Challenge 1 – Sept 2010

The first week of challenges 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.

1. 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 use Kidblogs I don’t think you have a choice of themes, so you won’t be able to do this activity.

2. 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 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 – classes

About pages – students

  • Abbey
  • Skye – changed since previous challenge – notice comments
  • Loretta
  • Amelia – new to blogging like three weeks only
  • Kylie – same as Amelia

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.

3. Added your blogger, commenter or helper badge to your sidebar.

As you are taking part in the challenge, a designer Tammie at Edublogs has created a badge you can put on your blog sidebar.   Click on this underlined link and it will take you to the post telling you what to do. If you can’t add it to your sidebar, you could put it in a post instead.  Make sure you have added your ‘Recent comments’ widget to your sidebar.

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 September 2010 challenge. Highlight ‘Challenge 1′  then use the Link icon  – chains joined – and type in the URL for this post. Check out how Abbey has created the trackback here.

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.

5. Leave a comment on this post telling me three interesting things about you then ….

Check out the page called “Sept. 2010 students’ and visit ten blogs there 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.

6. Classes only

Each week you will need to have visited the blog of the class on either side of your name on the ‘Sept. 2010 classes’ 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.  If browsing with Internet Explorer, remember to use the ‘Sept 2010 classes use IE’  link.

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?

7. Now students like Abbey who have already taken part in the challenges in March will already have done most of these things, so I want you to write a post on the following topic.

Think about something important you have learned outside of school – remember we should all be life long learners not just learners while at school. How did you learn it? Why is it important to you? Who or what taught you about it? How has this learning helped you in your life?

This idea is from a prompt at this website – Teaching that makes sense.

Original image: ‘Dive off!‘
Dive off!

544 comments on “Challenge 1 – Sept 2010”

  2. Student Challenge #1 | read.write.connect.

    […] the week of January 24-28 I’d like you to complete activities 1,2 and 4 listed in Challenge 1 during your down time in class if you haven’t already done so. I hope they are inspiring and […]

  3. ola12

    ‘SUp? I am known as Ubernees and here are three facts about myself:
    1. I LOVE anime/manga.
    2. I am a talented anime artist.
    3. I can write some kanji, katakana, and heregana (Japanese) and can also speak some Japanese!

  5. Musicdude14

    Hi my name is Christian and here are three facts about me. I love sports especially football. Video games are one of my favorite hobbies. And finally I love music. Well there you go.

  7. Carter

    Hello everyone! My name is Carter and here are 3 interesting things about me:

    1.)I am an absolute sports fanatic

    2.)I love Easy Mac ‘n’ Cheese

    3.)I play basketball and football

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Carter,
      I used to play netball back in my younger days. Which do you prefer: basketball or football and why?

  8. Nic

    3 interesting things about me is I
    1. I fence
    2. I can pop my shoulder out
    3. I’ve moved four times in 11 years

    1. Miss W.

      Wow! Nic,
      Do you find it hard to adjust every time you move? Have you had to move states or just locally?

  10. William

    Hello everyone, three interesting things about me is that I play basketball and football. Another interesting thing about me is that I like the color blue. One more interesting thing about me is that I like Math.

    1. Miss W.

      Great job, William. I love maths as well. Currently my class is designing a garden and having to work out how much area will be grassed into lawn and will then have to be mowed. Hopefully they will take pictures of their finished diagram and put it on their blogs.

  11. Hanna

    This was part of my assignment for my teacher:
    Wanna know some cool facts?

    1. I lived in Florida for the 1st 6 years of my life!

    2. My Uncle is a science professer at Texas University! Go Texas!

    3. My favorite Bath and Body Works scent is Forever Sunshine!

    Hope you learned something new about me!

  13. Olivia Hanfland

    I found all the blogs I visited very interesting but the three I enjoyed the most were:
    1. Selina B’s from Terabithia (http://literacy44.ca/selinab/) because she has many poems that were pretty and well written.
    2. Christie P’s from Singapore (http://christie-phang.blogspot.com/) because she had a lot of pictures and her blog was designed nice.
    3. Sam M’s from Australia (http://sammoore.edublogs.org/) because I like her post that has a question in it. It really makes you think about things.
    Check out those blogs they are really nice!

    And three interesting things about me is that I have a cat named Cloud, I play piano and I ski.
    -Olivia 🙂

  14. Carson

    Three interesting things about me are…

    1. I play volleyball.

    2. I have a twin sister.

    3. I love musical theatre!

  15. Carson

    Miss W.

    Commenting on ten people’s blogs was a lot of fun! I thought it was interesting how people from the same country as me liked things that I had never even heard of. Also, people from other countries had a lot of similarities to me! Another thing that was interesting to me was that some people had blogrolls, with I thought was pretty cool! Thanks for this great blogging challenge!

    -Carson

  16. ziong11

    Hi my name is zion.Me and my friends are good at playing football so I like playing fooyball.I love to play on the computer.I love to play outside with my friend.

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Zion,
      When you say football do your mean American football or Aussie Rules football or what I would call soccer with a round ball?

  17. charitya1

    My name is Charity and i’m going to tell you 3 things about me. I love to do karate it’s the only thing that i’m good at, I love to blog at school and home and I love to go on Facebook and talk to my friends on it.

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Charity,
      I love using the computer too, but I hope your parents know you are on facebook because you are supposed to be at least thirteen to be on it.

  18. felicityg10

    My name is Felicity and I like to do gymnastics,play basket ball,read books to my 3 year old sister Gianna.

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Felicity,
      Did you watch the gymnastics happening at the Commonwealth Games this month? What is your favourite book to read to your sister?

  19. sebastianc3

    My name is Sebastian I like video games I like to play soccer and kickball i come from peru and i love yo use computers!

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Sebastian,
      I also love to use the computer. I have just joined Runescape which some of the boys in my school thought I would enjoy. How is living in Peru different to where you are living now?

  21. finn6

    hi I’m finn from 5/6C.
    Three things about me are:
    1. I play the piano and sing
    2. I have a cat called Tasie
    3. I like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra
    See Ya, Finn.

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Finn,
      I have never heard of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. What is it? Can I find out about it on Google?

  22. Challenge 1 | The Rocking P Blog

    […] This post we have to talk about something that we learned outside of school. The thing that I learned outside of school was tractor pulling, some people might think that it’s easy but when you get on four cylinder you have to know how to drive the tractor. The reason that it is important to me is because it ’s one of my very close and good hobbies. The person that taught it to me was my mom and dad. Another thing is, I learned it by my dad already being in the club when I stared. The next thing is that it helped me in my life by knowing how to drive a tractor and a lawnmower. Well that’s about all in this post. Here is a link to challenge 1. […]

  29. jasmine6

    Hi Mrs W
    I am going to tell you a 3 things about me.

    1) I love going to the beach on a hot summers day with family and freinds because it is relaxing and you can cool down.

    2)I love sport but my two favourite are touch and netball because it is fun to run around with freinds.

    3) Last but not least going on holidays with family and friends. I have been to QLD, ACT, and other places in NSW like Wollongong and all different beaches camping.

    Now that I have told you three things about me I hope you have learnt something about me!
    From Jamsine.

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Jasmine,
      I also love going on holidays. I will be going on a two month long service leave next year in September/October (not sure how I will run the challenge then) and I will be visiting some bloggers in Portugal, doing family history in Ireland and visiting other bloggers and chat room friends in USA and Canada.

  30. Sophiew6

    Hi Miss W
    3 interesting things about me. Well I love animals but my favourite animals are horses and puppys! Another interesting thing about me is I love to travel. Seeing the world before I can’t anymore is one of my dreams/ambitions. The last interesting thing about me is I love sport. Netball, Swimming and Touch Football are my favourite sports to play.
    Sophie

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Sophie,
      Did you watch the netball final at the Commonwealth Games? Wasn’t it exciting! So close ….

      You have many years to go before you can’t travel and see the world.

  31. ghillieman

    hi:)

  32. millie

    Hi three things that are intresting about me are:
    I do three types of dancing: Ballet, Jazz and Tapp. I have a baby goat her name is Toffie I also have two chickens called Beauty ( my girl chook ) and Beast ( my boy chook )

    1. Miss W.

      G’day Millie,
      A lot of students where I teach also have chooks. I don’t know though, how many actually have them named. Maybe you can check out the post about world animal day and look at the comments at http://sormid67.edublogs.org

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