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!