Earlier in this set of challenges, we learnt all about you – your interests, your favourite foods, music and lots of other things when you wrote your ‘About’ page. This week we are going to learn all about the area or country in which you live.

When you write your posts or use web 2.0 tools, remember to be internet safe and not give away any personal information. Check with your teacher or parent, to find out if you can mention your school name or town.

But firstly, a few administration pointers.

  • I have started deleting students who have only a Hello world post, or have not written a post yet this year or have no avatar post or about me page.
  • Please check to make sure you have the following widgets visible on your blog’s sidebar: class blogs, pages (if not in header area), recent comments (10), recent posts (10), blogroll or links, categories. If not using Edublogs, the names of these widgets might be different.
  • Are you moderating your comments often? It can be annoying for your mentor to go to your blog and find no comments have been approved for the last month or so.
  • In your profile page, do you have your blog URL included? – this links to your name for when you leave a comment.

Categories: You will notice I mentioned having the category widget in your sidebar. This is a way to group your posts eg book reviews, history class, #16stubc for the student blogging challenge. Here is a link to a post about adding categories when using Edublogs or Blogspot where they are called labels.

Rockefeller Center, New York

Creative Commons License Sharon Mollerus via Compfight

Now let’s get to the activities.

Activity 1. Add a widget to find out where your commenters are coming from.

There are many different widgets you can use – clustrmaps, flag counter, feedjit or revolver map.  Have you seen any others while visiting blogs of other students? Maybe you could write a post about why you chose the commenter widget you have put on your blog.

Activity 2. Add one or more widgets about your area of the world

This might include a clock or weather or a translator widget in case students who don’t speak your language can translate your post.

When adding widgets to your sidebar, copy and paste the embed code into a text box on your sidebar. Save then close.
If the widget is too wide, you will have to adjust the number next to ‘width’ in the embed code.
This might appear more than once in the code.
If using blogger rather than Edublogs, you might need to check out the instructions for adding widgets and images etc from Bling For Your Blog, written by a teacher in New Zealand. Thanks Allanah.

If your blog is an Edublogs free blog, you might not be able to put all the widgets in your sidebar. If using Kidblog or Weebly you might not be able to add widgets so put them in a post instead or a widgets page on your blog.

Activity 3. Write a post about 3 tourist attractions in your country.

Miss W and Mr Davo Devil will be visiting outback New South Wales and outback Queensland for two weeks in April then at the end of June going to Denver, Colorado USA for 10 days. They enjoy looking at historical places and nature. Suggest 3 tourist attractions in your country they would enjoy visiting. Don’t copy and paste, write about them in your own words. Try to make it a personal piece of writing if you have actually been there.

Activity 4. A year in your town

Write a post, create a glogster, make an audioboo tape, create a Storybird or add a Voki telling Miss W about the festivals held in your town throughout the year. Which festivals do you enjoy the most and why? When are the festivals held in case she can visit one while she is travelling? If under 13, check with your teacher or parent if you want to use a web 2.0 tool rather than writing a post in your blog.

Activity 5. Visit other participants and ask questions

Visit at least five other blogs from students or classes around the world and ask some questions in your comments.

Classes from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Ireland, England, Spain, Philippines, Serbia, Nigeria, UAE and Italy taking part in the challenge.

Students born or living in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada,  China, Ireland, England, Spain,Serbia, Italy,Mexico. Pakistan, Dubai, Bahrain, Scotland, Holland, France, Denmark, Iran, Korea, South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, Portugal, Zimbabwe, Burma, Puerto Rico, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.

Activity 6. Questions in a post

Write a post asking questions about the different countries mentioned in activity 5. Have at least 6 questions in your post.

Activity 7. Where I would love to visit and why

Write a post or use a web 2.0 tool telling your readers about a place you would love to visit and why. Try to include some hyperlinks (links that are underlined in your post area and take your readers to another website)

Activity 8. Create a game or quiz about your town, state or country

A few places to do this include: Quiz Revolution, Class Tools, Scratch

Remember to check with your teacher or parent before using these web 2.0 tools. Sometimes your teacher or parent will create an account that is moderated by them and is therefore safe for students to use. Do you know any other places to create games and quizzes?

 

106 thoughts on “Week 4: My World

  1. Hi Miss W,
    I have just finished this blogging challenge. I’m going to be completely honest, so far I haven’t enjoyed blogging. Maybe if I keep trying, I’ll start to like it.
    -Daniela

  2. Hello Miss W!
    I am glad to hear you are coming to Colorado, I think you’ll enjoy it here! Anyway I have blogged about 3 places to go in Colorado, I do recommend checking them out! This was also a blogging topic because I was able to learn about more tourist attractions in my country/state!

    Thanks, Nicole ( http://sassyteemo.blogspot.com/ )

  3. I was really interested in Spain so I wrote six questions about Spainhttp://blogs.csdvt.org/tracer/2016/04/04/questions-about-spain/

  4. Hi Miss W,

    I have finished Week 4! (3 tourist attractions in my country)

    Can’t wait to finish week 5!

    Cody

  5. Hi Miss W,
    I cannot complete activity 8 because the quiz sites don’t work on the computer I have at home, I will try do it at school next week, is it all right if I complete it late? You can see all the other activities I completed at http://mariaroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/ thank you.
    Maria

    1. Hi Maria,
      You don’t have to do every activity. They are there to choose from. This week has 12 activities so I certainly wont expect you to do them all, just the ones you are interested in.

  6. Hi Miss W,
    I am loving this challenge, I really enjoy travelling over seas and around in my own country, I have all ready completed challenge 1,2,3,8 and will complete the others as soon as possible. To see my finished tasks please visit http://charlotteroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/
    Thanks
    Charlotte

  7. G’ day , Miss W.
    I wrote a post about the attraction in my land, when he could see, a lot of greetings! My blog: tamarasite01.weebly.com
    -Tamara

  8. Hi Ms. W!
    I just finished: Activity 3. Write a post about 3 tourist attractions in your country. It was so fun to do! Come visit me! katherine2016mds.edublogs.org
    Bye!
    Katherine

  9. Hi Ms. W,

    I just finished this week’s blogging challenge! I had a lot of fun commenting on other people’s blogs and writing about a place I wish I could visit. Here is the link to my blog: https://lila2016mds.edublogs.org So far blogging I have enjoyed doing free writing and seeing comments from other students who are part of the student blogging challenge that live all around the world on my blog.

    Thanks!
    -Lila

  10. Hi Ms. W,
    I just finished commenting on a bunch of other blogs, and writing another post of my own about where I would go if I wanted to. I’m enjoying the blogging challenge so far, and I hope to get many comments so I can see them on the new map widget that I put on.

    -Aristo

    (My blog is here:)
    https://aristo2016mds.edublogs.org

  11. Hi Miss W,

    For activity 4 I don’t know how to use most of the websites you listed.(storybird, Voki etc) Could you leave links to them and mabye instructions?

    Thanks Travis

  12. YAY!
    I have completed section 2. Now I can translate my blog into different languages!
    This challenge is so awesome!
    Here is the link to my blog
    sarahroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz
    From Sarah(:

  13. Dear Ms. W,
    I have really enjoyed week 4 of the blogging challenge. I struggled to find some of the widgets, but in the end did it. I really enjoyed writing about three attractions in the U.S. I got to do a little research and just write a bit about each one.
    Scott,

  14. Dear Ms. W,
    I have completed this week’s new blogging challenges. I have written a post about my dream vacation and have added a map widget. Now I can see where my visitors are from around the world. I enjoyed writing about my Dream Vacation to Indonesia, it was so fun to research some of the major landmarks and beautiful places I would visit. I have liked posting new writings every week and hope to get even more views and comments.
    Thank you,
    -Madison
    https://madison2016mds.edublogs.org/

  15. Hi Miss W.
    For the challenge this week I wrote about how I would love to travel to the International Space Station. I also organized and set up my widgets and plugins.
    Thank you for organizing the student blogging challenge it is a lot of fun.
    Please visit my blog http://kaisa2016mds.edublogs.org/ (It’s called Kaisa’s Guide to the Galaxy) .
    Smiles,
    Kaisa

  16. Hello Miss W,
    I absolutely loved this challenge, as I got to talk more about my country! I also have started doing blogging workshops, about design and layout, and have also wondered about starting one about embedding youtube clips, and google slideshows! Anyways, I created a slideshow about my country – New Zealand – and a post about my Travel Bucket List, which are the top 5 places I would love to visit. I have also added a weather gadget to my sidebar, and have had the flagcounter and Live Traffic Feed gadget since I started my blog.
    Heres the link to my Tourist Attractions post: http://rubeinaroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/kia-ora-everyone-it-is-now-week-4-of.html
    And heres the link to my Travel Bucket List post: http://rubeinaroom9bnms.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/travel-bucket-list-sbc-week-4.html
    Thanks!

    1. I also saw my post in the student blogging challenge magazine! I am extremely proud and am also proud of my classmates who made it in!

      1. Hi Miss W

        There is a blogger app that my teacher has but we think it might have been deleted from the AppStore.

        Travis

  17. Hi Miss W!
    I finished the challenges for this week, such as adding widgets about my area and commenting around the world. I hope to get lots of comments.
    Thanks,
    Nicholas

  18. We have just come back from spring break, therefore we missed week 3. We are going to focus on the week 4 activities this week!

    1. Thanks for getting back to me Anna. I will take note of that if any mentors of your students say they have not completed enough activities.

    1. Hi Maya,
      I saw your blog it was AMAZING!
      i think if you are such a good blog creater you would be an awesome person
      -Olivia

    1. G’day Meghana,
      I think you are doing a fabulous job with your blog trying out new tools and then teaching other members of your class. I am wondering if you would like to be a mentor in the next challenge in September/October?

      1. Hi Miss W,
        I would love to be a mentor!
        I am always trying to teach people tips and tricks and I like commenting, so I think this is an amazing idea
        Thank you for the opportunity,
        Meghana

        1. Meghana,
          Would you like to be a mentor for the rest of this challenge with a small group of students(about 10 only)?

      2. Morena Miss W,
        I would love to mentor for the rest of this challenge! It would be good getting to know some skills before I fo it in October.
        If I mentor this challenge, will I still be able to mentor in October?
        Thank you so much!

      3. Morena Miss W!
        I would love to be a mentor for the rest of the challenge!
        It would be good to learn what a mentor does and get used to it before October.
        Would I still be able to mentor the October challenges?
        And can I still continue the challenges?

        Thank you,
        Meghana

        1. Hi Meghana,
          Yes you can still do the challenges and yes you would still be able to be a mentor in October challenges.
          I have given you a group of 9 year old students all from the USA. Most are from Mrs Schmidt’s class in Pennsylvania. She also has some 8 year old students. If you visit her class blog here, you might end up commenting on some of the 8 year olds as well. https://kidblog.org/class/sis-grade-three/posts

  19. I might not get this done because I am on holidays and I do not have much internet.
    And don’t know how to do many of these thing.

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