I've set myself up with a Classblogmeister account. I am going to try a blog for the first time this year. I teach the students computers and math in the sixth grade. I want them to get used to the idea of blogging in school. I have a feeling a great portion of them do not blog at home yet. My idea is to have them write about different ways they have to solve problems for a thing I call the chapter closure problem. It is a writing exercise in the form of a Problem of the Week.

My question is this: Do you think they would benefit from a blogging buddy? I am thinking of making groups of four. They would then have to make a comment to each of their three buddies on this particular project.

I am thinking that if they do so, they might get inspired to check out what their other classmates are thinking as well.

Ann

Tags: blogging, blogs

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Sounds like a good idea. Be sure to include your parents and other classroom teachers as bloggers. We've had a class blog since Nov. I've written a lot about it, let me know if you want the links to those writings. You can see our blog at A Really Different Place
Thank you for the info. I will make sure to include the parents and other teachers. I'm going to take some time poking around your blog. I'm happy to have a blog to look at and an actual person to easily "talk" to if I have a question.
I'm lucky because my co-teacher and I teach kiddos K-6, Each grade level is at our gifted center one day a week so we can get a lot done with the day not broken up into 40 minute segments, music, art, PE, etc. You might be interested in our project from the spring CSI: Cemetery Scene Investigation --let me know how I can help you. N.
What a great blog!! What grade is this, or is this a variety of ages? I would love to see a link to your writings.
Hi Ann,
My co-teacher & I use classblogmeister and we really like it. If you haven't done so already, you should sign up for the classblogmeister group through Yahoo. We used blogging buddies when the students were in reading groups and the process worked out well for that specific project. However, you'll see that blogging buddies work well for some projects and not others. We also found that there were some students who blogged much more than others and left comments on every student blog page. When given the opportunity, some students loved free blogging and blogged a lot from home about anything and everything. Check out our blogs @ http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=88116
Agree with you, Ann. Just like in any learning situation, some of our bloggers "get it" and embrace it and others do it because they've been asked to, everybody else is doing it, parents want them to do it, they think I'lll like them more if they do it or they have a writing emphasis in their IEP, etc. What pleases me is the kiddos (mostly girls) who are exceptional at it!! Since I hate to write I'm impressed with kids that do it so well. N.
I'm so glad that you gave me the link. It's good to see actual examples in action. I did join the Yahoo forum. I can't wait to see how it works with my classes.
I have dabbled in having my students blog, but just to our classroom blog. This year I would like to have each student create their own blog to post, respond and comment on work they are doing and what we are doing in class. (my class blog http://carter.edublogs.org/)

I am currently using edublogs, but the learner blogs costs $$. I would like to have some control over comments and postings and be able to link back to our classroom blog.

The students this year will have to comment on at least three blogs, but I want them to choose different peers each time. I am hoping that they will continue to read others and continue their comments after their initial 3.
I am also planning to create collaborative connections with other classes in our division as well as around the world.

We are also working with an online portfolio this year for the first time which, I am hoping, will encourage students to share their work and blog with their parents.

Good luck with your blog. I am interested in seeing what other classes are doing!

Two excellent blogs to check out are Mr. Maksymchuk's Blog http://nlcommunities.com/communities/bigg_maxx/default.aspx and
Mr. Kuropatawa http://apcalc.blogspot.com/ or his professional blog "A Difference" http://apcalc.blogspot.com/
I will take a look at your blog and Mr. M's. I've seen Mr. K's and it is amazing. Each blog I look at gives me other ideas. I've created a Classblogmeister blog to handle the control issues and have started playing with edublogs. I got the idea that there were costs associated with learner blogs, but I haven't looked at it too closely. I also started something in Blogger. I like it features, but worry about the kids falling into inappropriate content; especially since this is the first time I'm trying it in class. Thanks for your thoughts and links.
I thought Learnerblogs was the free service that they offered for K-12 students. I know that Edublogs offeres a paid service for those whose organizations want their own URL. We pay for http://ppsblogs.net and offer teachers blogs for their own use. I'm pretty sure Learnerblogs is still free - we didn't opt for it because there is no administrative control over the kids blogs at this point in time.

Ruth
http://ruthokoye.edublogs.org
Thanks for that information. I do like the administrative control on kids blogs. Since we wouldn't want our own URL, Edublogs would probably be ok for an individual teachers who wanted their own blog. I'll skip Learnblogs if there is no admin control. I start back to school next week and I'll be trying the Classblogmeister with the students soon. I'll take a look at your blog, thanks for the links.
Hello!
Welcome to my learning blog The Sausage Machine, fresh started in January 2007 for and with two classes (secondary school in Flanders - Antwerp, age 15-18 year). It's a language and literature learning blog in Dutch. Some posts are in English, another in German. I also opened two wikis, but they still are under construction: one for writing exercises, another for reading art.

I think, you have great and fresh ideas! I wish you and your learners very good luck! In my experience learning by blogging is challenging and can be very motivating.

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