Challenge 4 – Using images in posts

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Miss W. — 10 Comments ↓

Even though this is a week of freedom, I feel we need a post about using images.

Can you use any image on the internet?

No you can’t.

You can use images that are creative commons where the owner has given you permission to use the image as long as you include attribution. Here is a chart about the different licenses for images. There are many websites and search tools on the web for finding images that are creative commons. Some of these give you the attribution in an easy format as well. The one I have found easiest to use is compfight.

If using images from Wikimedia, here is a post about their licensing and what is acceptable by them. Here is their post about using wikimedia commons outside of wikimedia.

If you are administrator on an Edublogs or campus Edublogs platform blog, check out the plugins in your dashboard. Do you have one there called Compfight? If yes then activate it and look at the settings. These are the settings I use.

Once you have activated and checked your settings, the icon next to the word Compfight will now appear in your post dashboard next to the other insert/upload icons. To add a creative commons image to your blog post is now only one click away. You also have attribution included.

How to add the image and attribution.

1. Write your complete post.
2. At the end of your post on a new line, click on the compfight icon.
3. Put in your search term and find a small image that you want to use.
4. Click on the S under the image.
5. Now the image you chose and the attribution is at the bottom of your post.

Moving and aligning your image

You will notice most images I use are in the top right corner of my post with writing to the left of that image. How do I do that?

1. Click on the image and drag it so the cursor is at the beginning of the first line on my post.
2. Click on the image and click on the first icon you see. This will take you to an area where you can align the image to the right.
3. Click on the advanced settings tab of this page and put 10 in both the vertical and horizontal boxes. This will now give me a space around the image so my writing doesn’t run right into the image.
4. Now update.

For those who don’t have the compfight plugin

You can still find images easily at the Compfight website.

1. Put in your search term.
2. Once the images are shown, on the left sidebar make sure these words are in black – tags only, creative commons, show originals, safe and pop up on
3. Choose an image below the dotted line – these are free and creative commons now
4. Save the small version of the image to your computer – change the filename to something relating to the image instead of the numbers
5. Copy the code in the box
6. Back to your blog post which you have already written - at the bottom on a new line paste in the code using Ctrl V – change the tab from visual to HTML before pasting the code – then change back to visual to add your image.
7. Click at the beginning of the line where you want your image to appear.
8. Use the insert image icon at the top of your post, to find and download the image you have now saved on your computer drive.
9. Once the image has been crunched and downloaded, you can align the image to the right.
10. Click on the advanced settings tab of this page and put 10 in both the vertical and horizontal boxes. This will now give you a space around the image so your writing doesn’t run right into the image. Now update.

If using a blogging platform other than Edublogs, check out the help sites linked below.

Blogger or blogspot or kidblog

Other websites or tools for images, clip art etc

You will need to work out how to get the attribution to put on your posts.

Morguefile – a great post explaining how to use including attribution

Open ClipArt

Flickrcc – Here is a post I have written about using flickrcc

Pics4learning – A post I have written about using this website.

Activities relating to images

If you have used images in previous posts, go back and give attribution for the images. If they are not creative commons, GNU or fair play, then you will need to take the images out of your posts.
Write a post about your passions and find an appropriate image to include. Remember attribution needed.
Find a great image and write a post about it.

Activity relating to the number 10

Put together an animoto, slideshow, poster or collage on a theme using 10 images you have found eg Animals at the zoo. Remember to add attribution as an image at the end of the animoto or slideshow. Include attribution with each image on your collage or poster.

Do you have any other great sites for finding images, clipart, music, sounds etc?

Please leave a comment on this post so other readers can share your knowledge.

Photo Credit: Nick Wheeler via Compfight

Tagged with: attribution, clip art, compfight, creative commons, images, plugin
Posted in March 2013

Have you visited these blogs?

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Miss W. — No Comments ↓

I would like to say a big thank you to those people who have taken on the role of mentor throughout this challenge. I have noticed lots of comments from them when reading posts for this visit post. We have quite a few student mentors this year – they are students who have taken part in at least three blogging challenges – so they have been blogging for nearly two years or more. We also have some adults who have offered to be mentors on more than one occasion. In their bio on the mentors page they have left a link to a personal blog, so I could check them out before allocating them some students.

If your mentor or another student or class leave you a comment, make sure you reply to their comment – this is where the conversations will happen.

If you find a great post when visiting student or class blogs, leave me the URL in a comment on this post and I will add them for the next visit post.

Recommendations from mentors

7-9 year olds on Kidblog – week 2, I am poem by Emily,

Posts from Weeks 1&2 challenges

Arwa on being positive, Cogan , Mrs McKelvey and her frogs, Gabriella, John and music, Em on cyber bullying including a movie, Em finds sand dollars and tidepools, Dylan on rugby, Arwa on 10 people, Breeyana on anime, Zeth on music and knitting, Paige, Jackie on Sacramento, Leslie experiences a roller coaster, Daisy on music and football, Stephanie on minecraft and zombies, Daniela on music, Paloma on parents and their sports, Martina on two bands, Jacob on dirt biking, Uriel on minecraft, Jonathan on minecraft, Euriel on elephants and ivory trade, Natalie on Las Vegas and Yuma, Cassie on things to do before she dies, Miranda on cheerleading, Saray would like to live at …, Berenice and London, Matthew, Tracey and reading, Niko, Julia’s favourite things, Pyper, Esmer’s favourite artists, Gisela’s book summary of Amigo Brothers, Edith on travelling, Samantha plans her future, Yesenia and her sister, Brisa and dance, Jack, Antonia sings and dances, Vanessa and Lupita are Directioners, Gio and dinosaurs, Molly, Grace at the beach, Emily loves dogs, Mia loves surfing, Natalie

Some great uses for a holey sock

Carson, Riley, Jayen, Will, Mackenzie uses a voki, Willis, Lisa uses Pixton, JakeG, Tosh includes socks in the story, Merry Beau’s class have fantastic ideas,

Reduce, reuse, recycle

JakeG mentions a 4th R, Lisa includes a collage and animoto,

Some students are leaving links to their posts in Twitter. They are using the hashtag #13stubc which is for the 2013 student blogging challenge. This makes it easy for me to visit their posts from the link in their tweet. I have linked to their main blog rather than each separate post, so they wont receive a pingback in their comments.

Sydney M, Corbin, Hannah excellent sock ideas, Kalee, Branden, Benji uses thinglink to annotate an image, Sydney S, Mrs Neidlinger uses thinglink to add other tools to an image, Emily has some great sock ideas, Mikayla
Photo Credit: Avard Woolaver via Compfight

Tagged with: mentors, socks, twitter, visit
Posted in Visit these

Challenge 3 – Get creative

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Miss W. — 5 Comments ↓

Which of last week’s activities did you complete?

Post about a passion
Post about 10 dream jobs
Added tags and categories to all your previous posts
Added links to your blogroll
Checked out Earth Hour website and joined
Post about a special event
Research a famous person listed
Leave comments on other blogs using the special codes from Mrs Yollis’ blog

While reading tweets on Twitter or reading other teachers’ blog posts, I get the feeling that creativity is being left out of many school curriculums. So this week, we are going to get creative.

Challenge with number 10

I have just finished washing my clothes and found one sock that is now full of holes. I can’t use it as a sock, but list 10 other ways I could use the sock.

Think creatively. You might want to use one of these tools. Remember to leave a link in your post back to this post.

Automatoon will not work with Internet Explorer but great way to create an animated movie.
Another great site is goanimate – teachers there is an education version of this as well
Kerpoof is great for all ages
Voki allows you to type or speak what you want the character to say
Audioboo – create whatever you want to say on your blog then embed it. Check out Em’s blog for examples.
Create a book that flips the pages at flipsnack. Check out the other links at the bottom as well.
Make beliefs comics are great for your creativity
Little Bird Tales for creative writing
Magnetic poetry – create a poem using their words, take a screen shot or submit to their gallery and put link in your post
Use Fotobabble or Blabberize to create a movie or book trailer
Create your own art work at artpad
Sketching with odopod
Use Toondoo to make a comic or embed a book you create there

Challenge to improve your blog

When adding widgets to your sidebars, like a pet, often they might overlap a little into your post column. How do you change this? Maybe just moving the widget to the right hand side sidebar will solve the problem. Otherwise ….

Knowing a little about HTML code will help.

Before copying the code from the website make sure the width is no bigger than 180-200 pixels. Check out this post I wrote about adding a cyber pet to your sidebar.
Some of you may have noticed that your challenge badge is not circular – that is because the code was not quite right. Thanks to Ronnie Burt, it has now been corrected. If your badge is more oval shaped, go to your dashboard>appearance>widgets and open the widget for your badge. Look for the code and find where it says width and height. Each of those numbers should be 200. Make your changes, then save, and finally close. Does your badge look better now?
Leaving a comment with the URL of your blog in it can be done more neatly by using some code – check out Mrs Yollis’ blog post to find the code to add your URL in a comment. It is included in the section for advanced bloggers about how to add a hyperlink to a comment.

Other challenge posts to do

What is your school doing for Earth Hour this year? Maybe you could do something at school this Friday then take part as a family on the Saturday evening. Check out the ideas here.

Use some of the tools mentioned in the challenge for number 10 to do one of the following. Remember to leave a link in your post back to this post.

write a creative story including energy efficiency somewhere in the plot
write about reducing, reusing and recycling – fits in with Earth Hour
look at energy use in your school – what is wasted? How could this change?
look at energy use in your home – how could it be improved?
do you have a solar model challenge in your state? Check out the results for Tasmania where I live. Here is the world solar challenge. Students designing fuel efficient cars
apparently some schools in New York compete to reduce consumption over winter
design an energy efficient house – explain where the efficiencies can be found – maybe make a model and take photos to put in your blog
research energy efficiency – here is one from Africa, Mexico, wildlife vs energy,
if you or your school took part in an Earth Hour activity, write a post about it

Leaving comments:

We have students and classes from the following countries taking part in the challenge.

Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Russia, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, Serbia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ireland, Honduras

Visit a student from at least 6 countries (not your own) and ask a question about energy or creativity. Remember to read previous comments so you don’t ask the same question. If they have a box at the end of the comments about being notified of replies, tick this box so you will receive an email when someone answers your question.

If you have comments left on your blog, make sure you reply to the commenter. This is how conversations happen. Also make sure you check your spam folder as comments with links often get put in here.

When leaving a comment, use that special HTML code to include the URL of your blog.

Photo Credit: World Bank Photo Collection via Compfight cc

Tagged with: comments, creativity, energy, solar
Posted in March 2013

Get your Student blogging challenge badge

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Sue Waters — 3 Comments ↓

We know students, classes and our helpers love having a badge or widget on their blog showing they are taking part in the student blogging challenge.

So here they are!

Just pick the badge that suits you and then follow the instructions below for adding to your blog.

You won’t need to crop or resize the badges as they are 200 pixels in width.

HTML code for Class and Student Blogs

HTML code for Mentor Blogs

Adding your badge(s) to your blog is as easy as:

1. Copy the HTML code for the required badge(s).

2. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard.

3. Drag and drop a Text Widget into your sidebar.

4. Now just paste your HTML code into the text widget, then click Save and Close.

Or if you are using an Edublogs Pro blog you can add using the Image Widget by following these instructions.

Posted in March 2013

Challenge 2 – First week of freedom

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Miss W. — 14 Comments ↓

Which of last week’s activities did you complete?

10 people you would like to meet
write or update about me page or profile
create an avatar
add widgets for tracking visitors
add widget to translate your blog posts
cyber bullying post
commenting guidelines
why visit my blog post
posts of mine you should read
visited other blogs and left comments

I noticed students and classes have started visiting each other and leaving some great comments. Many students have checked their spam folder to approve my welcome message. Students are leaving blog URL’s when leaving comments on kidblog posts.

WOW! Overall a great start to the 10th student blogging challenge.

This week you have freedom to choose what you write about. You might be very passionate about something and want to write a post on that topic. It might be:

minecraft
embroidery
a particular singer or band – dare I say One Direction
music
astronomy
collecting coins
book reviews
geology
travelling
history
genealogy – that would be my topic of passion
etc, etc, etc

Your choice! Make sure you introduce your topic, include a link to another website relating to that topic and if possible, a picture you have taken relating to your passion.

Now not everyone is passionate about something so I will include a few other choices you might like to post about.

Challenge about the number 10

If you had the freedom to choose 10 jobs you would have over your lifetime, what would they be and why?

Would you like to try out for one of these best jobs in the world?
There are statistics now showing the average number of jobs for a person over a lifetime is greater than 10. The older students might also want to check out this infographic.

Challenge to improve your blog

As many of you are now starting to visit other blogs, how are you making it easy for your visitors to find great posts to read? You need to start using tags and categories with your posts.

What is the difference between a category and a tag? Check out this post written by Sue Waters from Edublogs.
If you want to know how to add tags to your posts, then also check out this post again by Sue.
Look at Teegan’s blog to find her categories (left sidebar) and tags (right sidebar) She has also written a post with a tutorial on adding tags.
Daniel also has some great tags and categories especially if you are a minecraft fan.
If using another blogging platform, check out the Get Help links on the right sidebar.

Adding great blogs to your blogroll

To make it easy for visitors to find the blogs of your classmates and friends you need to add their link on your blogroll.
If using Edublogs, in your dashboard> appearance> widgets> drag across links or blogroll to your sidebar.
If you want to group your links, then use link categories. These might be ‘My classmates’, ‘Class blogs’, ‘Overseas friends’. You might also include links about your hobbies so you might need a category for ‘Cricket’ or ‘Tasmanian Devils’ or ‘Online Games’.
To create these link categories, go to dashboard> links> Link Categories> put in the name of a category and save.
Back to your dashboard> links> add new link. Fill in the name of the person, then under web address put in the URL of their blog. Remember to include the http:// part. Choose which category you want the link to be under then click add link.
Here is a post by Sue Waters to help with your blogroll or links – step by step instructions – check out parts 1 and 2
Here is a post by Allanah King who uses blogger or blogspot. Make sure you add a link from her blog to your blogroll if using blogger.

Other ideas for posts this week

Last Sunday was Clean Up Australia Day. Do you have something similar in your country? What is it called? When is it on? Have you ever taken part? Write a post or create a Public Service Announcement about the event.

In less than two weeks, we will be taking part in Earth Hour. Have you signed up for it yet? What are some of the things you might do with your family for that one hour without lights? Click on this link for the Earth Hour page which immediately opens a video with audio.

Did you do anything special for these events that occurred earlier this year?

Chinese New Year
Mardi Gras
St Valentines day
Australia Day
World Read Aloud Day

Research one of these people who have celebrated a birthday earlier this year.

Amelia Earhart or Harold Gatty
Dr Seuss or Morris Gleitzman
Martin Luther King or Albert Jacka
Ben Franklin or Fiona Wood (Australia)
Christa McAuliffe or Crown Princess Mary (Mary Elizabeth Donaldson)
Mel Gibson or Neil Brian Davis

Leaving comments

Do you want to learn how to write a great comment and how to use some special code in your comments? Then check out this post written by Mrs Yollis’ class nearly three years ago – she includes how to leave a link in your comment. This comes in handy if you want to include the URL of your blog in a comment.

Make sure you are visiting other students and classes, especially those with similar interests to you. Maybe add them to your blogroll. Leave comments and ask questions on their posts. Try to use some of that special code from Mrs Yollis’ blog post.

Photo Credit: JustDerek via Compfight cc

Tagged with: Blogroll, categories, freedom, tags
Posted in March 2013

Great posts to read

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Miss W. — 2 Comments ↓

I have been very impressed with the number of students who have included a pingback for me to visit their blog post. Every couple of weeks I will choose those which were very well written, showed variety in the answers or were very creative and well thought out. Make sure you visit these blogs and perhaps leave some comments on the posts.

If you read a great blog post, feel free to leave a comment on that week’s challenge post. Remember to include a link to the post I should go and read. Or you could email me with the student name and the post URL.

Remember each student who is linked in this post will receive their own pingback on their blog. A pingback usually starts with [...] and then finishes with [...] Make sure you approve these pingbacks as it means someone thinks you have written a good post and they have mentioned it in one of their posts.

Alive or dead

Students: Sarah, Cullen, Noah, Eiliana, Jess, Rosemarie, Franklin, Eeshaan, Kyle, Madeline, Jerry, Hannah who loves gymnastics. Steph, Andres, Miranda, Brisa, Dharyl, Areli, Caroline, Hannah or ladybuggy, Euriel, Melissa, Letty, Stephanie, Alma, Lupita, Gio, Cindy, Angela, Daisy, Jack, Jake, Gabriel, Jessi-Rose, Jess the bookworm, Cogan, Lisa, Ezio,

I was thrilled to see so many students wanting to ask grandparents, great grandparents and other family members questions about something in their life. That is one of my hobbies – genealogy or family history.

Classes: Merrybeau, Miss Carlson (read the comments for student answers), Splashers in NZ, Blogmania,

About Me

Students: Annalee, Brayan, Ana, David, Brian, Lillian, Ruth, Gisela, Breeyana, Vanessa, Martina, Johnny, Makenzie, Laura, all students from Mrs Kriese’s class,

Classes: Teddy from Mrs Donofrio’s class, Penguins in NZ, Rebecca‘s class, class mascot Buzz, 56STEPS, The Lions, 56Torquay, students in Serbia,

Commenting guidelines: Eeshaan, Mrs McKelvey’s class video about comment tips,

Conversations have started happening between students and classes: Nathaniel, Berenice, Yesenia,

Why visit my blog: David, Jake, Wise Owls,

Anti-bullying: Climb High,

Photo Credit: Official BlackBerry Images via Compfight cc

Tagged with: aboutme, guidelines, pingback, questions
Posted in Information, Visit these

Challenge 1 – Who am I?

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Miss W. — 20 Comments ↓

Challenge about the number 10

If you could meet 10 people, alive or dead, who would they be? Make a list of the people and include one question you would ask them in an interview. You cannot repeat the same question.

Challenge to improve your blog

You are going to have a lot of new visitors coming to your blog throughout this challenge. We have students from many different countries participating, some for the first time. They are going to want to know a bit about you. As this is information that doesn’t change very often, it is included in an About Me page you create. Remember if your pages don’t appear at the top in your header, then you will need to open your dashboard and under appearance>widgets, drag the pages widget across to your sidebar.

In Edublogs, you have a Sample page that you can edit, change the title to About Me and introduce yourself to your readers.
In Blogger you also have a profile page you can change that will then appear in the sidebar of your blog.
In Kidblog, you will need to write a post rather than a page.
In Weebly, you can create a page.

Remember to be internet safe and not include personal information. Examples to check out

Students: Jacob, Morgan, Em (our youngest participant), Jake (a student mentor also check out this post he has written), Samantha, Isaiah, Ethan, Josie, Teegan (one of our student mentors), Angie (made a prezi), Raiyaan, Simon (an older student from Ireland), Elizabeth wrote a poem, Emily

Classes: Room 7 NZ, Mrs Kelly – long but beautiful, Mrs K includes an animoto, Mrs Lucchesi used a prezi, Mrs Hazzledine wrote a poem as a class, Mrs Bliss, Mrs Caudill, Mr Mac, Mr Toft,

If using Edublogs or a campus version of Edublogs, make sure you have filled in your blog profile page correctly. You should have only your first name(2), a nickname and display name(3) and a link to your own blog(5) in the URL area. This will make it easier for others to visit your blog if they are using the same blogging platform as you are. When leaving comments on other blogging platforms you might need to include your first name, a link to your blog and an email address as well as the anti-spam word. If leaving comments on kidblog, include your URL in the actual comment area as it does not normally ask for this otherwise.

Other challenges for week 1

1. Create an avatar that represents you – check out this post for websites to try. Most blogging platforms allow you to upload your avatar, so use the Get Help section on the sidebar for your type of blog.

2. So you know where your visitors are coming from have some sort of map or flag counter. Check out this post for ideas of where to get them.

3. Not all students have English as their first language, so you will need a translator widget of some sort on your blog. Find them here.

4. Part of good digital citizenship is not being a cyber bully. Have you ever been cyber-bullied? What did you do about it? Make a list of hints for students who are being cyber-bullied. Maybe make a poster about what to do and what not to do. Perhaps you could use glogster or as a class use wallwisher. Check out the list of web 2.0 tools you could use on the sidebar.

5. Are you going to have any guidelines or rules for leaving comments on your blog? Check out these from other students – now create your own and add to a new page on your blog. Teegan (bit hard to read though) Abbey (older student)

6. 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 2013 challenge. Highlight ‘Challenge 1′ then use the Link icon – chains joined – and copy and paste in the URL below

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2013/03/03/challenge-1-who-am-i/ ‎

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.

7. 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.

Extras for classes

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. Ms T used an animoto

Visit your buddy classes (those on either side of your class on the ‘Classes – March 2013′ 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.

Let’s visit

Leave a comment on the blog of up to 10 students who have the same mentor as you. Make sure it is a quality comment – if the student has blogging or commenting guidelines, read them first. If your mentor has left a comment on your blog, perhaps visit their blog to ask some questions politely. Hopefully the mentor will have their name or avatar image linked to their blog URL.

Teachers might like to visit this post with great ideas on About pages and guidelines for blogging. Here is a list of great widgets to have on your sidebar of your blog.

Admin messages

Always remember to check your spam comments as sometimes a real comment gets stuck in there.

If using the Edublogs free version, many widgets with embed code wont be able to be added to your blog. But if your teacher is using a pro version, they can check out this post to add your blog to their blog then you will be able to include embed code on your blogs. If using a campus version of Edublogs, there is no need to do this as blogs can already use embed code .

Photo Credit: mckaysavage via Compfight cc

Posted in March 2013

So the 10th challenge begins

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Miss W. — 2 Comments ↓

It seems only a short time ago that I began the first student challenge and we are now up to the 10th one – a milestone. The first challenge started with a group of four classes and by the end of that challenge included about 10 classes and 250 students.

The activities in this challenge will include three types:

challenge using the number 10
challenge to improve your blog
ideas for posts and other activities often related to a subject area

Hopefully all students will have a mentor who will visit at least three times to leave comments on blogs. So make sure you have some interesting posts that allow conversation between you and your mentor.

Every second week will be a free choice rather than related to a subject area – this allows time to catch up on missed challenges often due to holidays or testing. It also allows students to be creative and inspire other students to find out about passions.

You will notice on the student list, many of the Kidblog blogs have had the URL shortened. This made it easier on the spreadsheet.

To get the most out of the challenge you will need to do the following things:

If you have already registered and haven’t received a comment from me, then check your spam folder. Sometimes comments that have a link included (like URL to a student blog) can be sent directly to spam folder, so check this regularly. If you didn’t have a post or page visible I didn’t leave a comment.
If you are a student, make sure you have a link to your class blog on the sidebar somewhere. Make sure it is very obvious – Blog for my class or something similar. This helps mentors and teachers contact each other, especially if it is something to do with a post you have written or the layout of your blog.
If using Blogger or blogspot, make sure you have Name/URL as an option for visitors to leave comments. Remember not everyone has a Google account.
When leaving a comment on a Kidblog blog, you will need to include the URL for your blog in the comment, otherwise the author of the post won’t know where your blog is.
Check that you are only registered once on the student list – leave me a comment or send me an email if changes need to be made. Names are sorted according to age, so check all names in your age group.
If the name of your country is highlighted in the student list, it means there is something wrong with your blog – I don’t know correct URL, or I need to login to leave a comment. Again contact me via email or leave a comment with the corrections.
If you want an email sent to you whenever a new post is published, fill out the subscription box in the top right corner of the challenge blog.
If you have registered with a class blog, make sure you start visiting other classes with similar age groups to you, but especially those who are on either side of your name on the list.
If using twitter to advertise a great post, include this #13stubc – represents 2013 student blogging challenge.

Posted in Information, March 2013

Would you like to be a mentor?

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Miss W. — 105 Comments ↓

The next student and class blogging challenge starts in March 2013. This is a special challenge being the 10th one organized.

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 September to November 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. I will also send you an email reminding you about checking this post early in the challenge.

As soon as students start registering in mid February, I will allocate mentors 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
educational coaches or trainers
regular blogger about educational matters

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

Tagged with: mentors
Posted in March 2013