something interesting on his, his blog url is http://kylew2.edublogs.org/
We have completed our animoto.
Miss T’s Class Animoto
Hi,
I finished my new Theme post.
My new theme post.
Hi,
Just wanted to say that this is great I’m learning lots and looking forward to sharing it all with my students.
Thank you,
Kim
http://blogs.isb.ac.th/megans/ This blog was great! I bet you will enjoy reading it!
Hi everyone,
We have completed the about animoto for challenge 1. It can be found at http://alamb.edublogs.org/2011/03/10/about-us/
Cheers Mr. L and 6C
Mrs. W,
I visited http://jennifern2.edublogs.org/(Jennifer's Blog)and found her post called ‘High School’ really interesting because next year she is going to high school and so am I plus we are both nervous about going.
-Megan
Mrs. W,
By the way I made a page for my challenges instead of a post.
-Megan
HI! My favorite persons blog was MariaPaulaC from Columbia. She had a post on her blog that I think many people can realate to. She talked about Facebook. She informed us on who created it, some of its former names, and the background behind it. Very interesting to read!
Hey
I’ve finished my new theme post
Hi
I tried to leave a link earlier but it didn’t work so I’m trying again.
My New Theme
Siabhaon
I finished my What good posts I have post.
http://siabhaon.edublogs.org/2011/03/08/my-good-posts/
Siabhaon
One of the best blogs I’ve visited out of the 10 was connect the dots. I thought her posts were fun to read.
Miss W,
I was not sure how to send a pingback/trackback, so This is the link to my website:
http://sd21.edublogs.org/
~sd21
Hi Everyone,
I started my blog in the fall. For challenge 1 I did a highlights page. It is here: http://slaymay.blogspot.com/p/reading.html
Jakob
I created a “highlights of my blog” page since I’ve been blogging for about a year now. It is here:
http://mentalweight.blogspot.com/p/highlights_10.html
http://katherinecmde.blogspot.com I think you will like this blog…Love the style of writing!!!!
I had a lot of fun doing this. Here is the one I liked the most http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/personal_experience/article/302472/Building-Bridges-The-San-Quentin-Experience/
http://brownhorse2011.edublogs.org/2011/02/09/hello-world/comment-page-1/#comment-9 This blog was fabulous!
http://gingerkitten101.edublogs.org/2011/03/11/weekly-relfection/comment-page-1/#comment-108 Found another great one!
Hope you joy this blog!
http://205carter.edublogs.org/
http://15millet.edublogs.org/ this was interesting and factual at the same time which is why i liked it.
I found a pretty good blog out of the ten that I saw and this was the closest one http://techkidcameron.edublogs.org/
Hi. I just signed up for the challenge. I haven’t yet been added to the list. I look forward to doing all the challenges.
Bulldog09
Well, I guess my favorite was http://orangemonkey101.edublogs.org/
It had a lot of posts and that person’s interests were almost the same as mine!
Bulldog09
Mine is at http://miller162f.edublogs.org/about/
i found mlabcs7381md’s site interesting at http://mrswilsonscience.com/mlabcs7381md/.
Hi Mrs. W!
I think the Student Blogging Challenge is a geat idea! I only just started the challenge but I have had my blog for about a year now.
All the activities are great fun and I like it how you give a range of activities to choose from.
Rachster
This is a very interesting blog:
http://mayasmusings.weebly.com
Her name is Maya and she’s from Columbia.
This blog was fantastic:
http://missmelinda.edublogs.org
The writer is Melinda from the United States.
Hi, i would like is you go into my blog. tks
www. irinablog.weebly.com
Hello this is the blog that I thought was the best!
Its nicoles USA http://15spencn.edublogs.org
Sue and Ms. W., I don’t know how you do it! I’m trying to keep up! We updated our About Page and added a video.
Thanks, Everyone!
Denise
I really like this blog:
http://liamc2.edublogs.org/
It was fun to read!!
Visit my blog at http://lakersmenjivar17.edublogs.org/
Thanks
Hi!
I visited a girl named Grace’s blog from New Zealand. I thought it was very cute, and her writing was more advanced then most nine year olds I know. I think you should visit her blog:
http://blackfrog101.edublogs.org/
Thanks!
Hannah
I read like 10 blogs and the one I liked the most was http://pinkcat2010.edublogs.org/ because we have the same music interests! You should really visit it.
Visit my blog: http://paulinasblog.weebly.com/
Hi Miss W!
Sorry to be posting again but,
I really think that you should visit my blog’s About ME page. I have a very different way of doing it, and I think you’ll like it. PLEASE visit it!
Thanks,
Hannah
http://hannaho-21-hannah.blogspot.com/
Hi Miss W,
please check out Nicole K’s blog, I found it to be very interesting and well written
http://nicolescs15.edublogs.org/
I think an interseting blog that i visited is http://brittanyscs15.edublogs.org/ P.S. somebody should visit my blog! at http://www.infusionsms.blogspot.com
http://mrswilsonscience.com/smabls4040jr/ is a pretty interesting blog I could relate to it because they like football. it looks pretty cool too design wise.
I found this blog very interesting, BenjaminR http://lmsblogs.org/benjamin USA 12 Soccer, and Basketball. I found it interestng how they used colors and different themes of writing.
I found a very interesting blog by Benjamin R. He is from the united states of america. His URL is http://lmsblogs.org/benjamin/. I liked his blog because his blog was very well written and if you are interested in history like I am it was very interesting.
Hello! This is Sean from Thailand. I found a student’s blog and the owner’s name was I think Ganga. I think he’s from the US. This is his blog URL: http://205ganga.edublogs.org/ One of his posts is really interesting.
This is blog is kinda interesting to me
First name Kris, country USA and here’s the URL: http://krisodom.blogspot.com/
It’s interesting because it has some cool stuffs on the blog
I came across this interesting blog. http://studentbloggers.us/blogs/jl15cougar/
I liked it because it has stuff about animals.
My about page is updated with more info on our refugees and student profile.
http://2ycroydon.edublogs.org/about/
Thank you for your visit, comments most welcome
Jane
Here’s a cool blog I like: Greyson’s History Page: http://greysonh4.edublogs.org/
Hi Mrs. W- I found Marina. I liked her blog because she has a lot of science things! They are mostly school related. Heres the link! http://mrswilsonscience.com/smablc1113ma/
Hello,
Here is a blog I found interesting Her name was Maria Camila. She is from Colombia. Her URL is http://camilasbblog.weebly.com/ I founf that the colorful header was cool.
Teddy , USA , http://teddy12.edublogs.org/
The one I thought was interesting was Noah. http://lakernolewine17.edublogs.org
I viewed a blog with the URL http://kathleenkbhs11.edublogs.org/ and found it very well set up. Kat does a very good job expressing her views!
-Marshall the Insane Squirrel
Well I just did the 1st student challenge today and the blog site that I liked best was http://onlymayganneonrayons.blogspot.com/ because it was colorful and nice(: and the page catches my eye and I like things that catch my eye.
I think you should visit this persons blog because when she writes stuff its in a certain way like she is talking to you.
http://lakerebarnes17.edublogs.org/
http://zoewya11.edublogs.org/ her name is Zoe and i think she is cool because she has interesting post.
A blog I recommend visiting is a girl named Kristen who looks like she has a new blog, and she only has a few posts. But I wish her luck with further blogging. Here is the link to her blog:
http://studentbloggers.us/blogs/krt08cougar/
The name of her blog is called ‘Kristen’s Blog’.
Hi, I finished challenge 1 and a blog that I enjoyed following and I thought was a good blog. Check it out at http://aidenp2.edublogs.org/ the name is Eat Desert First.
I visited Gabe B.’s blog. His URL is http://gabeb10.edublogs.org/. I liked it because I’m like him, a video gaming freak. He actually said it in one of his posts.
i think you should visit this blog: http://paulyn3dancer.edublogs.org/ because hers was very nice, we both liked the same things, and she post’s lots of stuff
i love to hear that one blog talks about saving energy for a hour to help japan!! i hope you visit http://omgitsshayna.blogspot.com/ blog!
hi Miss W, i am a student from Colombia, and i will really like you to visit my blog and give me advises of how can i improve my blog.
Thank you!
Done! Gah~! My PC crashed for a while, and then when I finally managed to get it working, it had two viruses on it. ^_^;
Welp… I’m finally able to comment on this now! Voila~!
http://frk6.edublogs.org/
Hi Ms.W. I really enjoyed reading Noah’s blog, at lakernolewine17.edublogs.org. His blog was well written, with detail, and creativity. He is from the U.S.A. I loved all his posts and I can’t wait for him to write more.
I think most of the kids on the about page list, they all are better then me. I’m just a normal guy at blogs. I’m not really good at them.
challenge 1 hi miss w please get into my blog maiteblog.weebly.com this is the url
http://omoiemotion.edublogs.org/2011/04/03/student-challenge-1%e2%99%a6-why-people-should-visit-my-blog/
-x-
i realy like noahs blog
I visited a lot of blogs, but my favorite one so far that I visit everyday, but don’t always comment on is Carolina O’s blog.
Her URL is…
http://carolinaosblog.weebly.com/
She has a lot of interesting material on her blog and if you really want to visit a fun and exciting blog, go to Carolina’s blog.
Blonde moment… I hadn’t realized I had had this in my drafts until recently… I do apologize… ^_^;
Neah Walker
http://frk6.edublogs.org/2011/04/16/student-blogging-challenge-challenge-1/
im a boy i have 12 years old
hi im a girl im 12 almost going to be 13 and i like pruple and dogs