Cabra hispanica Montserrat

Pedro Luna Guillen via Compfight

The first few weeks of the challenge were mainly learning  about blogging skills you need when working on public sites on the internet. You should have learnt the following so far:

  • Avatars – what they are, how they are used, how to create one and upload to your blog
  • About me pages – difference between page and post, what is private information and what you can say on your blog, being a good digital citizen
  • Commenting – what makes a great comment, what you expect from a comment on your blog, guidelines for blogging and commenting in your class
  • Images, sounds, video – what is creative commons, how to find safe and usable images, what is an attribution and how to write it, websites with great images, creating your own images, using images for puzzles and games, an image paints a thousand words when writing a story or poem
  • URLS – difference between BLOG URL when leaving a comment on someone’s blog you are visiting and POST URL when filling in weekly form or commenting on the challenge blog

In a couple of weeks, we will be playing a commenting game. But you need to get prepared for this.

Make sure you have at least 5 other student/class blogs linked on the sidebar of your blog, in a page near your header area or in a recent post that your visitors can find easily. Make sure these are blogs from other students/classes around the world, not just those in your class or school. Perhaps have a blogroll or link category called Global students and/or Global classes. Here is how to add a blogroll if using Edublogs or Blogger. If using Kidblog write a post mentioning at least 5 great blogs you enjoy visiting. Your teacher may be able to add links on the class part of the Kidblog.

Have some visitor widgets on your blog sidebar – maybe a revolver map or a flag counter – this way you can see where your visitors are coming from. Remember only one visitor in 30 will actually leave a comment.

Make sure your blog looks interesting:

  • Maybe change your header to suit what you are writing about.
  • Do your pets make a noise as soon as your blog is opened in a tab? That can be annoying so make sure the visitor can click on the sound button if they want to hear your animal pet.
  • Have you changed the tagline under the title of your blog?
  • Have you included some tags or categories to help your readers find a great post?
  • Does your background image make it hard for your visitors to read your posts?
  • Have you written some interesting posts for your visitors to comment on?

This week’s activity is free choice

Have some interesting posts for your visitors to read when they get to your blog.  I am not going to give any clues as to what to put in your posts but remember the following, especially if you want a post flipped to our magazine. Also take note of the page titled ‘Post ideas’ above my header.

Having read many student posts, I came up with the following essentials in a great post.

  1. catchy title
  2. includes at least one visual (with attribution) whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet or glogster
  3. interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through
  4. well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
  5. shows it has been proofread and spellchecked
  6. written in paragraphs – at least three of them
  7. includes links to other websites on similar topics – at least two of these

Those posts covering the seven things mentioned above will be added to the flipboard magazine. Many students are forgetting to add links to other websites relating to the topic they have written about. Remember links show you have researched your topic well and found opinions of others to include in your post.

Help here from Edublogs and Blogger for adding links to posts.

 

Still more time left this week

  • Read some of the posts in the flipboard magazine – your teacher might want to create a class flipboard magazine to add to your class blog
  • Visit other classes this time in the lists above the header of the challenge blog or in the list included below
  • Reply to any comments left on your blog especially if from a commenter.
  • Check out the posts written by classes and students that are in our Google spreadsheets (Your posts on sidebar)

 

Remember YOU have to visit other blogs, leave comments and the URL of your blog before you will get any comments on your blog. This is how the conversations and connections get made – by visiting and commenting on other student and class blogs.

Check out these class blogs for students aged 7-9. Many students have their own blogs in the sidebar.

Creative thinkers, Penguinville, Mrs Avnor, Smith Kid Bloggers, Mrs Kundhi, Mrs Moore, CW East, Friends of 3rd Dimension, 3E News, La Decouverte – leave comments on the Welcome post for this blog

No form to fill in this week, instead leave a quality comment here on the challenge blog explaining your choice for your post. Also explain what you have done to improve your blog ready for your visitors in a couple of weeks.

23 thoughts on “Week 5: Free choice

  1. Hello Ms.W,
    I am loving the blogging challenge so far! I hope to continue and that you like my blog posts so far. Here is my link to this weeks blogging challenge!

  2. Ms W,

    I did my free choice blog for week 5 on my favourite TV show, Brooklyn Nine Nine. It’s a comedy show about a squad of police officers solving crimes in Brooklyn, New York. Some things I have done to improve my blog: I have put a search bar so people can easily find information on my blog and I also started putting videos about my posts so it enhances the reader’s understanding of my blog.

  3. Ms. W,
    My post for this week’s challenge is about World War II. I chose this topic because recently WWII has been very interesting to me. Some of the things I included in my post are: how it started, some statistics (like the number of times Jews were murdered and burned simply because of who they were) and how it ended.

    You can find my post here:
    http://maxb8b.edublogs.org/2018/04/09/world-war-ii-student-blogging-challenge-week-5/

    Have a great day!
    Max

  4. Dear Miss. W,
    My blog post for this challenge is about books that are coming out soon. I really enjoy reading, so I decided to talk about a few series and recommend them to everyone. They’re all mostly teen novels, and are all super good. The range for dates that the books come out is May 1, 2018 – some point in 2019. I would like if you checked it out!
    The post: http://24claireh.edublogs.org/2018/04/09/new-books-to-look-out-for/
    From,
    Claire

  5. Miss W.,

    For the free choice post I wrote about lacrosse because this sport is my passion. Lacrosse makes me feel better when I’m sad or even when I’m happy. I may not be the best at lacrosse but I am very good. I never knew how much fun lacrosse is until I first started. I love lacrosse and I will continue to play. http://24kylan.edublogs.org/2018/04/10/my-passion/

    From,
    Kyla

  6. Dear Ms. W,
    For this wonderful week of free choice, I chose to do a post with guidelines and tips for art and drawing. I wanted to do this because I think that if I had seen something like this when I first started drawing, it would’ve saved me a lot of time that I have spent trying to find out the best way to draw something. I would really appreciate if you could come read my post, here is the link: http://24maddiek.edublogs.org/2018/04/09/all-about-art-tips-tricks-what-not-to-do/
    Sincerely,
    Maddie

  7. Dear Mrs. W,
    I have finished my post this week, and I had lots of fun making this post! I wrote about dinosaurs, when they lived, and what happened during their life. This is an expository that I have shared with the rest of my class, and my class gives constructive criticism that helps me become a better writer. I really like being able to do a free for all!
    Please read my post! I had tons of fun writing it. Visit at http://benk1234.edublogs.org/2018/04/03/the-dinosaur-encyclopedia/
    Thank You!
    From,
    Ben

  8. Good evening Mrs. W.

    This week’s challenge has been brought to my attention and I have decided on
    taking this chance to link you to my blog where I do a lot of movie and book reviews. My personal favourite review as of now is the one on “the emoji movie” it was quite a huge topic around the time it came out and I figured I should cover it.

    Anyway, I have all of the requirements but unfortunately there was some difficulties in trying to get picture you see, It only has the link TO the picture and the picture does not actually show up on the blog. But either way, I’ve linked the post below and I encourage you to check out my blog and reviews (I need friends…)

    Noah

  9. Hi there Miss W!

    My blog post for this week’s challenge was on Jerry Lee Lewis . I’d been planning this post for a really long time but, never got around to finishing- this challenge was just the push I needed! As for why I chose Lewis as my topic, I play piano myself and last year, my dad and I watched the 1989 movie, Great Balls of Fire chronologing his life. I’m a bit of a history buff (and a music nerd) so it seemed really suiting to write about Lewis.

    I just find his life so interesting and love getting to rant about that. I also enjoyed getting to research more on Lewis and finding out things I didn’t know- perhaps my favourite bit though was looking for quotes. I especially loved one from Charlie Rich, “Jerry Lee is something else. There is no keeping up with him either on stage or off- he sure does like to party.” I just couldn’t find anywhere to use it!

    As for changes that I’ve made to my blog, recently I changed the background of it to a picture I drew (as the name of my blog is Anagram of Art, a joke that no one has caught on to surprisingly despite how much I post about the person it’s referencing) of my favourite character from Voltron- Lance McClain! I also recently figured out how to add audio from one of the students from my school and have been changing out what song I have on my side bar. Right now it’s set to a piano cover of my favourite Pink Floyd song, given the content I’ve been giving out!

    Have a wonderful day!
    M

  10. Ms W
    I have completed this week’s challenge. I wrote about the history of democracy as I believe it is a topic that is very important, something which we come across in our daily lives and encounter in our lessons. I have also written some interesting posts in preparation for visitors in a couple of weeks. I’ll soon be making a blogroll as well.
    I hope you will visit my blog and read the post.
    http://rajyashoril.edublogs.org/2018/04/03/development-of-democracy/

    Best regards,
    Rajyashori

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *