I’m tasteach or Miss W when on the internet but in real life I am Sue Wyatt.

I am a retired teacher who loves blogging, travelling and genealogy. When I am online I am a fairly talkative person as you will notice with my posts and comments, while in real life I am quiet unless with friends.

Activity 1. Are you a different person online than in real life? How do you change or not? Write a post about being online then compare yourself to your off line real person.

avatarbigWhen online, you are usually represented by an avatar – these are used in gaming as well as on blogs. An avatar is supposed to represent the real you. Check out mine – I am a white haired lady with reading glasses. I usually have a cup of coffee in my hand and I always wear thongs on my feet – yes that’s where we wear them in Australia.

 

Activity 2. Create an avatar to use on your blog when leaving comments. Here is a post including some avatar sites . To add your avatar to your blog, if using Edublogs, check here. If using blogspot, check here.  Teacher might need to change some settings in Kidblog to allow students to add own avatars.

Did you find a great avatar site not mentioned here? Write a post about your avatar and how it represents you. Include a link to the website where you created the avatar.

Activity 3. On your blog you also need a page or post telling us about yourself. Again you could use a variety of tools to embed on your blog. Be creative:

If using Edublogs, below are instructions for creating your page. If using blogspot, check here. If using weebly, check here. If using Kidblog, you will need to write a post.

  1. Login to your blog, go to the dashboard>pages>add new
  2. Change the title to About Me or something similar.
  3. If you only have one row of icons above the box, click on the last icon called the kitchen sink or toggle. This opens a second row which allows you to change font colours.
  4. In the box, write a bit about yourself remembering to be internet safe. Make sure you have checked out the pages from other students mentioned – many of them have been blogging for a while.
  5. When you have finished click the big  button on the right side of your screen – probably says update or send for review.
  6. Once you have saved your about me page, go back and delete the sample page.
  7. If your theme doesn’t show pages in the header area, then you will need to go to dashboard> appearance> widgets and drag across the Pages one to your sidebar.

Finished the work for week 1?

Then head off to the class or student list above the blog header and start visiting other blogs. You might not want to comment this week but maybe check them out. Are there any students with interests the same as you? Do you have a mentor yet? Have they left you any comments?

Other admin for week 1

  1. Check that your name appears only once on the list of participating students. Leave a comment on that page if I need to remove your name from the list – give me your name, URL and age so I can find you easily.
  2. If all the students in your class have blogs and your teacher has a section called ‘My class’, you should have a widget called ‘Class blogs’. Make sure this is on your sidebar.
  3. Add the challenge badge to your sidebar – here is link explaining how to do that.
  4. Can visitors leave comments on your blog posts? If your country is in bright pink, then you might need to change your privacy settings or give me your correct URL. Check this post for how to do this using Edublogs, Blogger and Kidblog.

How do I know you have done your activity?

You come back here to this post and leave me a comment. Make sure you include the URL of your post so I can visit and leave comments. Tell me what you enjoyed most about the activity.

Also great posts get added to our Flipboard magazine on the sidebar of the challenge blog.

 

 

 

242 thoughts on “Week 1: Hello, who are you?

  1. Hey Miss W.,
    My name is Isabel here are my blog links…

    Avatar: blogs.csdvt.org/isabelb2/wp-admin/post.php?post=8&action=

    About Me:blogs.csdvt.org/isabelb2/sample-page/

    Commenting:blogs.csdvt.org/isabelb2/2016/03/22/commenting/

    Regular Blog: blogs.csdvt.org/isabelb2

    Enjoy, Isabel

  2. Ms. W,
    We have a late start but we are done with week 1…I am doing an after school tech club with some 8th graders and they have completed the tasks on my page. 🙂
    Mrs. Barrett

    1. Hi Mrs Barrett,
      I would love to visit and leave some comments but you didn’t include the URL of your blog for me to click on. I can’t see your class blog on the class list either so couldn’t get to it from there.

      1. Mrs. W,
        I am so sorry. I must have been too excited. Here is our blog:
        bonniebarrett.edublogs.org.
        How do I get my class on the list?

        1. G’day Mrs Barrett,
          To get your class on the list, head to the top of the header on the student blogging challenge blog and click on Register for October 2015. There will be a link in there where you can register your class blog. Once registered, I then sort it according to age and it will appear on the list next door – Classes October 2015. Hope you and your students enjoy the activities.

  3. Hi Miss W, my class have now completed their own avatars and most have finished their ‘About Me’ page. We are a bit behind the challenges but the students look forward to their daily blogging time and are not happy when school events get in the way.
    Here is a link to our class blog, all the students have their own page which is linked in the sidebar.
    http://a3tokoroacentral.edublogs.org/

  4. Hello Miss W,

    I really loved how my About me page ended up. I had a great time writing things about myself and about other people who surround me. Like for example my friends and family. So I really hope that you can take a look at my About me post and leave a comment. Thank you. http://esme6pm.edublogs.org/this-is-my-world/

    – Esme

  5. Hello Miss W,
    My name is Jessie. I just finished my Avatar post and I really enjoyed doing it, even though I made some mistakes. So I thought you might too, so if you have time there’s a link to my post down below.

    Avatar link: http://jessie7pm.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Trenton,
      The idea of the challenge is to improve your blogging skills and to make connections with other classes and students around the world. Everybody is a winner if that is what they have done by the end of the challenge activities.

  6. Hi,

    Our class is a little bit behind the challenge as we only got our internet fixed in our classroom so we are catching up. Here is a class post about the work we did on our individual learning blogs for week 1 of the challenge.

    http://boogiebloggers.edublogs.org/2015/10/21/student-blogging-challenge-posts-and-avatars-from-week-1/

    The class loved making their avatars and creating their about me posts. We can’t wait to get commenting on other people’s posts.

    1. G’day Mr Dawson,
      Loved the use of SLidely to show off the avatars. I had never heard of that tool before. Your post has been flipped to the challenge magazine. Writing a post each week as a class and giving links to students’ posts is a great idea.

  7. Hi Mrs W,
    1. I like being part of the student blogging challenge because people can give me feedback and pointers to show me how I can improve my blogging and commenting.
    2. People can reply our comments and keep on moving the conversation forward and that gets a real conversation going and that way you can interact with the person, maybe you can ask that person a question about the blog post and they will reply back.
    3. The other thing is because you can say what you know about the topic that you are talking about and someone can ask you something about that topic that you are talking and you can reply with the answer it’s ok if you don’t know but you can search it up.
    I’m sure that other people have different reasons why they like commenting.
    Here’s my class’s blog Mrs W:
    http://4m2015.edublogs.org/
    Hope you like reading my classmates comments and blog posts.

  8. I am responding to this blog to learn what blogging is always about. It’s good to see a retired teacher on here, we can always learn from someone who has been through the trim. This is a very interesting subject.

    1. Should I be posting each student’s blog separately? Kidblog is a bit more restrictive, but I think I found a way to get the url for each student’s post. The post needs to be moderated and made public by the teacher before the I can get the url for the student post which prevents me from giving each student their own blog url. Thank you.

  9. Hello Ms. W,
    Wow! Our class is enjoying learning how to set up our blogs. So far, we posted our first post about the difference between our online selves and our real-world selves, created an avatar, and posted how our avatars reflect who we are. Tomorrow, we will join other bloggers for “Blog Action Day.” Check out what we’ve done: mrshaboush.edublogs.org

    Thank you,
    Mrs. Haboush’s Class

  10. Hi! Thanks for organizing this. We will be publishing our first post soon, but I wanted to make sure that we have satisfied the “About Me” requirement by using a sidebar widget. Ours is for the entire seventh grade, and we are using it in technology class.

    http://2021techsavages.blogspot.com/

  11. Hi Mrs. Wyatt!
    I am commenting to let you know that I did everything! I actually did it a long while ago, I have just neglected to comment until now. Sorry about that!
    Anyways, my favourite thing that I did is definitely the avatar. I chose a really neat manga avatar-making program, and I think it would totally be worth your time to check out and try. (It even has Harry Potter things!)
    Thanks so much, I’m really excited to be a part of this challenge!
    ~Chantal <3

    Chantal’s blog
    Huzzah! Our class blog

  12. Dear Miss W,
    I definitely hope that you love my posts. I love doing the student blogging challenge and am enjoying it a lot. Thanks.Bye😃.
    Sincerely Gaby.

  13. Dear Miss W,
    I definitely hope that you love my posts. I enjoy the student blogging challenge so so much. Bye😃.
    Sincerely Gaby.

  14. why did you spend your hole time writing this when if you write it before you could just copy then paste it.

    1. JCG,
      I do copy and paste some of the activities but I can’t copy everything because some students have been doing these challenges for two or three times. I don’t want exactly the same activities each time.

  15. How are you doing Miss W? I think the blogging challenge you are doing is very nice. This gives kids from different areas a chance to meet other kids. I finished the blogging challenge for week one and actually enjoyed it. I will leave a link to my blog at the bottom, have a good day.http://20forbct.edublogs.org/

  16. Hello Ms. Wyatt,

    I have completed last week’s blogging challenge by change by uploading my avatar and writing an about me page. Here is a link: http://abbydz13.edublogs.org/about-me/ I have really enjoyed lots of things about blogging and am even more excited to do more and I am hoping I will have a very successful blog.
    Truly yours,
    Abby

  17. Hello, My name is Michael and I live in Kentucky and am a student a Stuart pepper Middle school. I hope everyone enjoys my blog and has a good time.

    Thank You,
    Michael

  18. Hello Mrs. W,
    I had a great time making this blog because this is my first time doing something like this. People don’t get to express themselves very often on the internet and I think this is a great opportunity to do that.
    http://20willas.edublogs.org/
    Here is my URL for my all about me blog
    Austin

  19. G’day Miss W,
    My name is Kaylee. I have completed week 1 of your challenge. The activities that I most enjoyed was creating my avatar and the blog post that tells all about me. I hope you have more challenges in the future that are as creative as this one. Here is the link to my blog. Hope you enjoy! > http://20mattke.edublogs.org/

  20. Hello Ms. W

    I really enjoyed having the opportunity to make my own avatar as I see fit. This is a chance I would have never really had without learning about all of the tools you mentioned. Here is the link to my blog, and I hope you and everyone else enjoys! http://20thomqt.edublogs.org/
    -Quentin

  21. IN AW OF THE OPPORTUNITY YOU HAVE GIVEN US!!!!! Hello Miss W. I’m abigail and I have finished my very first blog post! If you would like to have a look at it here is the website!
    https://20janead.edublogs.org/
    I know you are very busy looking at other people’s work, but I hope you will take the time to take a glimpse at mine.

  22. Hello Miss W.

    This week I learned how to make an avatar and upload it to my blog! I am so excited to get to be in this blogging challenge and get to see what kids around the world about my age are interested in!

    Thank you for this awesome opportunity!

    https://20jupija.edublogs.org/

  23. I’m Autumn and I finished the activites for blogging week challenge. My favorite part was introducing myself. If you could take some time out of your already busy day to check it out, that would be amazing. I’ll leave my blog URL at the end, I hope you enjoy it and come to blog repeatedly https://20canfar.edublogs.org/

  24. Hi Ms.W,
    My name is Hannah. I really enjoyed doing this challenge. It was easy to complete and it lets people know a little bit about who I am. This challenge not only lets people know about me, but I can learn something about someone else. I can’t wait to do another one of your challenges. Here is my link so you can find out a little bit about me. http://20benhhj.edublogs.org/

  25. Miss W, thank you for hosting this blogging challenge! I feel like it really gives me a chance to connect with students and teachers all around the world, which honestly makes me thrilled. My blog will mostly feature music, cooking, and pop-culture, so I’m sure there’s something that you’ll enjoy reading about. There may be short stories surrounding humorous or unexpected events that have happened to me, but I haven’t planned everything out yet. Just note that I will be posting often, so visit my blog if you get the chance. I know that there are hundreds upon thousands of kids asking the same thing of you, but if you can, it would make me very happy if I received some feedback from you. Thank you once again, Miss W. See you soon!

    http://20milbec.edublogs.org/

  26. Hello Mrs. W! I had fun making my avatar and trying to make it look like me. thanks for the challenge and you should come and check out my blog!

    1. G’day Walaa,
      It doesn’t matter if you are a bit late. I know some people have been on Fall break, others in Australia have been on holidays. As long as you are enjoying the activities.

  27. Hi Miss W!
    We just wanted to let you know that we have completed the “About Me” assignment for Week 1. Our blog, McDowell Media, is an online newsblog that we have started this year for students and parents of McDowell Middle School. Since there are 17 students in this class who are collaborating for this, we created a “Meet the Authors” page. There you will find each student’s “About Me” assignment.

    http://mcdowellmedia.edublogs.org/

    1. G’day Mrs Caudill,
      I loved reading about your authors and left a comment for each of them. You should also be able to add the widget called authors to your sidebar. That way parents can click on the student name and up will come all the posts written by that student.

      1. Miss W,
        Thank you for the suggestion of the widget. I thought there might be an easier way to add the authors!

  28. Miss W,

    Our class is participating together in our class blog, you can find our posts about our students on FLAGS 8

    Thank you!

    -Kim Lepre

  29. Hello Miss W.,

    I have finished all the activities for Week 1. Here is the link to my blog with the posts: http://hmsangela.edublogs.org/ This was a great activity and I actually can’t decide which activity was my favorite so far! I think that the best part of all of this is being able to interact with other people from all around the world and get to know each other.
    Happy blogging!

  30. Hi Miss W 🙂

    I’ve just finished the activities. You can read them over here: http://pensamientoskay.blogspot.mx/ . What did I enjoy the most? For starters, it’s always a pleasure for me to write in english. I’m very excited about this challenge and thrilled to be able of reading other students’ blogs.

  31. Hello Ms. Wyatt,
    I have finished this week’s challenge By uploading an Avatar and writing and about me page. Here is the link http://Taliaz13.edublogs.org. I Have enjoyed everything about blogging and I’m hoping to do more.
    Yours truly,
    Talia

    “http://Taliaz13.edublogs.org”Talia’s blog
    “http://huzzah.edublogs.org”Huzzah! Our class blog

  32. Hello, Ms. Wyatt,
    I have completed week’s challenge by uploading my avatar and writing an about me page. Here is the link http://elijahz13.edublogs.org/all-about-me/ . I have enjoyed Making comments About blogging and am hoping I will Start posting soon.
    Yours truly,
    Elijah

    Elijah’s blog
    Huzzah! Our class blog

  33. Hello Ms. W!
    I have done this weeks challenge with enjoyment! I have uploaded my avatar to my blog as well have done an about me page. I have even done my first post! If you would like, my blog is Autumn’s blog. I am hoping people will love my posts and share my interests. I hope you like what I post, and look forward to hearing from you!
    Thanks,
    -Autumn 🙂

  34. Hello, Ms. Wyatt,
    I have completed this weeks challenge by uploading my avatar and writing an About Me page. Here is the link. http://morganz13.edublogs.org. I have enjoyed every thing about blogging and am hoping to blog lots.
    Yours truly,
    Morgan

    1. Hi again Mackenzie,
      Glad you are doing the blogging challenge again. I wonder if you would like to try mentoring with a small group of students during this set of challenges or the ones beginning in March 2016?

      1. I’m not really sure what you mean, seeing as this is my first time doing the Edublogs Student Challenge.

        1. Sorry Mackenzie,
          Thought I had looked at some of your other posts and they looked like ones from a previous challenge.

  35. I finished this weeks challenge, I really enjoyed creating an avatar. Also the writing prompt made me really think about how nowadays we hide ourselves from reality. It could be good or bad but we all are different online than in person.
    http://isabelry.edublogs.org/

  36. Is it too late to have my students sign up for your challenge? This is exciting and for myself as a first-timer, it’s eye opening.

    1. G’day A Mad Teacher,
      Your students can certainly sign up for the challenge, but as there are nearly 2000 students already registered, they probably wont get a mentor.

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