Posted on 13 Comments on Student Blogging Challenge – Week 2

Student Blogging Challenge – Week 2

Original post by Sue Waters.

Dear Students,

An important part of the Student Blogging Challenge is connecting with students and other classes by reading posts and leaving comments.

Comments allow you, and your readers, to engage in discussions, share thoughts and connect with your blog.

Most new bloggers find publishing posts easy and commenting harder!  Your activity this week is to learn more about commenting and improve your commenting skills!

What makes a good comment?

Comments transform your blog from a static space to an interactive community.  Commenting is one way a blogger can create conversations.

Your readers leave a comment that hopefully asks questions (which encourage conversation), you reply back to their comments on your blog, then visit their blog to read their posts and engage with them on their blog.

The better your comment the more chance you have in creating conversations.

Start by watching either of the following two videos on Commenting.

Watch Mrs Yollis’s ‘How to Write a Quality Comment‘.  You can also watch it on Vimeo if YouTube is blocked in your School District.

Watch Nicolas Weiss’s Leaving High Quality Blog comments video  if you are a high school student.

Now visit Huzzah’s Commenting Guideline to learn some more commenting tips.

Important tips:

  • Refer to Adding a comment support documentation if you are unsure how to add a comment.
  • Comments may be moderated on your blog.   Remember to check your Comments folder, and comment spam folder,  to approve any pending comments.
  • Include the url (address) in your commentwhen you leave a comment on another blogger’s post so the blogger can visit your blog and comment.

 

Here is an example from Ayla last week:

Hi Ms. W,
I have just finished this week’s blogging challenge by uploading my avatar and making my about me page! Here is the link: http://aylaz13.edublogs.org/about-me/
So far blogging I have enjoyed creating my blog and I hope to get lots of comments
Thanks
~Ayla
http://aylaz13.edublogs.org
http://huzzah.edublogs.org

Now it’s your turn to practice crafting quality comments.

Activity 1:  Practicing commenting on a class blog

Mrs Smith has published an excellent activity that guides you through commenting, learning to read student posts and practicing comments.

Visit Mrs Smith’s I’m New Here post to work through the tasks in her post and then leave a comment on her post. Remember to include the URL of your blog.

Activity 2: Write a post, create a video or create a poster about commenting.

Might be tips to get more visitors,  guidelines for acceptable comments on your blog, examples of good and bad comments – think outside the square. Remember you don’t have to approve all comments. It is your blog; send some to the trash and if it is a company trying to get you to visit their blog to buy something, then label it as spam.

Here are some links to commenting guidelines written by students and classes. Class in New Zealand, grade 11/12 class in USA, Huzzah class blog in Canada, Abbey has a blogging guideline page, Mrs Allen created a poster about commenting,  WarriorKat uses lots of visuals in her guidelines,  Sophie had a great post, the Blogging Frogs have some great tips, Emme created a powtoon on commenting , Darcey write about commenting,  Kyndal wrote about how to comment, Rachel wrote her own guidelines

Activity 3: Visit other student or class blogs

Visit 4 other blogs on the lists above the header area. Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog. Might be the About Me page or another post you found interesting.  Write a post on your blog mentioning who you visited, which post you left a comment on and why, then include the comment you left. Hint: make sure you copy the comment before you hit the submit button.

 

Posted on

Student Blogging Challenge 2016

It’s time to start making connections with other student bloggers.  I’ve registered our class blog for the March 2016 Student Blogging Challenge, and I need your help to make sure we get started on the right foot:

STEP 1: Check out class blogs participants list and start visiting other students your age or with your interests.  When you find another class blog or student blog that you like, leave a quality comment invite the blog’s author(s) to check out your blog or our class blog (Don’t forget to include the URL to your blog to make it easier for them to find you!)

 STEP 2: While visiting the Student Blogging Challenge homepage, click on Follow so you will be notified whenever a new blogging challenge is published.

STEP 3: Make sure you have some great posts written so others can leave comments.  The last thing you want is for someone to visit your blog–only to find nothing there!  You might also want to the class blogs widget or a links widget to your own blog so that visitors can check out our class blog and your classmates blogs.

 

Posted on 6 Comments on And . . . We’re Back!

And . . . We’re Back!

It’s not without some embarrassment that I make this post, the third post this year, the first post in . . . five months.  However, the time has come to breathe some new life into our blog, and I’ve got new inspiration–a classroom full of writers whose writing needs reading!

First out of the gate is Zaya who shared a post about her plan to help people in San Diego who are homeless.  I love the idea of using her blog as a platform to share the stories of the people she meets, as well as the insights she gains as she learns more about the issue!

This week’s blogging challenge:

STEP 1 – Show you understand the norms for crafting a quality comment by commenting on this post.  You might share why you’re excited about jumping into the blogosphere and how you plan to use your blog.  Already made your first post, invite us to check it out–and don’t forget to include a link to the post in your reply to make it easy for us to find it!

STEP 2 – Take some time to check out some of the student blogs in Mrs. Rombach’s class, a teacher in Virginia who I’ve met through blogging.  When you find a post the you find interesting, leave a thoughtful comment, and then invite the student to visit your blog or our class blog.  Again, don’t forget to include the URL in your comment.

Let’s get started!