Student Blogging Challenge 2013

Are you looking for a way to connect your classroom to others while at the same time practicing communication skills? Have you heard of the Student Blogging Challenge? It's one of the many gems I've been exposed to thanks to Twitter. Let's face it. We live in a global community, and it's important for our students to make connections outside the four walls of our classrooms. They need to learn what it means to be a global citizen and how to communicate and collaborate with other cultures. Since my students already blog using KidBlog, I decided this awesome project would be a great opportunity to become even better bloggers.

It starts in September and consists of 10 weekly challenges for children to complete. September is good for my class, because we will have been in school already for a few weeks. If September doesn't work for you, they do another on in March. Each challenge is designed to help students become better bloggers AND write better comments, as well as write for an authentic, global audience. For some examples of the challenges, check out their FAQ page (scroll down).

I can't wait to get started with student blogging again this year! If your students aren't already blogging, this challenge is a great place for you to start. You can create free classroom blogs on KidBlog that are very easily managed. (Here's a post I wrote last year to help you get started).

Are you ready to try it yet? Click here to sign your class up! Hope to see you and your students in the challenge!

FluxTime Studio: Easy Animations

Searching for a quick, easy, FREE tech tool you can use in your classroom? FluxTime Studio is a site that allows students to create animations, then email them as ecards. We used it this week and my kids LOVED it. You can use the links in the email to embed them into blog posts or post them on your website. Here's how I used it with my class:

Our basal story this week was about some migrating whales, so during reading on Monday, students chose a sea animal to research. They were to find three facts about their animal and download a picture to their jump drives. Then, I posted an assignment in Edmodo:

In the computer lab students wrote and edited their posts. After they finished, they watched the FluxTime video I had posted for them on Edmodo. That's one of the great features about using Edmodo. You can create a library of videos for your students to use. Here's the video I made:

Finally, students created their animations. I posted the finished animations to our classroom website, and helped a few students embed links in their blog posts. This was only their second week on KidBlog and third on Edmodo, so they needed help with embedding. 

Click HERE to see one of my student's posts with his animation linked.

Teaching Kids to Write on the Internet (FREEBIE)

With the beginning of school upon us, many of us are introducing Internet literacy activities and websites to our students. After introducing my kids to Edmodo and letting them make ToonDoos last week, I realized that we needed a lesson on appropriate grammar and usage for writing on the Internet. After some thought, I came up with this anchor chart:

The goal was to help students see that an author's purpose for writing and the people who will be reading the writing determine the rules for what and how they compose. I did this lesson before ever having students begin posting on KidBlog, and it was a huge help! It was really great, because instead of ME telling them it was unacceptable to use symbols or lower case letters on a blog post, they came to that realization themselves! Here's a picture of what our classroom chart looked like:

You would not have believed the shocked faces I saw when my kiddos realized that their Internet projects and blog posts could be seen by anybody. That really started to put things into perspective for them. Once they started writing their first blog posts, they were very conscientious about spelling, punctuation, and capital letters. These were probably the BEST (most correct) first posts I've ever had! This is something I will definitely repeat year after year.

Now, on to your FREEBIE! I created a file for you to use to teach the lesson in two formats: Promethean flipchart and PowerPoint. I also included the PowerPoint file I used to create the words and pictures for my anchor chart. Feel free to change and adapt as needed! (Just link back if you post about it).

You can download the entire zipped file here.

How about you? Have you done something similar to this? I'd love to hear your insights.

You can find this post and other Common Core lessons here:

iChallenge Podcast Winner!

Yep, that's me in the black dress holding that big box! I submitted a podcast to the Alabama Learning Exchange's annual iChallenge Podcast Competition and won in the at-large category! I'm so grateful for being chosen from among the hundreds of other entries. When I created the podcast, I really just had my own students in mind at first. I wanted them to have a video tutorial that they could go back to again and again if they had questions about using KidBlog. Creating this one video actually turned into the creation of a series about using KidBlog that anyone can use.   

Here's the video that I submitted:

Click HERE to see the other videos on ALEX that I've submitted so far.

Aren't you just dying to know what's in the box?

It's a HoverCam Document Camera! I can't wait to get it out and start playing with it!

KidBlog: Getting Started

Do your students blog? I started blogging with my students last year, and love it! It is a great opportunity not only for writing for an authentic audience, but to practice digital citizenship, Internet safety, and learn various technology skills. Since I use KidBlog with my class often, (and answer the same questions over and over) I decided to create this podcast to help them navigate and as a "Getting Started" video.

Hopefully, its something you can use with your children. Enjoy!