Phew! There has been a lot to learn and set up over the past three weeks.
You’ve been working hard and now it’s time to catch your breath.
This week you’ll have some space to catch up on the first three tasks or write a free choice post. I’ve got some more ideas for you below.
Week Three Recap
You can find all the great posts submitted by students and classes here (or click on the red week three box on the sidebar).
Here is some interesting work we spotted:
- Maggie from the USA wrote a fabulous post showcasing some copyright-friendly websites.
- Kate from the USA has an original photo in her post and tells us about her sea glass jar.
- Simon from Canada has some information about copyright and some tips about getting photos from your iPad into your blog post.
- Slippy from the USA has written an acrostic poem about spring. Love the use of colour in the text!
- Intars from Latvia invites you to guess the sentence.
- Lucky Ducky from the USA took a photo of a flower. Great use of questions at the end of the post!
- Billy Bob from the USA wrote a clever poem about remote learning to match a photo from Pixabay.
- Ella from the USA started a story and invites you to complete it in a comment.
Reminders
Here are a few important reminders:
- Please keep approving comments regularly. Some students don’t realise they have comments waiting to be approved in their dashboard.
- Posts that are proofread and written in short paragraphs are much easier to read! Need help with proofreading? Try a free tool like Grammarly. Note: Grammarly is 18+ but if you’re aged between 13-17, you can use it with permission.
- Are you catching up? Check out our schedule to see when the Google Forms close. The Week One and Week Two forms close today, April 12.
Quick Tutorial
Did you know you can edit the permalink or URL of your post before you publish it? This can make your URL neater and easier to share.
This quick video explains how to edit your permalink if you’re using Edublogs or CampusPress.
Remember never to edit your permalink after you publish a post or people will no longer be able to access the post with the original URL you shared.
More Tips
You will notice on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge blog we have some visitor tracking widgets to see which countries our visitors are from.
You can add these to your sidebar too. Find the instructions for Edublogs and CampusPress users here.
Because you need to use embed code, you’ll only be able to add these visitor tracking widgets with an Edublogs Pro or CampusPress blog. Embed code isn’t enabled on free blogs to prevent misuse by spammers.
Using a different blogging platform?
- You’ll find the instructions to add Clustrmaps here and there are instructions to add RevolverMaps here.
Not getting many visitors?
Try visiting other blogs and inviting them to visit your blog.
If you look on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge homepage, you will see the links to the tasks that participants completed for the first three weeks.
Choose some people to visit. Make your comment a high quality one — proofread it, ask a question, and show a genuine interest in the blogger. Then leave the URL of a post you’d like them to check out.
Which approach do you think would come across better?
Comment one
Comment two
Check back to see if the blogger replied to you too (if possible, tick the box to be notified of follow-up comments).
If you keep visiting a few of the same people over the coming weeks, you could really get to know each other!
Now it’s time for this week’s tasks…
Week Four Tasks
This week’s tasks are simple but I’ve offered a little elaboration below the summary graphic.
Task 1: Catch Up
You might not have had the chance to complete a task for weeks one to three. Or you might like to complete an additional task from the choices on offer. Go for it.
Here are the links (you’ll also find them on the sidebar of the challenge homepage).
Reminder about Google Forms:
- The Google Forms for Week One and Week Two are closing today April 12. If you’re catching up on an earlier task, you can add it to the Google Form at the bottom of this Week Four post.
Task 2: Free Choice
What’s something that interests you? Write about it!
Stuck for ideas?
- Do you feel like writing about your experience with the global pandemic? What is it like for you? Are you learning at home?
- Check out these 100 blogging prompts for students.
- Here are 50 more blogging prompts for students.
- Do you like poetry? This post on The Edublogger has 15 ideas for fun poetry activities.
- One of the teachers in our blogging community, Sheri Edwards, created a tutorial showing how to make a character out of Google Drawings. Why not make a character and blog about it?
- Sheri has another great post about Sharing Hobbies. It might give you even more ideas about sharing and connecting.
If you write a free choice post this week, submit it in the Google Form at the bottom of this post.
Task 3: Visit
You might have a bit of extra time this week so it could be a good opportunity to visit at least one other blog and leave a quality comment.
Remember to ask a question and check back to see if they replied to you (most platforms have a box to tick so you can get an email when there is a follow-up comment).
If you look on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge homepage, you will see the links to the tasks that participants completed for the first three weeks.
Week Four will be added on Tuesday.
Task 4: Make a Tutorial
Have you figured out how to do something interesting on your blog?
Maybe you added a cool widget, made your own header image, used an online tool, or activated a plugin?
Here’s an example from last year from Lauren. She made a tutorial showing how to make a changing header image.
You might be able to make a tutorial too — either with text/images, a slideshow, or a video.
Write a tutorial post and submit it in the Week Four Google Form below.
Submit Your Post URL ⬇
If you write a free choice post (or catch up on a post) and would like a commenter and others to visit, fill in the Google Form below.
Remember: You need to submit the URL of the specific post you publish.
This video shows you how to find your URL…
Note, this isn’t a real class blog. Just one I used for testing 😉
Remember:
- Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.
- This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress
The Google Form
Teachers, you’re welcome to put the Google Form URL on your own blog or LMS if it makes it easier to share with students.
https://forms.gle/nbSvSwcSua7bxWyE7
Next week’s topic: Earth Day 🌎
I enjoy writing about these topics. I can’t wait for next week!
Love your enthusiasm, Evan! Next week we are talking about an environmental topic as Earth Day is coming up on April 22. Maybe you could have a look at the Earth Day website!