Kids+Blogs

toc A suggestion from Shaun to promote cross collaboration amongst us is to promote our children's blogs and wikis and encourage comments from the students and teachers. Please add your name and class blogs. I will embed them on this page and let's start encouraging our students to read each others work!

Comments on class and student blogs give students a real audience and an opportunity to discuss their ideas with the wider world. It also adds an element of excitement and an incitement to blog.

Ideas to organise and promote comments
- ensure your class is blogging regularly (weekly). Readers who find the same old blog post will stop visiting and commenting! - always comment on your own students blog post first, even a short line of encouragement. - get your team teachers, leaders and principal to comment too. - ask your PLN (us) to comment, use our #elearnclassnz hashtag on Twitter. - ask for comments on Twitter using the #comments4kids hashtag. - establish a relationship with a another classroom teacher and swap comments for a term. - print great post and publish them in your school newsletter (with your url).
 * Teachers**

- find one or two student / class blogs that you enjoy or relate to. Build up a learning friendship with other students, they will return to give you comments in return.
 * Students**

- offer a 'chocolate fish' for each family member who comments. - run a treasure hunt / family competition on you blog. - have a classroom notices box. - have an easy teacher contact details for parents.
 * Parents / Community**

**Ideas** for Classroom Blogs: is a shared Google Document of blogging ideas.

Blogging Platforms
Pros: greater individual control including widgets Cons: teacher cannot manage posts or comments etc - some widgets inappropriate Settings: users please allow students (and more teachers/parents) to comment on your blog by changing this setting in your Blogger / Settings / Comments tab. Look for the second choice "Who can comment" and tick "Anyone". If you do not, anyone who wants to leave a comment must sign into Google with an email. Remember you are still moderating the comments for safety, however it allows people to add a first name + class blog url.
 * Blogger **@http://www.blogger.com

Pros: total and simple dashboard control over all blogs, posts, comments Cons: no sidebar that can hold widgets - limited control over look media type="custom" key="11081358" media type="custom" key="11081352"
 * KidBlog **@http://kidblog.org

Authentic Audience
Parents, whānua and peers are the best audience but to develop an authentic audience and grow the number of comments for your students, you need to develop relationships with other classes and schools. Here are some we have found successful: See our class wiki and blog links to see how Room 13 at Bailey Road School have managed this.
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-09-14_at_7.12.58_AM.png width="119" height="70" align="left" link="@http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org"]]EduBlog Challenge**: held twice a year over about 10 weeks - set of weekly challenges to build student skill and knowledge - networking with schools around the world and promoting comments, discussion between them - teacher mentors to groups of participants - great engagement


 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-09-12_at_8.44.56_PM.png width="242" height="26" align="left" link="@http://quadblogging.net"]]Quad Blogging**: classes sign up and are assigned buddy classes in groups of four. They take turns visiting and commenting on each others blogs which gives them a huge boost in comments and provides opportunities to build longer lasting relationships with other classes around the world. See how Kids with a View have used this successfully.

**Assessing Blogs**
This is a blog rubric developed by [|Kim Cofino], it is free to copy and change, please share any improvement you make with us. media type="custom" key="9739144" Here is a junior version of the above rubric media type="custom" key="9743636"

PLN Class and Student Blogs
Class Wiki [|Student Blogs] || rss url="http://brs-year8.blogspot.com" link="true" description="true" number="1" date="true" enclosure="true" Student Blogs || Class wiki || Class Blog rss url="http://room12rbs.blogspot.com" link="true" description="true" number="1" date="true" enclosure="true" || Class wiki (not quite finished yet) [|kidblog]
 * Your name || Class Level || link to class blog/wiki ||
 * Dave Beehre || Year 8 || [|Class Blog]
 * Shaun Wood || Year 8 || Year 8 Blog
 * Kimberley Rivett || Year 3&4 || [|Class blog]
 * Jo Fothergill || Year 5 || Class Wiki
 * Lynne Laburn || Year 1 || [|Class Blog]

rss url="http://pointviewschoolroom3.blogspot.com/" link="true" description="true" number="1" date="true" enclosure="true" || Class Wiki || Class Wiki ||
 * Viv Goldsmith || Year 5/6 || [|Class Blog]
 * Cheryl McLeod || Year 4 || [|Class Blog]