The idea was simple!

Create a class blog list for educators to use as a resource to get ideas for their own class blog and make connections with classes in other countries.

Now over 2 years later since the class blog list was first created in 2008:

1. It’s still growing
2. It’s the most visited page on this blog

But like all good ideas it does take work

So it’s now been updated to ensure that it does remain current and contain resources that are helpful.

This update I’ve looked at how else can I make it a better resource?

Improved Categories

Firstly, I wanted to make it easier for you to find the class blogs for the grades and/or subjects you teach.

So I’ve improved the categories to better separate:

1. Primary / Elementary into each Grade level
2. Secondary / High into subject areas.

Updated All Blogs

Next, I’ve checked every blog on the list and removed any that have been:

1. Deleted
2. No longer exist
3. Are no longer active (haven’t updated within 6 months)
4. Have changed their privacy from public to private.

And off course, made sure all new blogs submitted were added to the list.

Class Blogging Since ?

Finally. with over 200 class blogs on the list, I wanted to make a way for you to be able to quickly scan the list while learning more about the age of specific blogs.

So I’ve added an icon next to the older class blogs to show how long that blog has been used as a class blog for.

For example, means the blog has been used for class blogging since 2004 whereas a blog with  has been used as a class blog since 2009.

I’m sure others, like myself, will be amazed at how long some of these blogs have been used for class blogging!

Is your Class blog on the List?

You can check out the more information about each class blog in these post:

• Calling All CLASS blogs…Please Share Your Blog URL With Us! (2008) over 250 comments.
• Our Class Blog List Has Been Updated — Is Your Class Blog on The List? (2010) over 190 comments

I’ve now had to close off comments on both those posts so I can make the class blog submissions manageable again.

If you want to add your class blog to this list (or update your class blog details) leave a comment on this post to share with us:

1. Your Class Blog name(s) and URL(s).
2. Approximate age of students
3. What category does the blog belong to?  Primary, Secondary, Vocational Education and Training, College, University, Home School?  If applicable. what subject areas?  Refer to the category list on Our check out Class blogs page.
4. Country
5. Age of class blog.  Blogging since?
6. Feel free to add other information as educators do refer to comments left to connect with other class blogs!

Please check the Check out Class Blogs list first before providing updated information.

Here’s an example of the type of information needed:

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Tammy serves as an inspiration to all of us that are interested in creating an online environment that is a natural extension of our classrooms.

She is amazing when it comes to recording her daily classroom notes and embedding them in her class blog as a video.

We thought that you might like to get to know her a bit better and how she does what she does, so we asked her a few questions and she was kind enough to reply.

What were the main reason(s) why you started recording videos for your students?

For years I taught my chemistry and physics students by using dry erase markers on an overhead projector.

When interactive boards came along, I was excited, but I needed to be able to see my students while they worked with me.  When I went behind my demonstration station to work problems on the board, it was like my students thought I’d left the building!

Another challenge was the missing student – students gone on mission trips, students out with the flu, students in tournaments, or students who missed the concepts in class that day and just needed to hear the lesson again.

Everything came together when, from all different directions and just about all at one time, I discovered Edublogs, eBeam Interact (an interactive projection device and software), and the Wacom Cintique Tablet.

How do you create your videos?

I’m able to write on the tablet while facing my students and record both my voice and pen strokes with eBeam and a cordless mic.

At the end of the day, I upload the videos to blip.tv, and then embed them on our class blog.  In addition to blip.tv, other online resources that have been really helpful for me as I post the lessons to the website are compfight.com and Flickr.com

How are you using your class blog?

I use our class blog for posting videos of daily lectures, reviews, and help sessions, but also as an online filing cabinet of sorts for just tons of resources for my students – the weekly syllabus, project information, assignments, interactive websites, tutorials, etc.

So many wonderful teachers and organizations have put such incredible resources for learning chemistry and physics online,  and now my students can access them though our blog.

Another very important way I use our class blog is to keep in touch with my students, and for them to keep in touch with each other, outside of class.

I’m working on helping them learn how scientists across the world communicate by having them share lab results, collaborate on projects, etc., through comments.

They also use the comments to ask me (or their classmates) questions they forgot or might have been hesitant to ask in class.

My chemistry students recently finished the huge end of the year research project, and, oh, my word, I thought someone from Edublogs was going to call and tell us we were overloading the system.

What has been the benefits of your class blog to your students?

Our class blog has proven to be a tremendous resource for my students who for one reason or another have to be absent from class.

From their homes or hotel room, while waiting between races on their lap top, or on iTunes, my students can watch the day’s lecture, watch videos that I might have shown in class through the VodPod, get copies of assignments, learn about upcoming projects, and then ask me or their classmates questions by posting comments.

My students love to see themselves in action, but I could never seem to keep up with getting all the pictures I took printed for everyone to see.  With our class blog, I’m able to use Flickr and post picture and videos on our blog so the students can see all of them, any time, and not just the ones I can afford to print. I also send pics and video to Facebook and Twitter, and I’ve had former students comment on, “I remember when… .”

My kids would never have this kind of interaction with me, with each other, and even with the world without our class blog.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thank you, Tammy, for all of your kind and informational words!

We would love to hear from others of you out there that are using your blogs in exciting ways to improve the learning experience of students.

Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to share and possibly be part of a future post such as this one!

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About our Guest Blogger

Kathleen McGeady is in the seventh year of her career and in that short time her approach to teaching has changed greatly.

The opportunity to take Teacher Professional Leave in 2008 provided Kathleen with the time to explore the role that ICT and Web2.0 tools can play in the classroom.

Kathleen loves to find new and creative ways to use blogs, the IWB, Web2.0 tools, iPod Touches and global projects and in her classroom to enhance the learning experience of each of her students.

Kathleen is currently teaching Grade Two at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia. She writes about technology integration on her blog and in Education Technology Solutions magazine.

Blogging: Teaching Commenting Skills

This was originally posted on Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom and has been cross posted with permission from Kathleen McGeady.

I am currently in the process of introducing my Grade Two students to blogging.

Our 2KM class blog is proving to be very popular with students and families.

As I have previously blogged about, I like to follow these steps when introducing blogging to students.

This is my third year of blogging with young students and I am still learning all the time.

In previous years I believe I progressed much too quickly from having students comment on the class blog to writing posts. My students never really learned how to compose a quality comment and I believe I didn’t set my expectations of the students high enough! I was happy for them just to be commenting.

This year I am taking a different approach. Inspired by the amazing commenting skills of Mrs Yollis’ Third Grade students, I am putting a lot of effort into teaching my students how to write quality comments on posts before we move on to writing posts.

By “quality comments” I mean

• writing the comment like a letter (greeting, body, closing, signature)
• using correct spelling, punctuation and spacing,
• reading over the comment and editing before submitting,
• complimenting the writer in a specific way, asking a question, and/or adding new information to the post,
• writing a relevant comment that is related to the post,
• not revealing personal information in your comment.

I really wanted to limit the “I like your blog!!!” or “2KM is cool” type comments and I am finding this explicit teaching of what a quality comment looks like is really working.

I am teaching students commenting skills through

• modelling and composing comments together  on the IWB,
• teaching students about the “letter” format during writing lessons,
• giving examples of a poor/high quality comments and having students vote whether the comment should be accepted or rejected,
• having students read and comment on a post on our blog as part of a literacy rotation on the computer each week.

I collaborated with my teaching partner, Kelly Jordan on this poster “How Can I Write a Great Blog Comment?” to teach students about blogging skills.

We will also send a copy of this poster (as show below) home with each child.

Linda Yollis has written a fantastic article about how to teach commenting skills. It is well worth a read!

I have “borrowed” many ideas from Linda such as recording a screencast video that shows how to leave a comment on the blog. I recorded my screencast through Jing. I also used Linda’s idea of sending an email out to all parents to encourage them to leave comments.

As Linda says, “commenting is what keeps the blog alive” and “teaching and encouraging good commenting skills makes your blog more interesting for everyone.” I agree!

Final Thoughts

Thanks Kathleen for writing this guest post and for all your great work!

Please leave a comment here or on Kathleen’s post if you have any more ideas about teaching commenting skills to students!

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Here’s the previous tasks:

1. Week 1 – Create A Class Blog
2. Week 2:  Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
3. Week 3 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
4. Week 4 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll

This week’s task is to add your students as users to your class blog so they can write posts on it.

Why Add Students As Users To Class Blogs?

Normally when a class blog is initially set up you’ll be responsible for writing posts, and the students respond by writing comments.

This gives you time to increase your skills while gradually introducing your students to blogging and educating them on appropriate online behaviour.

However, ultimately you’ll need to make decisions:

• Do you want students to write posts on the class blog?
• Do you want them to have their own student blog?

Factors you need to consider include student’s age, time and motivation.

As student’s age increases you are more likely to want them to write posts on the class blog or their own blog (i.e. as a general rule Kindergarten and Grade 1 students write comments only).

Ownership and Motivation

Ownership is an important part of blogging; as it’s an important part of life.

We all take better care of and have increased motivation when we feel personal ownership.

Students are no different from adults.

Ever tried to set up adults on a group blog?  Incredibly challenging — often one person does the bulk of the publishing!  Yet each individual happily posts on their own blog.

Time Involved

Increasing student’s blogging role increases the time spent providing guidance and monitoring their online activities.

However,  your students learn more, are more motivated and their writing improves faster.

Check out these posts by student bloggers to see for yourself:

1. Starting Out Blogging by Abbey (12 years old)
2. How Blogging Has Connected me to a Global Audience by Daniel (11 years old)
3. To Blog Or Not To Blog by Sam (11 years old)

PS You can create your own GraphJam here!

Introducing Blogging To Students

If you decide to increase your students’ blogging roles it’s a good idea to introduce it slowly in the following three steps:

Write comments on class blogs

Write posts on the class blog

Write posts on their own student blog

What Role Do You Assign Students on Blogs?

The five roles for users you can give students on class blogs or on their student blogs are: Administrator; Editor; Author; Contributor; and Subscriber.

Deciding which role to assign them is a balance between:

1. How much responsibility you’re comfortable with assigning your students
2. School and District guidelines
3. Providing them with an environment that’s motivating

If you want to approve all posts before they can be published then assign them the role of contributors.

For more info refer to Managing Students on Blogs…What Role Do You Assign Students?

Here is a summary of their differences based on User Capability:

Here is a summary of their differences based on access to features in the dashboard:

How To Add Students As Users To Class Blogs

There are three main ways to add users to Edublogs:

1. Users > Add New
2. Users > Add New Users – Edublogs supporters and Edublogs Campus only
3. Users > Add Users or Users > Add Existing Users – Edublogs Supporter and Edublogs Campus only

Here’s a summary of what each is used for:

Please note:

1. Add New Users is the fastest way to add students quickly to your class blog — if they don’t have a username.
2. Add Users (or Add Existing Users) is the fastest way to add students quickly to your class blog — if have a username.

Refer to Creating and Adding Users to blog for detailed instructions on how to use each.

Student accounts and email address

An email address is required when you create student accounts — it’s important for password resets, comment moderation etc

If your students don’t have email addresses the simplest solution is to set up their accounts using one Gmail account and then add a + sign and a different number and/or letter(s) to the end of your email name for each student.

How it works is Gmails ignores anything in the first half of an email address after a plus sign.

So if you create each email with the format username+studentname@gmail.com all emails will be sent to the inbox of username@gmail.com

Please Note:

• You must use a real gmail account– either use your own gmail account or set up a gmail account for your class e.g. room13@gmail.com.
• This also means that if you want to moderate comments on student posts they will be sent to your email address.

Organsing Student Posts on Class Blogs

Educators new to blogging often struggle with when you write Posts as opposed to Pages.

The best way to manage your student work is they write posts and assign their name as a category to the post before they publish their post.  This makes it easy to find and manage their work.

You display the categories assigned to posts in your blog sidebar using the categories widget (here is how to add widgets).

This means when you click on the name of a student in your sidebar it’ll loads a page with all posts that use that student name as a category — check this out in action on Mr.Toft.ca!

Watch Nathan Toft’s excellent video to see how he adds students to blogs and assigns them categories!

Here is more information on:

1. Differences between Posts and Pages
2. Adding Categories and Tags into your Posts

Before you get them writing posts just create a category for each student as follows:

1.  Go to Posts > Categories in your blog dashboard

2.  Add the first name of your student (if necessary include initial of last name)

3.  Click Add Category

Please note:

• Categories won’t display in your category widget until it has been assigned to a post.

About Category Parents

You use Category Parents if you want to sort your categories into groups.

For example, you might have Student as a parent category and then all Student names underneath.  Then you might have another parent category for subjects and have all the subject names underneath.

Here’s how you organise categories using Parent Categories:

1.  Go to Posts > Categories in your blog dashboard

2.  Add the name of the Parent Category e.g. Students

3.  Click Add Category

4.  Now add a new category for your student by adding the first name of your student

5.  Select the desired Category Parent (e.g. Student) from the drop down menu and click Add Category.

Adding a category to a Post

Now when your students write their post it’s as simple as:

1. Write their post
2. Select their name as a category
3. Click Publish post or Submit for Review

FINAL THOUGHTS

These weekly tasks are part of the preparation for the next Student Blogging Challenge which starts in March.

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

1. About the student challenge
2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

You can now register your class for the Student Blogging Challenge.  Here is what you need to do!

Go to Time for teachers to register their classes and complete the following steps:

• Step 1: Join our mailing list by adding your email address
• Step 2: Complete the Google Form to register your class
• Step 3: Check Your Class is displayed on the Student Challenge List

Students will be able to register next week!

Please a comment on this post if you need help setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!

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This week’s task is to set up blogging rules and guidelines on your class blog.

Why Have Blogging Rules and Guidelines?

An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior.  Just because your students grew up with technology doesn’t mean they appreciate or understand what is/isn’t appropriate to post online.

Your class blog provides an excellent opportunity to educate students, parents and other readers on proper online behavior such as:

1. Types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments e.g., What are your rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal information?
2. What should/shouldn’t you write in posts and/or comments?

Deciding On Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

This is the type of task where you could decide on the rules and guidelines yourself or do as a whole of class activity (where you actively involve your students in the entire process).

Here are examples of different ways they are used on class blogs to help you with the task:

• 2KM @ Leopold Primary School! Our Blog Guidelines and General blogging information (Grade 2)
• Math Error Class Blogging Guidelines
• Mr. Salsich’s Class Blog Guidelines (Grade 3)
• Mr Mundorf’s Class Online Safety (Grade 5)
• Huzzah’s Commenting Guidelines (Grade 5/6)
• Endless Questions Responsible Blogging (Grade 6-8 )
• Mr. Pfluger’s Discussion Corner Blog Guidelines (Grade 6)
• Our Space Student blogging Guidelines (Year 6)
• Mr. M’s History Blog Posting Comments (Grade 8 )
• Mr Jorgensen’s Blogging Guidelines (Grade 8 )
• Mr B’s Box Parent Information about our blogs
• Scattergood Biology How To Post and Comment
• Publishing Corner Guidelines and Rules (12-15 year olds)
• Biology in Action Blogging Guidelines (High School and College)

The Two Page Blog Guide For Parents by Kathleen McGeady is an excellent idea for a parent resource.

If you want to include Online Safety activities as part of the process then, Larry Ferlazzo’s The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety post is a good starting place to identify suitable resources.

Setting Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog.

You would normally publish them on a Page rather than in a post because pages are ideal for important information like this that you don’t expect to update frequently. However, if you also wanted to discuss your rules with your students and readers you might write a post like Miss W. has done.

Here’s information to help you with working with pages:

1. Differences between Posts and Pages
2. Writing Pages
3. Most class blogs use blog themes that have navigational links to Pages at the top of the theme e.g., Mr. Salsich’s blog. Links at the top of the theme make it easier to navigate pages.
4. Updated: 100 Edublogs Themes Review To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier
5. Edublogs Themes That Allow Comments on Pages!
6. Taking The Agony Out Of Using Custom Image Headers
7. Use the Pages widget for blog themes that don’t include navigational links — here is how you change your sidebar widgets!

FINAL THOUGHTS

These weekly tasks are part of the preparation for the next Student Blogging Challenge which starts in March.  You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

1. About the student challenge
2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

Please a comment on this post:

1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
2. If you have advice for other educators on setting up their blogging rules and guidelines or have resources we should check out!

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So each week for the next six weeks we will give you a new task, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This week’s task is to create a class blog.

Why Have A Class Blog

A class blog is always a good starting point if you want to blog with your students.

It gives you to time to increase your skills while gradually introducing your students to blogging and educating them on appropriate online behaviour.

Start initially with you being responsible for writing posts, and the students responding in comments. As students demonstrate both keenness and responsibility give them their ‘blogging license’ where they earn the right to write posts on the class blog and/or get their own student blog.

Ultimately even if each student has their own blog it is always a good idea to have a class blog.

Blogging isn’t just about writing posts; it’s about sharing your learning and reflecting on what you have learnt.

Important parts of the blogging process include encouraging students to:

1. Read each others posts
2. Interact and comment on each others posts  by challenging each others thoughts and views
3. Write posts in response to each others posts

The class blog is the central hub that connects your student blogs together; making it easier to share their learning, interact with each other and a global audience.

Aspects To Consider Before Creating Your Class Blog

Username and Display Name

Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write. While you can’t change your username, most blog platforms do allow you to change how your name is displayed.

In most cases it’s better to choose a username that makes it easier for others to relate to you as a real person. For example, compare spwat3 with suewaters — which is easier to relate to?

On a class blog you need to consider what is an appropriate username for you to use.  Most don’t allow students to use first and last name online so some prefer to model this by using names like Miss W or  Mrs Waters.

Blog URL

Think carefully about your blog URL.

Once your blog has an established audience you’re less likely to want to change your blog URL and educators often use the same blog for the next year’s class.

Ideally you want to keep your blog URL short, easy to remember and suitable to be reused for several years.

A simple option is to use your name in the blog URL as these educators did:

1. Ms Cahusac (http://mscahusac.edublogs.org/)
2. Mrs Burton (http://msvrburton.edublogs.org) have done.

Alternatively use something unique that has meaning like Jan Smith (http://huzzah.edublogs.org).

Blog Title

Think about the name of your blog.

Choose a name that reflects the purpose of your class blog and your students can relate to.

For example, Mrs Burton’s blog title Blog, blog blog blog, blog some more is very clever.  Check out our class blog list for titles that other educators have used!

Check Out Class Blogs

Coming up with ideas on how you might use your blog with students can be hard to visualize.

Make time to check out how other educators use their class blogs to get ideas on “what works”/”doesn’t work”.

Here are some blogs for you to look at:

1. Network Nine (Year 4)
2. MrToft.ca (Grade 5)
3. Grade 5e (Grade 5)
4. Huzzah (Grade 6/7)
5. Blog, blog blog blog, blog some more (English I)
6. Endless Questions (Grade 6-8 languages)
7. Or check out our class blog list (over 200 class blogs separated into grade and subject area)

Creating Your Class Blog

Now you’ve done all the research it’s time to set up your class blog.

Here are the instructions to follow if you would like to set up your class blog on Edublogs:

1. Signing up for your blog
2. Logging into your blog dashboard
3. Using your blog dashboard
4. Changing Your Blog’s Look
5. Writing your First Post

You will find all Getting Started With Edublogs information here!

FINAL THOUGHTS

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

1. About the student challenge
2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just leave a comment on this post — I’m always happy to help!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

About the Class Blog list

It now contains over 200 class blogs, sorted into different categories based on age, subject area and type of blog.

The list was set up so educators can check out different types of class blogs to get ideas for their own class blog while also making connections with classes in other countries.

I’ve worked through ALL the blog URLs in the comments on Calling All CLASS blogs…Please Share Your Blog URL With Us! to:

• Remove blogs that have been deleted or are no longer active (haven’t updated since Jan, 2009)
• Insert links to the new Class blog for educators who create a new blog for each school year
• Add any blogs missing from the list

The list contains amazing examples of Class blogs from around the World!

How To Add Your Class Blog To The List

As Calling All CLASS blogs…Please Share Your Blog URL With Us! post is now over 12 months old, and contains over 250 comments, I’m closing off comments on that post.

Off course I’m still happy to grow our Check out Class Blogs list — I just need to restart the list to make it manageable again

If you want to add your class blog to this list (or update your class blog details) leave a comment on this post to share with us:

1. Your Class Blog name(s) and URL(s).
2. Approximate age of students and are they primary, secondary or tertiary?
3. If applicable, what subject area? e.g. maths, science, language, history, English, Art, Music, ELL, ESL, & EFL
4. Country

Here’s an example of the type of information needed:

Please check the Check out Class Blogs list first before providing updated information.

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