Week 2: Make comments

Admin for week 2:

When visiting many blogs last week, I noticed your pages in Edublogs often didn’t allow for comments to be written. You might need to do the following:

  1. Go to your about me page and open it in your dashboard.
  2. In top right corner, click on screen options and make sure Discussions and/or comments are ticked. Close screen options.
  3. Now below the writing area for your page you should see a dropdown labelled Discussions.
  4. Make sure you have ticked the boxes about leaving comments.

I also noticed some of the About Me pages and posts have too much personal information such as full names, dates of birth, when and where you go to activities after school. Remember not to include this type of information in your posts and pages.

If your About Me page isn’t visible as a link on your blog, you will need to add the widget called Pages to your sidebar.

 

About week 2: Commenting skills

This is another important week in the challenge. Blogging is all about having your voice heard and connecting with others who might like to read and comment on what you have written. But, as in many things we humans do, there are some protocols bloggers in schools like to follow.

Check out these videos about leaving quality comments. The first video was created for one of the very first blogging challenges back in 2009 by Mrs Yollis’ grade 3 students and it has been seen by thousands of students who have taken part in the blogging challenges since then. This video is suitable for all ages but specifically primary/elementary school or lower. But those in middle/high school or older might like to check out the second video which is more suited to an older age group.

Teachers: You might want to visit the post about teaching quality commenting on the Teacher Challenge blog. It has an excellent video about the possibilities of blogging through commenting. It also includes the videos below and others you might want to share with your class. You also find out about commenting and blogging guidelines, paper blogging and other ways to use your blogs to connect globally.

Using Edublogs? Check out these posts about comments: Comment overview,  managing comments,

Mrs Yollis and her third grade class

Nicolas Weiss – Leaving high quality blog comments

 

Activity 1: Create a ‘How to comment’ page on your blog

Many themes and blogging platforms have different ways to leave a comment. You might need to click on the title of the post, or click on a number in a circle or click on the words ‘Leave a comment’. Write a page for your blog explaining how to leave a comment. You could write it as a set of steps or perhaps create a video showing what to do. Be creative. Here is an example on  my family history blog. Mrs Yollis created a video showing how to comment on her blogspot blog. You might prefer to add the instructions in a text widget on your sidebar instead of a page.

Remember, though, if you change themes you might also need to change these instructions. Also if you want a comment left on the page make sure you have followed the instructions in the admin area for this week about ticking boxes for Edublogs blogs.

Activity 2: Make a set of commenting guidelines – you might be able to combine this with activity 1

Explain what you expect when someone leaves a comment on your blog.

  • What type of comment is acceptable?
  • Which type of comment will you put in the trash?

Here are some examples:

Huzzah commenting guidelines,  a Glogster poster about commenting, WarriorKat used a variety of tools for her guidelines, notice how Sophie included a link back to Mrs  Yollis’ blog where she got her information from, Hunter created a PowToon,  Alane has some commenting guidelines,  Sophia included extra info about commenting, Alicia has written in a great format for easy reading, Kate has used two web tools to create her commenting post, Pinky created a commenting recipe, Summer was very creative, Fiona explained her tips in detail.

Activity 3: Leave a comment on this post – you might be able to combine this with activity 4

Each week the best posts published in the Student Blogging Challenge are featured in our Flipboard magazine.

So your activity is to practice leaving a comment below with a link to your post for an activity you’ve completed this week or last week.

But first you need to know the difference between your BLOG link and your POST link

  • Blog link: https://studentchallenge.edublogs.org
  • Post link: https://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2018/01/19/looking-back/

If your teacher is moderating and approving your posts, you will need to wait until this has been done before leaving me a link in a comment.

Activity 4: Use some HTML in a comment

Did you check out Mrs Yollis’ blog? She includes a page with some HTML (code) you can use when commenting especially on blogspot blogs. If leaving a comment on an Edublogs blog, here is a post explaining the HTML to use.  If you want to leave a link to your blog that looks neat and tidy, check out this post.

Activity 5: Visit other student or class blogs

Visit 4 other blogs on the lists above the header area. Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog. Might be the About Me page or another post you found interesting.  Write a post on your blog mentioning who you visited, which post you left a comment on and why, then include the comment you left. Hint: make sure you copy the comment before you hit the submit button. Here are some examples from other students: Allegra , Izzy, Callie , Sally but try to include a link to the actual post you left a comment on

Will visitors to your blog find it easy to search for a post they might be interested in commenting on? Maybe you need to start using Categories and Tags or Labels (blogspot) or Categories (weebly) or Categories (Kidblog) or make sure you have an archive section.

Got more time to fill this week?

I have started adding posts to our Flipboard magazine for #stubc – check in the sidebar.

Check out other student and class blogs located in the participant tabs in the header area.

Check out the page above my header called Post Ideas. Lots of topics and special days to write about in your blog.

If you want a commenter to visit your blog, remember to fill in the form below for only one or two activities  you complete this week. Make sure it is a post link as I will be deleting any that are just blog links.

 

86 thoughts on “Week 2: Make comments”

  3. Hi Mrs.W,

    I really like your posts because they are always interesting to me.

    From, hmsnoika

    Reply

  5. Hello Miss. W,
    I finished my Week Two Student Blogging Challenge. Please check it out over here!

    Thank You!!!
    HMSChase

    Reply

  6. Hello Miss W.

    Hello it took me a whole month to finally complete this but I persevered and took down the thing I do not like to do which is commenting because it is SCARY . I hope that is red and not visible. Here is a link to a post that I did but it is not the commenting one because I dislike commenting and dont have any good tips.
    Thanks

    Reply

  10. Hi Miss W,
    I think I already submitted a form for this week’s challenge, but I updated my page, “Leaving a Comment.” Please check it out and let me know what you think. I am also going to make it a post in addition to a page since not everyone visits pages often.
    Thank you,
    Mrs. Vazquez

    Reply

  12. Hi Mrs. W,

    I really enjoyed your post! I will use your post for the next time I comment. Your writing is amazing and I hope that I can write like you one day.

    Thank you,

    hmskailey

    Reply

    1. Hi Arabella,
      The best way for others to see your blog, is for you to visit them and leave your blog URL as part of your comment. That way they might come and visit you. Check out the area called Your Posts on the sidebar of the challenge blog. THis will show all the people who have been taking part in the challenge and doing the activities.

      Reply

    1. G’day Sophia,
      I notice you are also leaving link in the google form each week but you are only putting your BLOG URL rather than the POST URL, so I am deleting it each time. Remember to only put in the post URL.

      Reply

  23. Hi Miss W,

    I wanted to show you my Week one Avatar Post. I also made a commenting page, but it is still awaiting approval, so here is my old page.

    Thanks,

    Hmschad

    Reply

    1. Hi Cassidy,
      Glad you are enjoying the challenge. I watched your screencast, great job. Another website that allows you to do that is called Loom and you can have a small picture of yourself in the corner if you want. Your homeschool blog is mentioned in this coming week’s post for others to visit.

      Reply

  27. Hi Mrs. W,
    I love blogging! It is fun and it helps get feelings and emotions about the things you love out. Anyway, I would like to show you my SBC Week One Here. I am sorry if I did this wrong because this is my first time doing this kind of thing.
    From,
    hmsTyler 6th

    Reply

  28. Good Day Mrs. W,

    I had just finished writing my ‘How To Comment’ Page. I had a lot of fun writing it and I am very happy you assigned this assignment. I hope you have time to check it out and I can not wait until the next challenge that a waits.
    (Sadly my page has not been published yet but I will update this and put the link down so you can check it out!)

    Sincerity,

    hmsbrady

    Reply

    1. G’day Karli,
      You were so close with the HTML for your blog URL. You needed to include http: and take out one of the ” after org/

      Reply

    1. G’day Sarah,
      You were so close with the HTML for your blog URL. You needed to include http: and take out one of the ” after 1/

      Reply

    1. G’day Martino,
      I wonder if you could add the image you are using as your user avatar into the actual post so your visitors can see the image. Or with some themes you can add a blog avatar using the same image and add it as a widget on the sidebar of your blog.

      Reply

  35. Hi Ms. W,

    How are you? Thank you for all the fun activities for the SBC. It really helped me become a better blogger. If you like, you can come check out my blog!

    Reply

    1. Hi Justin,
      So close with that link in HTML – you forgot the http: before the // and you added an extra ” after to/ These are the most common errors when adding links in comments.

      Reply

  39. Hello, Miss W!
    Thank you for the amazing SBC blogs this year! I have to say, I think I really improved on my blogging skills. I think, anyway. Come check out my blog to see if I did! My favorite thing in this years blogging was going to other blogs and see what they do. Keep up the blogging! 🙂

    Sincerely,
    Natalie
    http://hmsnatalie.edublogs.org/

    Reply

    1. Hi Aaron,
      Remember to only leave me a comment once your teacher has published your post – if the URL has words like admin or edit in it, then the teacher still hasn’t approved it.

      Reply

  41. Hey Mrs. W,
    My name is Tayne and from HMS, Witch stands for Hongwanji Mission School if you didn’t know. I love all your SBC post because it helped me be a better poster. This is a link to my blog, http://hmstayne.edublogs.org. If you want to check it ok, please click the hmstayne.edublogs.org. Again thank you for your SBC post.

    Sincerely,
    hmstayne

    Reply

  48. Aloha Mrs. W,

    Hi, I’m Taylor! I’m in the seventh grade at Hongwanji Mission School located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Thank you so much for giving all of us such fun activities for SBC. My favorite one so far was the avatar post. In fact, you should come check it out! Thank you so much! Have an amazing day! Happy blogging! 😊
    Mahalo,
    Taylor

    Reply

  50. Hi everyone!
    I’m Arabella and I am in Year 6! I love swimming, netball and literally all sports! If you want to visit my How To Comment post follow this link. I haven’t made it a page, I have made it a post and a widget. I think it would be more helpful for you to have it as a widget. For no reason what-so-ever I have also made it a post.
    Link: http://arabellaw618.edublogs.org/2018/03/14/how-to-comment/
    Thanks! Arabella

    Reply

  54. This was very informative thank you.I haven’t really thought about leaving any nice comments since normally I keep it all to myself and stay quiet.I think this will get me to really boost other people’s confidence and get me a bit “outgoing” if that makes sense.

    Reply

    1. G’day Val,
      One of the most important parts of blogging is letting your voice be heard whether this is you writing posts or you leaving comments or both of them.

      Reply

  60. Hi Miss W!
    I have completed this weeks assignment about commenting. Please check my “How to Comment” post!
    Visit my blog to see what I’ve learned so far!
    Thank you,
    Naho

    Reply

  63. Hi Miss W!
    I am hmsmarim, but my real name is Mari. I am excited to keep posting and I hope you like my blog! If you would like to check out my blog you can: viaMari’s Blog

    Sorry if I did it wrong 🙁 But I love having my own blog because I feel free to do anything with posting

    Reply

  68. Hi Sue!
    Alexandra – a Portuguese Friend from the Blogging Course – send me the url for the page where my Students’ numbers were: from 47 to 51. I visited and commented all the Students blogs.
    Now, for week 2, where must I look for the excell page? Or shall I go to the same students?
    I’m sorry for not being able to find the page with the students numbers for my self. I would prefer not to make you lose your precious time.
    Thank you,
    Ines

    Reply

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