Additional Resources

Thanks, everyone, for a great workshop. I thought I'd post a few additional miscellaneous resources for everyone here, and we can all use the "Comments" area to share others:

• If you're interested in writing a public, reflective blog, check out "Tips on a Good Blog Entry," a post on Traci Gardner's NCTE blog.
  
• For more on blogs, wikis, and podcasts, check out Will Richardon's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.
• The Edublog Awards (the Eddies!) recognize the best educational blogs of the year.
  
• The Weblogs Compendium has information about other hosting services if you cannot or choose not to use Blogger.
  
• If you're interested in using RSS feeds to follow your blogs (and other favorite websites), Will Richardson recommends the web-based Bloglines.com.
  

Have fun!

Some Helpful Code

These snippets of code may come in handy.

Click here for what you need to kill the navbar and create HMTL links. 

Click here for my modified template.

Communicating Expectations

When you're ready to get classes actively involved, it will be important to share "ground rules" with students and parents upfront. Depending on how popular blogs are in your school, you may also want to include your administrators.

I'll provide a few models to consider, though you'll undoubtedly want to customize something to your particular audience.

• When I first started blogging, I created this packet with basic instructions, expectations, and a letter for parents to sign off on.
  
• The Horizon Project (an extension of the Flat Classroom Project Rick mentioned to us last time!) has a different (and very cool) approach in their Student Code of Ethics. This is a wiki project, but most of the same web etiquette and basic common sense applies.
  
• Here's a nice sample letter from teacher Bud Hunt's site (referenced in Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts). He has some other interesting resources here, though you have to do a bit of digging around. One suggestion was to have students develop their own "handbook" for blogging ... you can see some of the results here.
• The article we read for homework, “Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog,” also had some samples at the end.
  

What is most appropriate for your students?

Blog Rubric

There are many, many ways to assess student blog posts, from simply counting the number they've written to grading for content and form. Click here for the blog rubric I showed you in the workshop!

Homework for November 4th

I'm so excited about our next session! To prepare, I'd like to ask you to do three quick things:

1. Read the article “Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog” by Patricia Deubel. This is especially relevant for those of us considering "discussion blogs" for our students. We'll spend some time discussing the role of the teacher as moderator next week.

2. Tinker with your own blog. The more you do with your blog between now and Tuesday, the more questions you'll have for me, and the more useful I'll be. Add some content, play around with the gadgets, etc. This is especially important if you're taking the workshop for credit, because your blog will be the "final project" for the course. If you get stuck or want to bounce something off me between now and then, go ahead and shoot me an email ... no need to wait.

3. Post a short comment at the end of this post. What should you write? I'm particularly interested in any questions, concerns, or specific topics you'd like to address next week. You could also comment on the reading, share any interesting resources you've come across with the group, ask a question, etc. Feel free to post more than once, if you're feeling inspired. If you are taking the class for credit, we promised Framingham State that we'd assess you according to the following: relevance of posting, specificity of ideas, quality including mechanics, and timeliness.

Thank you again, and I will see you on Election Day!

Final Project

Those of you taking the course for credit will need to submit your blog as a final project. It's essentially what we've been working on already, and will continue to play with on Tuesday, but the formal version follows.

For the final assignment, participants will create original blogs for classroom use. This blog may be a classroom portal, a discussion space for students, or another type approved by the instructor.

To demonstrate understanding of content covered in the course, final projects should include the following:

• A profile or “about me” sidebar
• At least one other sidebar element
• Embedded links
• Embedded multimedia (e.g., photos or video)
• At least three sample posts; the first post should be a statement of purpose for the blog

Final projects will be assessed as follows:

• Utilizes technology effectively
• Strong understanding of content covered in the course (to be demonstrated by inclusion of required components)
• Clearly developed goals and objectives
• Content appropriate for intended audience
• Effectively organized to address user needs
• Timeliness and conventions (e.g., spelling, grammar)

Exploring the Blogosphere

Classroom blogs, educational blogs, blogs by teachers, blogs for teachers, blogs for and by teachers ... phew. There are too many to count, but here are a few to get us started:

An example of “reflective blogging” from the author of the book In the Trenches: A Teacher's Defense of Public Education:

http://publiceducationdefender.blogspot.com/

You can also check out his list of Favorite Blogs on the left (just scroll down below his profile, etc). Browse around; there’s infinite variety.

Founded in 1998, the learntoquestion.com website is an exemplar of blogging in the classroom. It is the online face of the Facing History class at Boston Latin School. Check out some of their powerful discussion threads:

http://www.learntoquestion.com/class/discussion/

In past years, the class activities were meticulously logged here:

http://www.learntoquestion.com/class/archives/2005-2006/log/

Mrs. Huff’s English Classes is a nice example of a portal site with a lot more than just the class calendar:

http://class.huffenglish.com/

She also hosts a spot for student written work:

http://students.huffenglish.com/

Here's a blog for a math class:

http://pc40s.blogspot.com/

And here's one for the elementary level:

http://itc.blogs.com/thewriteweblog/

And if you want to check out what I’ve got going on, you can find my classes here:

http://kitsis.blogspot.com

I’ve used Blogger to host web quests as well, such as this one on The Crucible, and a pre-reading research assignment for Of Mice and Men.

Here’s the class discussion on The Scarlet Letter mentioned before.

Before we finish, post a brief comment to share with the group.