The next student and class blogging challenge starts on Sunday 2 October 2016.

Why do we need mentors in the blogging challenge?

When I first began the challenge back in 2008, there were only about 200 students taking part and I could visit each of them three times over the ten week period.

But in the last few challenges, there have been  over 1300 students and there was no way I could visit them regularly.  So in 2010 I started asking people in education to mentor a small group 20-30 students over the ten week period of October to December or March to May.

If you register to be a mentor, please keep checking back on this post as I will allocate the students to you and mention in your comment reply who you will be visiting.

Once students start registering next week, I will be allocating mentors immediately so please keep checking out the student participant’s page in the main header above to find out who you are mentoring.

Who can be a mentor?

  • classroom teacher or homeschool teacher
  • principal or senior staff or faculty members
  • trainee teachers
  • students who have taken part in at least two sets of previous challenges or been invited by the organizers
  • educational coaches or trainers
  • regular blogger about educational matters
  • authors of children’s books with their own website

What do you do if you are a mentor?

  • Visit your allocated student blogs at least three times throughout the challenge
  • Leave comments on posts written by the students
  • Continue conversations in the comments
  • Remind them about visiting the main blogging challenge page each week
  • Contact me by email or a comment if having concerns or problems (contact is on right sidebar)

So you have read the above and have decided you have the time to visit the student blogs, now it is time to register.

In a comment below, mention the following:

  • A short bio of yourself including some interests
  • Link to your own blog, especially a class blog or your personal blog – allows me to check validity as an educator
  • Age group you would like to mentor and how many students

65 thoughts on “Do you have time to be a mentor?

  1. Hello, Miss W.

    I am seriously behind in volunteering, but, if you are still in need of mentors, I am happy to help. I teach seventh grade language arts in Ohio, and I was a mentor in the October 2015 Student Blogging Challenge. I enjoyed learning about the students and am looking forward to having my students participate again this year! https://acolleygjhs15.edublogs.org/

    Thank you! Andrea

  2. HIya Miss W,

    I’d be happy to help mentor if you’re still looking for mentors. I’m a year 6 teacher in England and also a supervisor over the upper school. I’d be happy to help with any children in the ten/eleven year old range as that is what I’m used to. This is my first registering my students for the blogging challenging and they’re already so keen to see who has visited our page and bonus left us a comment. I think it’s great how you’re helping to connect out teachers and students across the world via blogging. Thanks!

    I can only commit to five to ten pupils to mentor as I have a very busy schedule as it is. But if that is okay, please sign me up. I’ve been blogging with students since 2008 and every year it’s gotten a bit better. I love seeing the enthusiasm from my students when adding a technology side to the classroom. And I don’t use it as homework but many of them are so engaged they frequently write it. It’s so great to see.

    My class blog is: http://beechclass17.edublogs.org/

    Let me know how I can help. Thanks, Jessie

    1. Hi Miss Farley,
      Thanks for offering to mentor. I have allocated some 11 year old students to you, many from Australia. You might want to connect with the teacher from that class. I can give you details if you wish.

      1. I’d love the details for the class teachers if you can give that to me. Also Elle’s blog (the last child linked to me) isn’t working. Could the link be incorrect? Thanks.

  3. Hi Sue,
    I’m about to sign up my 24 year 5 students in Sydney for the challenge so am happy to be a mentor again. Students about the same age is my preference but I don’t really mind.
    Regards
    Pru Thomas

    1. Hi Pru,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have allocated some 10 year old students to you. You can find them in the October 2016 students page above the challenge header.

    1. G’day Penny,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor this year. I have a couple in the 5 and 7 year old group that I would love you to look after. They are at the top of the spreadsheet on the October 2016 students page. There are also some in the 9 year old group without a mentor at the moment. Can you also look after them and if any more in those age groups join, I might add some more to you?

      If you have any questions or run into any problems, feel free to get back to me.

  4. Hi Anna,
    I am a leading teacher and have just started a new blog. (I retired my original blog on learning how to blog). I am interested in mentoring a small group of bloggers! I am a maths teacher, so connecting with others on a global scale would be great. My blog: http://becominganevenbetterteacher.blogspot.com.au

    I’d really love to see students connect with each other in a professional way.

    Jeny

    1. Hi Jeny,
      Great to have another Aussie on board as a mentor for the challenge. I have allocated some 14 year old students to you from a variety of countries. Hope this is OK? To find them, head to the page labelled October 2016 students, wait for the google spreadsheet to load, scroll down to the 14 year olds and find your name in a coloured line. The students in the same colour are those for you to mentor.

  5. I’m a former secondary school English teacher in the US & have just finished my doctorate in English Education. I’ve taught grades 9-12 as well as pre-service English teachers. I’d be happy to work with 10 15 year-old students. My blog is http://www.klabonte.net

    1. Hi Karen,
      Have given you 10 students aged 15 to look after for the challenge. Please get back to me via email if you strike any problems or have any queries.

  6. Hello,
    If you still need mentors, I am available to participate. I am a classroom teacher in the grade 3-4 area. I am always thrilled to see the way blogging ignites the students interest in writing and communicating. The word count and focus on the elements of writing improve with this global peer audience.
    I read a great deal and spend as much time outside as I can. Walking, gardening, swimming in the ocean, running and soaking up life with family and friends are my treasured things.
    We are late with setting up our blogs, but I have classes ready to participate in the Challenge if it is not too late.
    I am happy to mentor any student age ranges.
    Tina Mayling
    http://tinam.global2.vic.edu.au/

    1. Hi Tina,
      Thanks for offering to mentor a group of students. I have set you up with some 8 year olds as they will match your classes. They are mainly from two classes and one uses Kidblog.

  7. Hi Miss W,
    I am an Educational Technology Specialist at Center School District working with K-12 teachers/staff. I would love to mentor middle school or high school students in this challenge. I want to participate in this challenge to build better blogging skills with students and teachers. Also to have a better understanding of how to be an effective model to coach others on how to participate in digital volunteer activities.
    Here is my blog, I have not posted lately and hope this will push me to improve this as well:
    http://rholsman.edublogs.org/

    1. I just realized I did not sign off, so here goes!

      I am looking forward to mentoring with this challenge!
      Robyn

    2. G’day Robyn,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor for the challenge this time round. I have allocated some 13 year old students to you, they are in green on the October 2016 students participating list which you find at the top of the challenge blog.

  8. Hi, Miss W,
    I am a English as a second language teacher and now an instructional coach for teachers in Kindergarten to grade 12. I’d like to mentor age 13 (12-14) if that is possible.
    Thank you,
    Mauree.

    1. Hi Mike,
      You can only have one user avatar but you can change it as often as you like. You can have a different avatar for a blog avatar as you can drag that across to the sidebar of your blog.

  9. Hi Miss W
    My apologies for no avatar. I did attempt to produce one last year but my students did a much better job. I am still trying. I enjoyed last year but would like, this year, to have a slightly older group if that is possible? I am Spain based but of UK origin so that might be a useful mix.

    Mike F

  10. Hi,
    I would love to mentor blogs again! ( I was a mentor last spring.) My favorite would be to have elementary kids ( I taught grades three and four ) but any age would be fine. My blog is 1marg.edublogs.org
    Looking forward to this.

    Marg Grosfield

    1. G’day Marg,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again this year. I have allocated some 9 year olds to you. I know their teacher is very keen with blogging.

  11. Even though my Twitter handle is MissShuganah, I am a real person. I am Debbie Gleason, mom to two Special Ed kids. I write about a lot of things in my blog, including our two daughters, whom I refer to as Kid O and Kid Q. Kid O is really 20 now, and she is severely disabled. Kid Q is 15 and learning disabled. She just started high school.

    Back in the day I taught Freshman Comp at several community colleges. I am open to mentoring 5th grade and up. Although my blog, fumblingaboutinthedark.blogspot.com is open-ended in terms of subjects I write about, I have written about education. I did have a blog specifically about education that I closed down, but I have republished some of the posts about education.

    I am a writer, poet and, knocking on my wooden head, a cancer survivor. I also enjoy gardening. I also care deeply about social justice.

    1. Hi Debbie,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor. I have allocated some 11 year old students to you. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher. Many of the students are new to blogging so might only have the Hello world post until the challenge starts. To find your students, head up to the page marked October 2016 students, scroll down to the 11 year olds.

  12. As a guidance counselor and an active advocate for career exploration I was excited to learn about this program and to have my FBLA students become involved. I have been able to work with a variety of programs with youth through the years and would appreciate the opportunity to act as a mentor.

    1. G’day Wendy,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor. I have allocated some 13 year old students to you. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher. Many of the students are new to blogging so might only have the Hello world post until the challenge starts. I notice you also have a group of students from Brazil who all have the same URL. I will try to contact the teacher to have them put an author list on the side so you can click on the student author you are looking after.

        1. Hi Wendy,
          At the top of the challenge blog is a tab labelled October 2016 students. Click there and it will open to a page with a long list of student names, URLs etc. Scroll down to the age group I allocated to you and you should see your name in a coloured line. On the left of that line in the same colour will be the students for you to look after.

  13. Hello, my name is Sonia Abrantes and I teach students aged between 6 and 14 years old about 6 years.
    Last year I participated as a mentor to students between 10 and 11 years old and I think it was good.
    I have several online sites:
    Folks – http://educaovamosconversar.blogspot.pt/
    Professional – http://espacocrescer2012.wordpress.com/
    Professional – http://espacocrescer.edublogs.org/
    Professional – https://www.youtube.com/c/Espa%C3%A7oCrescerOvar
    Professional – http://www.facebook.com/espacocrescer2012

    I invite you to visit each of them.

    Best regards

    Sónia Abrantes

    1. G’day Sonia,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have allocated some 12 year old students to you. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher. Many of the students are new to blogging so might only have the Hello world post until the challenge starts. Feel free to pair up your students with those you are mentoring.

        1. Hi Sonia,
          Your students are in the 12 year old group in an orangy colour. To find them go to the top of the challenge blog and click on the tab labelled October 2016 Students. Wait a few seconds and a long Google list will appear. Scroll down the list to the 12 year old area and yours are the second group with a mentor.

    1. Hi Leila,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor. I have allocated some 13 year old students to you. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher. Many of the students are new to blogging so might only have the Hello world post until the challenge starts.

  14. HI again,
    I forgot to give my preference for student age and number. I would love to mentor Years 4-7 and could handle about 10-15 students, thanks 🙂
    Heather Davis

  15. HI,
    I am a Year 6 teacher at Wilderness School in South Australia and was a mentor last year. We have a class blog which we don’t use as well as Id like to, it is more of an information tool for parents. However our girls have their own blogs and we are finding more and more interesting ways to use them. At present they are just completing our own modified version of the student blog challenge so they will be well prepared for this challenge. I really enjoy finding new ways to integrate STEM and digital tech into our curriculum.
    Here is a link to our blog and you will find the girls’ blogs in the left column.
    http://year6wildy.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Heather,
      I tried to view your blog but I needed a password to get in. This will mean students wont be able to visit to leave a comment.

      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have allocated some 11 year old students to you from a variety of countries. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher.

  16. Sorry I mistaking my filled in a form for class blog but meant fill in for mentor. I am a teacher with over 35 yrs experience. I now am a virtual learning coach in Victoria Australia and continue to use blogs in my work with schools. I introduced my last school to blogging so that all classes had blogs.
    I love maker spaces, coding and robotics.
    My blog is at http://vlnevr.global2.vic.edu.au
    I mainly work with elementary aged students. I hope I can be of help

    1. Hi Jenny,
      Thanks very much for offering to be a mentor this year. I have allocated some 10 year old students to you. Please leave a comment within the first couple of weeks introducing yourself and what you will be doing as mentor. Any students who haven’t added to their blog by mid November will be deleted from the student list so you will then get only keen students to mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher.

  17. My name is Aaron Davis and I am a technology integration coach. I have an interest in learning and what opportunities the web enables. I am keen to support students with this transition to the public world. You can find more of my thoughts at: http://www.readwriterespond.com

    1. G’day Aaron,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor. I have allocated some 15 year old students to you as you have worked with that age group before. Many of them are totally new to blogging. If by the middle of November some have done nothing on their blog, feel free to get back to me so I can give you some that are keener. I suggest to new mentors that they visit each blog within the first couple of weeks, leaving a comment about themselves and what they will be doing as a mentor. If any blogs can’t have comments left on them, please get back to me and I will try to follow up with the teacher.

    1. Thanks May,
      Because I sort the spreadsheet by age, I need to put the mentors with the same age as the group they are looking after. Wouldn’t a lot of us wish we were 12 still.

  18. I would like to be a mentor for the kid blogs. I used Classblogmeister for many years with my 4th graders – incredible learning experiences and global connections. I’m currently in teacher education at Radford University, a National Geographic Geo-educator steering committee member, and I run two global projects (Monster Project and Kidlink Landmark). Thanks.
    Terry Smith – http://www.smithclass.org

    1. G’day Terry,
      Great to have you on board as a new mentor in the challenge. As you didn’t mention what age group you would like to look after, I have allocated some 14 year old students to you. If you go to the header area and check out the October 2016 students list, scroll down to the 14 year olds, your group will be in a yellowy colour.

  19. Hi, again, Miss W.!

    I’m a Youth Services Librarian in the U.S. I would like to be a mentor again, for about 20-30 students of any age.

    My interests are reading and travel.

    mwohlafka.wordpress.com

    May Wohlafka

    1. G’day May,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have given you a group of 12 year old students. Please get back to me if you can’t visit any blogs properly etc.

  20. Hello Miss W! Dr. Bill Genereux of Kansas State University would like to mentor again. I’m willing to mentor any age that needs help. I’m teaching university students in the area of digital media, and my blog is at http://billgx.com

    1. G’day Bill,
      Thanks again for offering to be a mentor. I have given you a group of 15 year olds. Please get back to me if any blogs cant be visited properly etc.

  21. Greetings.
    My name is Dinah Hunt and I’d enjoy the opportunity to be a mentor for the upcoming challenge.
    I’m a Media Specialist for an Instructional Resource Center at a community college. My focus is on Educational Technology. I mentor teacher education students in how to use tech tools such as the SMART board, educational software, web tools, etc.
    My blog site is http://dinahhunt.edublogs.org/
    (Sorry I haven’t been writing lately. Hope to get inspired soon.)
    Thanks again.

    1. G’day Dinah,
      Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have allocated a group of 13 year old students to you. Please get back to me with any blogs that are not able to be visited etc.

  22. Hi Miss W,
    I would love to be a mentor again, although I don’t even know if any of my students will come with me as a participant in the challenge. But it will be very interesting to them to see how it works, and how young people all around the world is communicating and sharing ideas, feelings, experiences and dreams.
    Since I became a Tutor and responsible for a Writing Workshop, I have about 52 students, from 5th to 9th grades who come to me in order to study for their tests or for the pleasure of writing.
    As I keep copying and publishing their posts, we don’t have access to the richness of dialogue through commenting and visiting other blogs. We feel like a lost island in the large web ocean.
    However, this year, my school is trying to enter the path of Innovation: if I participate as a mentor, it will be a joyful notice to my school.
    As I have to struggle to write in English, I would like to mentor just 15 students, if possible. If they belong to the 8th grade it could be easier for my own students to follow the challenge and get enthusiastic about it.
    Thank you very much for all your kindness, Sue!
    Ines

    1. G’day Ines,
      Great to hear from you again. I would love to have you as a mentor again. Maybe you could pair up a student from the challenge list with one of your students. What age are your students in 8th grade?

      1. G’day Ines,
        Thanks for offering to be a mentor again. I have allocated a group of 14 year old students to you. Feel free to pair up your students with one of them.

      2. G’day Miss W,
        I’m sorry I didn’t notice your question in time. But, yes, my 8th graders are between 13 and 14 years old.
        They haven’t come to my writing workshop yet, as it’s their first week of school and teachers take a long time setting the right times for them to come: my timetable is like a puzzle.
        I have one 8th grade girl and a 7th grade girl who are willing to have their own blogs.
        Thank you for your kindness.
        Ines

  23. Hi Miss W,
    I’ll start with the bio of myself.
    My name is Anna, I’m 11 years old, and I live in Canada. ( I’ll be 12 in January)
    My favourite sport is hockey and I play rep. I also love to bake. Cookies, cupcakes and muffins are my favourite to bake. I can make awesome snicker doodles, which are sugar and cinnamon coated cookies that are soft in the inside.
    I also have two pet guinea pigs and I love animals too. I enjoy to knit and I just finished a blanket for my guinea pigs!
    The link to my blog is: http://anna1111.edublogs.org/
    I would like to mentor a group of students that are not older than me ( I’m 11), and I don’t really care how big the group is, I just don’t want it to be a huge amount of people. Whatever you think is the best for a first time mentor.
    Thanks and I will make sure to do everything you said to do in this post!
    Looking forward to being a mentor!
    – Anna 🙂

    1. G’day Anna,
      Thanks for offering to be a student mentor. I have a group of 11 year old students who have already registered that I am going to allocate to you. Just check the participants list. Good luck with the mentoring and remember you can ask questions here whenever you want.

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