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I pray for the human race. Why? Because our leaders are a bunch of idiotic idiots. Republicans in particular and the geniuses that think that Global Warming isn't real because it was cold last winter. Just let that statement sink in for a bet.

If you give these people solid evidence and facts, they will argue that they are not scientists. Why? Because they are idiotic idiots. I mean seriously, it doesn't take a scientist to see that the Polar Ice Caps are melting or that pollution is harming our atmosphere. If the Polar Ice Caps are melting, this is serious. The Ice Caps reflects light from the Sun, back into space to keep Earth cool. If they melt, the Earth will gradually become warmer AND the Ocean will be completely above sea level. This means that places like Florida will be............

Global Warming is when the temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.

Global Warming is when greenhouse gases get trapped in our ozone layer. Pollution is one of the causes of global warming because bad gases are harming the atmosphere. Coal factories help with pollution because they are burning fossil fuels to make energy. Instead of spending millions of dollars on burning coal, we can put that money into use by providing solar panels for schools and office buildings. Unfortunately, politicians have spent billions upon billions of dollars on war planes like the B-2 and the F-35 Lightning.

The question I'm being asked is: If you had the opportunity, would you go to Mars? This is the 21st Century, and space travel is a definite possibility. A Century or two ago, the thought of actually going to Mars would be completely alien! Get it? Ha. Anyways, any sane or interesting person would want to go to Mars, myself included. I mean, who wouldn't want to be the first person to travel to another planet? Earth is getting rather mainstream and our population is rapidly growing. If you wouldn't go to Mars... sorry my friend, you are absolutely boring.

Yeah, sure there are several... severe risks to going to Mars. Like the fact that radiation rays in space can cause cancer and damage to your DNA. The trip would take about 2-3 years of your wonderful life. You can lose 65% of your muscle mass from the lack of gravity, and you can be spaced! Okay, I'm not going to deny that this is really bad. I just think that if you're planning to go outer space, you should wait until you're life is almost over.

When I go to Mars, I want to have already passed on my brilliant genes to my children and grandchildren. I want to be in my late nineties and have accomplished all of my major goals in life. So, if I go to Mars and the mission is a complete failure... I will at least have cleared my bucket list! Also, we should already have a cure for cancer by then, if not... at least my bucket list will be complete! I'll also be ninety-something, I'm sure a little bone loss won't be fatal.

So a trip to Mars? Sign me up!

My first few weeks of 8th grade have been awesome! Ms. Azeez still wears her bright smile, Mr. Ault is still cool and wacky, Mr. Hepburn is still overly sarcastic, and Mrs. Collins is always willing to help. I love being the oldest in my school, but it also feels weird. I'm so used to looking for the grade that's higher than mine and admiring them. But now, I am in the highest grade in school. My parents expect me to be even more responsible, and that really sucks because I miss making mistakes, and I wasn't held accountable for them. Now, if I don't remember to clean my bathroom, I get extremely long lectures about being responsible.

Much hasn't changed, in all honesty, 8th grade feels exactly like 7th grade with minor changes. I love the new uniform policy, and I like the fact that 8th grade gets to eat in the community room. Other than that, we are in the same classes as last year, and we don't have a whole class for Social Studies (thank god).

A highlight of my 8th grade year so far is that math is getting easier for me. In 7th grade and previous grades, math was my toughest subject. Now, I'm participating more in all of my classes and I feel more confident about my answers. I think that my math experience, along with my other academic classes, will be awesome this year.

I am looking forward to a ton of things! I am pretty excited about the 8th Grade trip, and I hope we get to go somewhere interesting. I am excited about ribbon pinning and all the cool awards. Finally, I'm excited about graduation, of course! I am definitely going to miss all of my classmates and teachers, but I will cherish all of the fun memories.

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs!

To get started, simply visit your blog's dashboard, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

Like more help?

We can walk you through step-by-step in our guide to getting started with your blog.

Happy blogging!

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I pray for the human race. Why? Because our leaders are a bunch of idiotic idiots. Republicans in particular and the geniuses that think that Global Warming isn't real because it was cold last winter. Just let that statement sink in for a bet.

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A Kindergarten Classroom Blog

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A summary of the "Best" student blogging platforms.

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A summary of the "Best" student blogging platforms.

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According to a guy who knows stuff.

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A couple of days ago I shared ideas for managing academic blogs. If you haven't started a blog yet, choosing the right blogging platform can help you manage your classroom blog in the long run.

Before we answer the question of which blog platform to use we need to understand some terminology commonly used when talking about blogs. Understanding the terminology will help you make an informed decision about which platform is best for your situation. I wish I had known some of this when I started blogging.

Hosted Blog: A hosted blog is one whose software is maintained by a company for its users. Services like Blogger, WordPress.com, and Tumblr are examples of services on which you can create hosted blogs. The advantage of using a hosted service is that you don't have to worry about installing software, software updates, server maintenance, or bandwidth capacity. The disadvantage of using a hosted service is that you don't have access to the servers hosting your blog, the service may limit some customization options (WordPress.com in particular does this), and if the service closes you will be looking for a new place to blog (see the panic that ensued when Posterous announced its shutdown).

Self-hosted Blog: A self-hosted blog is one for which you own the blogging software, you install it on a server or shared server, and you are responsible for all technical maintenance and updates. The advantage of having a self-hosted blog is that you can customize it to your heart's content, you have access to the server(s) hosting your blog, and you can move your content from one hosting service to another if you choose. The disadvantage of a self-hosted blog is that you do have to feel somewhat comfortable installing the software on a server. Fortunately, most hosting companies have good tutorials on installing popular blogging software. Another disadvantage of self-hosting is that you are responsible for performing all updates and other maintenance tasks. This can be time consuming for new bloggers. Finally, to have a self-hosted blog you will have to buy a domain and pay a monthly or annual hosting fee for your blog. I pay roughly $200 annually to MediaTemple.com for hosting and I have eight domains on my plan. If you decided to go the self-hosted route, Media Temple is my recommendation for a hosting service. They offer excellent 24/7 customer service and I've never experienced any downtime since I started using them in April of 2012.

The best blog platforms for teachers.
This is Google's free blogging service. It takes just a minute to start a blog through Blogger. Blogger offers a nice selection of colorful themes and templates to choose from. Customizing the layout of your blog is as easy as dragging and dropping elements into place. You can add additional authors to your blogs. There are mobile apps for Blogger and you can post to your blog via email. If you have a Gmail account you already have a Blogger account. Just sign into your Gmail account and in the top menu select Blogger from the "more" drop-down menu. Google Apps for Education users can have Blogger added to their domains too. The drawback to Blogger is that the only customer support that you'll find for it comes in the form of Blogger product discussion boards and some YouTube videos.

KidBlog: KidBlog is a free hosted blogging service designed for teachers to use with students. Teachers can create accounts for their students to use to write blog posts and to write comments on blog posts. Students do not have to have email addresses in order to use KidBlog. And a great feature for those times when students forget their passwords is teachers can reset their students' passwords. KidBlog blogs are run using WordPress software, but it's a limited version of WordPress so you won't have the full customization options that you would have if you used the WordPress software on your own on your own paid hosting service.

Edublogs: Edublogs has been around for quite a while and is well known in the educational technology community for offering good customer support. The free version of Edublogs is rather limited in that you cannot include videos, use custom HTML to embed items into posts, or manage your students' accounts. You really need to purchase the "Pro" version of Edublogs for $39.95/year in order get the features that most teachers want.

Self-hosting a blog with WordPress: WordPress is free blogging software that you can install on a server. You can get the software at WordPress.org. As mentioned in the "self-hosted" section above, you will have to purchase a domain and a hosting plan to create and maintain your blog. Once you have your blog set-up you can do whatever you like with it including creating and administering accounts for your students to use to write blog entries and comments on your blog.

Just as a point of clarification, people sometimes confuse the WordPress software available to download at WordPress.org with WordPress.com. WordPress.com is a free hosted blogging service that uses the WordPress software, but like KidBlog and Edublogs it limits your customization options because you don't actually control the software. WordPress.com will also insert advertising on your blog unless you upgrade to a paid account for $30 annually.

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Picking the Best Platform for Your Classroom Blog

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A couple of days ago I shared ideas for managing academic blogs. If you haven't started a blog yet, choosing the right blogging platform can help you manage your classroom blog in the long run. Before we answer the question of which blog platform to use we need to understand some terminology commonly used when talking about blogs.

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Like a Swiss Army knife or Batman's utility belt, but for tech savvy teachers and scholars.

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13 Free Web Tools Students and Teachers Should Know About | MindShift | KQED News

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Web-based tools continue to proliferate, giving teachers more to add to their arsenal, but it can be hard to determine which resources are worth spending t

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Not geared towards classrooms, but great if you want to start your own blog.

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Blogging platforms can often be cluttered and complicated, featuring a multitude of widgets and plugins that we might never use. However new publishing tools are being built that emphasize readability, simplicity and usability. These modern blog platforms put the focus on the writing experience, to create a distraction-free writing environment. The exciting trend towards minimalist, responsive, typographic driven blogging, allows the content to shine. Many of these platforms support Markdown, which is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for writing on the web. Writing in Markdown means a document is as readable as possible, in plain text, reducing the time you spend formatting your blog posts. You may already have used some of the major platforms already available, such as WordPress, Tumblr, Squarespace and Blogger, and found they didn't quite fit your needs. This post is a rundown of 16 of the best minimalist blogging platforms that pair down the features and focus on the writing. [seealso url="http://mashable.com/2014/01/21/dinovember-book/"] Postagon is equipped with just the essentials for a pure reading and writing experience. It features a visual and Markdown editor, smart commenting system, private posts and drafts, email alerts, drag and drop functionality, and the ability to publish posts via email. There's no separate mobile app required and you can use your own domain name, view your email subscribers, import and export posts, publish RSS feeds, and share posts on social networks. Postagon also features retina display support and is not ad supported, so your blog is kept simple and clutter free. From the dashboard you can view your email subscribers, with easy integration of Google Analytics. All of the features are optional, so if you don't need them you don't have to use them. Price: $4.99 per month Svbtle is an extremely simple writing writing and reading network that focuses on the writing, providing a simple platform for collecting and developing ideas, and sharing them with the world. Initially an invite-only writing network, Svbtle has now opened to the public. The dashboard is designed to work like your brain, and encourages you to dump ideas, links, and thoughts into a flow or draft posts. You can then work to slowly sculpt ideas into publishable articles, creating a more organic approach to blogging. There are no distractions, with only the essential styling options available, though articles can be written using shorthand formatting with Markdown for more control. Your full name appears by everything you write and you can use a custom domain and avatar. Price: Free Ghost is dedicated to publishing and is completely customizable and open source, meaning it's free to modify, share and redistribute. It's designed to be simple and elegant, enabling you to spend less time making your blog work, and more time writing. It features a smart writing screen, with the Markdown editor on the left, and a live preview on the right. You can write down your ideas and format on the fly - you can even theme the preview pane to match your blog's formatting exactly. The dashboard pulls all the important data about your blog into one place, and you can drag and drop widgets to create your own custom dashboard. While Ghost is free, a dedicated, hosted platform is available to host your Ghost powered website. Price: Free - $80 per month (Large hosting plan) Wardrobe is a minimalistic blogging application that aims to make blogging simple and enjoyable, by keeping the focus on the writing, and away from administration. All content is stored as Markdown so it's portable, with the ability to drag and drop Markdown files into the admin area to create posts for quick publishing. You can write posts and schedule the time and date you want them to appear. Wardrobe utilizes a simple yet powerful theming system, so almost any design can be integrated, meaning you can easily create a blog design to match your brand. Post tagging can be used for categorization and grouping. Installing Wardrobe is simple - once it's up and running you will be directed to the guided install process to prepare your database, create users and set your site title, theme, and page values. Price: Free Postach.io turns your Evernote notebook into a content management system, allowing you to hook into commenting tools such as Disqus, with support for Markdown and Google Analytics. Once you link Postach.io to your Evernote account, you grant it access to your notes and notebooks, and then need to choose a blog name and URL. You can use custom domains and upload custom profile avatars or logos directly on your site. Postach.io makes it possible to embed YouTube and Vimeo videos, Tweets, Instagram images, your About.me profile, and more. You can also connect your Tumblr account to automatically import your Tumblr posts to your Postach.io blog. When you create your blog, you have the option to have Postach.io automatically create an Evernote notebook where all your posts will be saved, or you can choose an existing notebook. Price: Free - $5 per month (Premium) Medium provides a simple, beautiful, collaborative platform to help you find the right audience for what you have to say. There are no distractions, no sidebars, plugins or widgets, with nothing to setup or customize, and your words and images will look great on any device. With the composing tool you have just the right amount of formatting. Simply select the text you wish to format and a toolbar will pop up with just a few simple formatting options. With Medium you're not writing 'alone', you can invite feedback, share posts, and link to other articles that share the same context. You can submit your story to relevant collections, set up an RSS feed, and recommend pieces you like. You don't need to be "internet famous" to have your post to reach hundreds of thousands of readers, as Medium uses a combination of algorithms and editorial curation based on interest and engagement. Price: Free Jekyll transforms your plain text into static websites and blogs, with no need for databases, comment moderation or updates. meaning you get to concentrate on creating great content. It works by taking a template directory containing raw text files, runs them through Markdown and Liquid convertors, and generates a complete, ready-to-publish static website. As Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, you can use Jekyll to host your project's page, blog, or website from GitHub's servers. If you're switching to Jekyll from another blogging system, Jekyll's importers can help with the move. All you need to do to maintain your blog is manage a folder of text-files on your computer, with absolutely no hassle that comes with the usual CMS's. Price: Free Anchor is a super-simple lightweight, blog system that gives you full freedom over your words. You can write in Markdown or HTML, and creating and modifying a theme is as simple as knowing some very simple PHP and HTML/CSS. If you want to add custom CSS, JavaScript, or an image to a post, just drag the file over to Anchor. You can create and utilize theme hooks without the need for any programming knowledge. The system is extensible, so you can add or remove an infinite amount of custom fields to any post or page, with the ability to make every article unique by adding custom CSS, JavaScript, or HTML to your posts or pages. Anchor weighs just 150kb and takes only two minutes to install. Price: Free Bolt is a sophisticated, lightweight, simple CMS, that is quick to set up. It's perfect for those that need a system that's easy to configure, manage and maintain, but is also flexible and versatile. It enables users to spend more time producing and editing content, with a fully responsive dashboard that supports mobile and tablet devices. There is a basic structure for user levels and easy file and image upload. The change log keeps a log file of all changes to the content, so if you're working within a team, you'll be able to see who edited which page on the website. The flexible content types mean you can use different files in your content to create various content pages, like blog entries, events, book reviews, galleries, and more. Bolt comes packaged with field types, flexible taxonomies, built in search, multi-language support, and the ability to use custom routing and redirection. Price: Free Hexo is a fast, simple and powerful blog framework powered by Node.js, that supports multi-thread generating, so hundreds of files take just seconds to generate. Your posts are parsed with Markdown which then generates static files, with installation taking just a few minutes. Hexo also supports GitHub flavored Markdown, Octopress plugins, Jekyll, EJS, Swig and Stylus. There are nearly 40 themes to choose from, including Bootstrap and iOS inspired through to a theme that generates 301 redirection pages for site migration. It's simple to get started, just make sure you have both Git and Node.js installed. Node.js is a platform built on Google Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Poet is another simple blog framework built on Node.js, that is worth checking out. Price: Free Silvrback is a hosted, Markdown-powered blog that features a clean, modern UI and complete control over your brand. The homepage has space for a profile image, bio and Twitter handle, with the ability to add links and navigation. You can customize your blog to suit your brand, and readers can subscribe to be notified by email when you publish a new article. Silvrback features YouTube, JsFiddle and Vimeo embedding capabilities, and the sleek dashboard UI has a slide-out menu for easy navigation. Comments are powered by Disqus, with support for Typekit fonts and hack-friendly syntax highlighting. Silvrback boasts compelling archive and bio pages, custom favicon support and a neat real-time post preview tool. As Silvrback is built on the backbone of AWS, it is setup to autoscale when a traffic surge is detected, so you never need to worry about your blog going down. Price: Free Roon is a beautiful, distraction free blogging platform, with no setup or code necessary. It works on all mobile and tablet devices, with each app all focused on the writing experience rather than a list of features. If you maintain multiple blogs, just hit 'Add New Blog' and you can create a fresh new blog, all under the same user account. Roon gives you the choice of writing in Markdown or in Rich Text mode, and you can switch between modes at any time. Your blog is neatly organized into one zip file, should you wish to export your data, with each post saved as a Markdown file inside its own directory, along with any images you may have uploaded. There are premium add-ons available to purchase that extend the feature set of Roon, including custom domains and custom analytics. Price: Free After Posterous shut down in 2012, its two founding members created Posthaven, with a promise to last forever, only asking enough to cover server costs each month. It's a long-term project which aims to create one of the best blogging platforms in the world, and to keep it alive for as long as possible. You can create up to 10 blogs, post by email, and create posts using the web post editor. Posthaven offers the ability to upload photos, music, videos, documents, and any kind of file to your blog. You can autopost to Facebook and Twitter, follow blogs using email notifications, have multiple contributors per blog and setup your blog as private with a secure password. The automatic antispam commenting system means you spend less time editing blog comments, and more time writing. Price: $5 per month Scriptogram is a tool for generating simple, elegant, static blogs by reading Markdown files stored in your Dropbox folder. You can write with your preferred editor application (and publish from there), or from the Scriptogram dashboard, by clicking 'Synchronize'. You can choose from a selection of beautiful themes from the theme directory, or use your own. Scriptogram is designed to be invisible, as text formatting, post titles, dates and tags are all handled within your editor of choice. Using HTML and CSS you can tweak and edit existing themes or create a new one, to match your branding. Getting started is simple, just authorize Scriptogram to connect to your account, it will then create a new folder to store your posts, you then enter your email address and choose a username, which forms part of the URL where your blog can be accessed. If you like Scriptogram, you might also want to check out Calepin, which reads Markdown-formatted text files in your Dropbox, and converts them into blog posts. Price: Free Pen.io allows anyone to publish on the web without going through a signup process or creating an account. You can create a permanent webpage with your content, without registering a domain or paying for hosting. It's easy to create a post, just type in your page title and a password, so you can make changes and edits, and hit 'Create New Page'. Your edits are automatically saved as you make sure, so there's no need to worry about losing any updates. There is no back-end to maintain, as you make edits on the fly, and publishing multiple pages is simple - just insert the ":page" tag. You can drag and drop photos and add YouTube video URLs, and is perfect for those who don't want to commit to starting a blog, but want to share their writing, essays, poems, research projects and lots more. Once you've finished, Pen.io provides you with a unique URL for your page, so you can easily share it with others. Price: Free Dropplets is a platform dedicated to making blogging simple, with no database to maintain, you can install Dropplets on any server, compose offline using Markdown and publish to your own domain. Installation takes as little as 30 seconds, just download the zip file, extract it and upload the extracted files to your server. You can then load your website in any browser and follow the setup instructions. Dropplets allows you to compose your blog posts in in any text editor using Markdown, which is simple, memorizable and lightweight. Once you're ready to publish your post, just change the post status to 'Published' and then upload your Markdown file, using the uploader. While Dropplets comes with a free template to use, there are premium templates available to purchase in the marketplace. As it's open source, you can contribute on GitHub to the development of Dropplets. Price: Free [wp_scm_comment]

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16 Blogging Platforms That Won't Distract From Your Writing

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Blogging platforms can often be cluttered and complicated, featuring a multitude of widgets and plugins that we might never use. However new publishing tools are being built that emphasize readability, simplicity and usability. These modern blog platforms put the focus on the writing experience, to create a distraction-free writing environment.

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Welcome to our free professional learning series on class and student blogging!

This series guides you step-by-step through the process of class and student blogging. It provides class blog examples so you can check out how they are used by educators. Many of the examples are from primary grades but the same principles apply regardless of student age (including adult learners).

Refer our personal blogging series if you want to set up a personal or professional educator's blog.

The activities can be completed at your own pace and in any order.

Wherever you're at - we'll step you through the tasks designed to increase your skills while providing help to support your learning. Don't stress, have fun, and remember to ask for help by leaving a comment any time you need assistance. You can also contact our support team.
The aim of this first activity is to:

Help you learn more about what is a blog and why educators use blogs.

Help you set up your class blog, customize your settings, and change your theme.

What is a blog?

One of the biggest challenges educators new to blogging face is understanding the basics of how a blog works.

We made this quick intro video to explain.

We recommend you start by watching this video.

We've included explanations of key blogging vocabulary which will help as you work through this series including Footers, Headers, Menus, Pages, Posts, Comments, Sidebars, Theme, and Widgets. Here is a Blogging vocabulary activity you can use with your students!

Feel free to share this video on your own blogs with students, teachers, parents, or anyone else. Later in this series, we show you how easy it is to add videos to your blog.

Defining exactly "What is a blog?" is becoming harder to answer as the lines between blogs, websites, ePortfolios and other online spaces blur.

A blog is simply a blank canvas that you can use in any way to meet your needs and the needs of your students and school community.

Why educators use blogs

The main reasons why educators use blogs include:

To share information and class news with parents, family, and caregivers.

To provide students with a way to access assignments, homework, resources, and information about their class online.

For global collaboration and authentic audiences.

To inspire and motivate students.

The benefits of class blogging include:

Having an authentic audience

Covering new and traditional literacies

Forming home-school connections

Covering digital citizenship authentically

Providing an online home for digital and analog creations

Developing thinking and reflection

Building a classroom community

Developing essential ICT skills

Read more about the benefits of blogging for students and teachers.

Here are some teacher reflections on the benefits of class blogging summarized from The State of Educational blogging in 2017/2018.

Blogging opens up the possibilities of an audience in new ways. When students are writing or publishing for an audience other than the teacher, it impacts how they view what they are doing and the intrinsic motivation they have.

Students love seeing their work on the internet and adore getting comments from people. It motivates them to write as it gives them an audience that is real. The blog opens up a whole new world of people who can offer encouragement and feedback.

The blogging experience forces the students to do more reflection on their learning and allows them to showcase products they have produced with online tools.

Blogging provides an authentic educational experience, where what they write is not only seen and commented on by their teacher, but by their peers and the "public." For most students, it's a bit of extra motivation knowing their peers will see their work.

There is an authentic audience - a global audience - one that is willing to connect, share, challenge, discuss and communicate with classes. This audience can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on which pushes blogging further.

Blogging develops a learning network. Exercise books etc. need not be pushed and crumpled in school lockers only to be placed in the rubbish bins at the end of the school year, but student work is out there for their school lives.

Examples of class blogs

Your class blog is what extends your class beyond the four walls of your classroom. As you get going, you'll soon decide the kinds of content, information and connections you want to make.

Here are examples of class blogs to check out for ideas:

1. Swoop Into Kindergarten - Kindergarten

2. Mrs. Mooney's Class Blog - Grade 1

3. Team 2 Eagles - Grade 2

4. Mrs. Yollis' Classroom blog - Grade 3

5. The Cross Chronicles - Grade 3

6. Baldock and Grantham Class blog - Grade 3

7. Terrific 4T Learners - Grade 4

8. Mrs. Moore's Class blog - Grade 4

9. Krebs Class Blog - Grade 5

10. Westwood with Iford Orchid Class Blog - Grade 5/6

11. The Electronic Pencil - Grade 6

12. Huzzah - Grade 6/7

13. Mrs. Kriese's Class Blog - Year 7

14. Room 5 - Year 8

15. Ogle Elementary Library

16. Jurupa Hills High School Photography

17. Year 12 ATAR English

18. Mr Cartlidge's Science Blog - High School

19. St. Charles Borromeo School Blog - Primary

20. The Edublogger class blog list - includes Maths, Science, English, History, LOTE, EFL /ESL, Library, school news blogs and more!

Sign up for your class blog

Your first step if you don't currently have your own blog, or you would like to use a new blog for this challenge, is to sign up for a blog.

You can use any blogging platform you would like including Edublogs, WordPress, and Blogger, however, when we write detailed instructions they will refer to Edublogs and CampusPress blogs. You will be able to adapt this information to the blogging platform you are using.

Here are some important things to consider before creating your blog:

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 on posts and comments.

Most teachers don't allow students to use their first and last name online and it is common for them to model this by using display names like Miss W or Mrs. Waters.

Blog URL (Domain)

During the creation of your blog, you have to select a URL for it. When you want others to visit your blog you give them the URL link of your blog. For example, the URL for the Teacher Challenge blog is http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/

Think carefully about your blog URL.

Once your blog has an established audience you're less likely to want to change your blog URL. Ideally, you want to keep your blog URL short, easy to remember, and flexible so you can reuse your URL for several years.

For example, blog URLs that include your classroom number or the year mean that you're less likely to use the same blog URL again next year. Most educators re-use their class blog each year because:

It saves time and is easier.

It provides a record of previous years' work to share with students and/or a resource the teacher can refer to.

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

1. Mr. Baldock's Class blog (http://mrbaldock.edublogs.org)

2. Mrs. Moore's Class blog ( http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/ )

Or use something unique that has meaning like Huzzah ( http://huzzah.edublogs.org).

Your blog title is one of the first things a reader sees when visiting your blog. Choose a name that reflects the purpose of your class blog and is something your students can relate to.

But don't stress too much! You can always change your blog title any time via Settings > General in your dashboard.

Some teachers organize a class activity so students can help choose the blog title.

Check out The Edublogger class blog list for ideas!

Blog Privacy

Blog privacy controls who can and can't view your blog.

There is a wide range of opinions on whether blogs should be public or private. 55 % of student blogs on Edublogs are public and can be viewed by anyone and 45 % of student blogs are private and restricted to specific readers.
The pros of posting on public blogs

Students are writing for a real audience - not just the teacher

With no passwords to keep up with, parents and relatives can simply access the work

When students know anyone can see their work, they will try harder

Students can easily share with their peers using social media and other means

Visitors from down the hall or around the world can comment and collaborate

You lose out on connections, extended dialogues, and the motivating factor of working for an authentic purpose when blogs are made private.
Concerns of posting on public blogs
School administrators, who are rightfully risk-adverse, often immediately say that no public posting is allowed. Teachers, afraid of potential headaches due to students saying something inappropriate, bullying, or not having total control also get nervous about allowing students to publish freely online.

Some parents can feel uncomfortable with their child publishing content on a public blog and there are some family situations where a student needs to use a private blog. Providing a detailed parent handout with a blogging consent form helps parents understand why you are using a blog and lets parents provide feedback for their child. We cover handouts and consent forms in Step 6.
Changing blog privacy
Blog privacy on the class blog is set in Settings > Reading.

The three most common privacy options used on Class blogs are:

Allow search engines to index this site
Allows anyone to read the content of your blog and for your blog to be indexed by search engines such as Google.

Discourage search engines from indexing this site

Allows anyone who knows your blog URL to read your blog content while blocking web crawlers so that your blog is not indexed by search engines such as Google.

You use this option if you want to keep your blog public so your content can easily be read but want to limit it to only people who know your blog URL.

Anyone that visits must first provide this password
Used if you want to restrict who can read your blog content to only people who know the password. This is the best privacy option to use on a private blog if you want parents, students, and other teachers to easily view your blog without having to log into an account.

Create your blog

Now you've done all the research it's time to create your blog! All you need to do is follow these instructions if you would like to set up your blog on Edublogs.

Alternately, check out The State of Educational Blogging 2017/2018 to read more about the different blog platforms used by educators.

Prefer a video guide? This 15 minute tutorial is a simple orientation to blogging.

Your Profile page is where you can control the global settings for your username including where you set up your display name, change your password and email address.

It's worth spending time quickly learning how to update your profile so you'll be able to explain the steps to your students.

Your Profile is most commonly used to update display name, password and email address so we'll focus on this. You'll notice there are lots of personal settings options in Your Profile and you can read more about each personal setting here.
Here's how to update your Profile:
1. Log into your blog dashboard.

2. Go to Users > Your Profile inyour blog dashboard.

3. Scroll to near the bottom of the page to Name area.

4. Add your first name and last name.

Students should only ever use their first name and the initial of their last name online or a pseudo-name.

5. Click on the drop-down arrow and select your preferred publicly displayed name.

6. Now scroll to the bottom of the page to the new password field.

Change your password by clicking on Generate Password.

You can either use this automatically generated password or replace it with your own password.

There is no need to update your password (unless you want to). We just wanted to show you how it is done.

7. Now just click on Update Profile to apply the changes.
Remember to always click on Update Profile whenever you make any changes on Your Profile page!
Upload your user avatar

Your avatar is an online representation of you.

The user avatar is also known as your comment avatar. You upload the user avatar via Users > Your Avatar and it displays in places where you leave comments and next to posts you publish on some themes.

The default avatar set in Settings > Discussions is automatically displayed next to comments you leave unless you upload your own avatar.

Below is an example of a user avatar next to a comment.

There are a few tricks to setting up your user avatar so it's worth setting it up now so you can demonstrate to your students later and will know what to do if they have any issues.
You upload your avatar as follows:
1. Select a photo or create your avatar using an online tool.

Schools often don't allow students to use photos of themselves on blogs so teachers often get their students to create avatars that are representative of them. You'll find a list of online tools and ideas for creating avatars here.

2. Resize your image to 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels high.

3. Go to Users > Your Avatar.

4. Click on Browse and locate the avatar you want to upload.

5. Click on Upload.

6. Move the crop area to one corner, then expand the crop area to include your full image and click Crop image.

7. Now when you view a post where you've left a comment you will see your new comment avatar.
Important tips:

1. If you change your avatar and still see the old avatar it may be your web browser remembering your old image.

2. Hold the Ctrl key and press F5 to clear your browser cache or right mouse click and select Refresh or Reload.

Check your settings

The General Settings is where you configure the broad settings of your blog including your blog title, tagline, blog admin email address, and timezone.

The most important setting to update in General Settings is your timezone. Educators often assume that blogs are automatically created set to their timezone and weeks later wonder why the post and comments date and times are weird.

The other important thing to consider is the blog admin email address. This email address is where all comment moderation emails are sent, and is used for payment receipts (if you are an Edublogs Pro subscriber). If you would like to receive comment moderation emails then we recommend you add your email address.

You'll find more information on the configurations options in General Settings here.
Here's how to change your timezone:
1. Go to Settings > General.

2. Select your timezone from the drop-down menu option.

3. Click Save Changes.

Customize your blog theme

Your theme is what controls the look and appearance of your blog; it's what people see when they visit your blog.

This is how you give your class blog its personal touch.

Like most things in life, first impressions count.

Great blog themes make good impressions on readers so that visitors are more likely to check out your blog. Overwhelming themes detract from your blog content and make visitors less likely to read your content.

Every newly created blog normally has the same default theme. The last thing you want is to look like all the other blogs.

Customizing your blog theme is normally one of the first things most people want to do when they first log into their blog.

So let's finish off getting your class blog started by showing you how to customize your theme!

Using the theme customizer

Ready to change your theme?

Great! It's really easy. Using the customizer you can customize your theme and see the results in real time before activating the theme.
Customizer video Here's how to change your theme using the theme customizer:
1. Go to Appearance > Themes

2. Click on ' Live Preview ' below the theme you want to use.

Or if you want to customize your current theme, click on ' Customize ' under the current theme.

3. This loads the customizer. Now all you do is work through the control panels on the left to customize the theme to preview the theme changes in real time before activating it on your blog.

4. Once you're happy with the changes you just click ' Save & Publish'.

Below's a quick summary of each customizer control panel:
We recommend you leave the static front page set to 'Latest Posts'.
Most class blogs use a blog post page for their homepage and we'll explain why you might use a static page in Step 2: Setting up pages.

You'll find more detailed information on using the customizer here.

Almost all our themes include an option to upload your own custom image header.

A custom image header is a great way of adding your "own personal touch" to your class blog.
You upload your own custom header image as follows:
1. Click on Add new image in the header image section of the customizer.

2. Choose an image from your media library or upload a new image from your computer.

Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.

For best results, we recommend you re-size the image to the exact dimensions recommended for the theme before uploading using an image editing program.

3. Click on Select and Crop.

4. Click on Crop image.

5. Your new header image should appear in your blog preview window.

6. Click Save & Publish on the Customizer to activate the new header on your blog.

Want more advice about making your own custom header image? Check out this tutorial from Stef Galvin.

Upload background image

On many themes, much like custom header images, you can add images to your blog's background. A background image is another great way of adding that personal touch to your class blog.

You upload your own custom background image as follows:

Click on Background Image in the Customizer.

If you don't see the Background Image section in the Customizer it means the theme doesn't support this option.

3. Click on Add new image.

4. Choose an image from your media library or upload a new image from your computer.

Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used.

5. Click on Choose Image.

Once you have selected an image the background image options will appear:

Background repeat: controls if the background image is repeated. Choices are:

No Repeat - background image is only displayed once on the page.

Tile - background image is tiled horizontally and vertically.

Tile horizontally - background image only repeats horizontally.

Tiled vertically - background image only repeats vertically.

Background position: allows you to control the position of the background image. Options are left, center, and right.

Background attachment: determines if you want the image to scroll with the content or to remain 'fixed' in place when a reader scrolls down the page.

For best results we recommend you use Tile, left and Scroll.

6. Your new background image should appear in your blog preview window.

7. Click Save & Publish on the Customizer to activate the new background on your blog.

Frequently Asked Theme Questions

These are some of questions around themes that we're commonly asked.
1. Can I upload my own theme?
Because of the way blog platforms like Edublogs, WordPress.com, and Blogger work, you can only use the themes provided and can't upload your own custom themes. Most themes are designed to work on single installs and many don't work or can have compatibility issues on blog platforms.

Remember that custom image headers and backgrounds are a very effective way of customizing your theme to meet your needs.
2. How do I change the font color, font size, and text color?
Some themes have extensive theme customization options which aren't supported by the theme customizer.

They often include options to change font color, font size, and text color.

These types of themes add a theme option menu item under Appearance once the theme is activated.

To do more extensive customization you just need to go to Appearance > Theme Options.

You can also change font type, size and color in posts or on pages using the Supreme Google Webfonts plugin.

Blogging is about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. Here's your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

Complete the following tasks:

1. Visit some of the blogs on the examples of class blog list then leave a comment on this post to tell us which were your favorite class blog(s) on the list and why they were your favorite blog(s).

2. Read through the most recent comments in reply to this step and leave a response to another person's comment.

Remember to leave a link to your blog in your comment so we can have a look at your new blog!

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Welcome to our free professional learning series on class and student blogging! This series guides you step-by-step through the process of class and student blogging. It provides class blog examples so you can check out how they are used by educators.

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A resource from Scholastic

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He's a character on tv. He's not real. But... his blog is.

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A great man once said: "All things in moderation." Obviously he wasn't referring to money, sex or snack foods, but generally speaking you don't want to overdo things, especially the high five.

Since before the age of man, organisms have expressed satisfaction by slapping appendages with other brorganisms; neighboring trees would celebrate ejecting a woodpecker by reaching across to slap branches, prehistoric whales would slap tails after clicking a particular fresh blubber joke, and even the first amoeba to crawl out of the ocean took one look at land and turned back to his amoebros to say, "High flagellum!"

While animals were smart enough to only high five after something truly epic, everything changed after a group of cavemen witnessed two T-Rexes executing an awkward "stubby five." Since that time, mankind has effectively neutered the importance of the high five by using it for mundane accomplishments like making a free throw, fixing the photocopier, or getting undercharged for drinks at the bar (Actually, that last one's pretty sweet). Because of all this senseless high-fivery, the world has started to experience high five inflation, or "high five-lation."

In response, authorities tried to institute a sliding scale in which a "high one" would acknowledge something mundane (e.g. stealing someone's cab), a "high three" would be reserved for something slightly awesome (e.g. surprise flashing when a chick wearing a skirt stands on a subway grate), and a "high five" would only be invoked for something truly awesome (e.g. getting undercharged for drinks at the bar - the more I think about it the more I think that's pretty much as good as it gets).

Unfortunately, the high 1-5 system had its flaws, notably how difficult it was for people who are missing digits or can't count - often the same people. That's why I've yet again come to the rescue by introducing the "high infinity" (copyright, patent pending... all that crap).

Please save the high infinity for only the most awesome of the awesome and remember: you're not doing it right if you DON'T break your hand.

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A great man once said: "All things in moderation." Obviously he wasn't referring to money, sex or snack foods, but generally speaking you don't want to overdo things, especially the high five.

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Check out what Rahm Emanuel is tweeting.

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Tweets by RahmEmanuel

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An example of a popular blog.

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Honestly, I've never felt so sheepish in my life. In my notes from my initial tryout with the Chicago Force women's tackle football team, it says in all caps: "WHAT AM I DOING????"

For a story for ESPN the Magazine, I'm pulling a George Plimpton and practicing with the local sports team you never heard of.

But you should have: The semi-pro team has been around since 2002 and last year they finished second in the 51-team International Women's Football League.

They lost the championship game in overtime to the Dallas Diamonds, whose tailback "was like tackling a horse," according to former safety and Force co-owner Linda Bache, who suffered a career-ending concussion in the game and is still feeling the effects.

I wonder what I'll be like to tackle. And I am not alone: I've practiced at quarterback a half-dozen times, though not in pads yet, but I've already been startled by a nurse named Jennifer who screamed in my face as she charged me from her cornerback position. "We were told we can hit you," a defensive tackle told me with a grin, "and I won't lie to you, I wasn't unhappy to hear that."

My offensive teammates are more encouraging. "You can do it, Dave!" my charges tell me when they return to the huddle to try the play one more time after I inexplicably throw the ball straight into the ground.

I've bonded with J.J., the mysterious Mohawk-wearing voodoo running back who at the rookie tryout handed me a small plastic Egyptian Anubis doll and told me it was good luck. Later, I'd learn that J.J. knows from good luck. When I asked her what she does for a living, she told me she does nothing. "I'm very lucky," she said.

Amy"s a three-year veteran but she's new at center and not sure of her shotgun snaps. "Was that one okay?" she asks me after the whistle blows. But I have to confess to her my head is so full of things to remember that I don't remember catching the ball at all.

My favorite target is Albiona Zhubi, whose cocky smile says "wide-receiver" and whose legs and hands are good enough to make my worst throws look as good as my best ones.

I'm so awed by the Force's starting quarterback, Samantha Grisafe, that I can barely bring myself to talk to her. She played QB on her men's high school football team.

"Have you ever heard of such a thing?" I asked my photographer pal Bruce Bever.

"Yeah," he said. "But only on That's Incredible!"

There's the ripped rookie Karyn Silvestri who's filling Bache's shoes. There's squeaky-clean Charbie the architect/linebacker, there's the power-lifter offensive linewoman who questions her own commitment but who is the only one who does, and there's the petite 44-year-old rookie who I call Mary Patter, because she's always talking--asking the coach questions, encouraging her teammates, talking technique or making a friendly crack.

I'm growing fond of these women.

I'm taken aback by the amount of time they put into this, many of them driving an hour each way for two- and three-hour practices, most of them on weeknights. And they each raise or pay about $800 for the privilege.

I'm touched by their earnest love for tackle football and gratitude for the chance to play it. (It's only football, you say? Earnestness and gratitude are hard to come by these days and you take it wherever you get it.)

And I'm relieved that I'm getting fewer looks that say, "Who's the dude who didn't get the memo?"

In one important way, I'm just like them. Only for me it was just my own adolescent timidity that kept me from trying out for my junior high football team. Now a 39-year-old who has taken ten thousand snaps in his living room but never one in a real game, I'm losing myself in the rigorous demands of thoroughly learning the half-dozen plays that I'll run in the team's public preseason scrimmage on April 5.

Repeatedly, I have to remind myself that I'm here to write a story. And I've got to remind John Konecki, too, who's a head coach first and a media relations man last. "If you write about my signals," he told me, "I'll come over and turn your house upside down."

Reluctantly, Coach and I have agreed I'll only attend one of the team's three weekly practices--a less disruptive schedule for both of us--and he's said that yes, he can prepare me to play in the scrimmage, and maybe even play well.

But he's a football coach and he can't help it: My dilettante ways, and the way they're retarding my learning curve--it's getting on his nerves. "I try to be patient," he told me after a recent practice.

But the rest of the time he's apologizing to me about not having time to give me more individual coaching aside from his day job at Crete-Monee High School.

As for me, the adventure is already as bittersweet as it is fun: Whenever I'm not feeling anxious about slowing my teammates down, or worried I'll fail to portray them accurately in my piece, I'm anticipating the sadness I'll feel after that April scrimmage, when the exercise is all over for me and the journey is just beginning for them.

Force Family Win, on three!

Watch here for another report or two along the way.

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Paper Lioness: A Report From the Line of Scrimmage

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Honestly, I've never felt so sheepish in my life. In my notes from my initial tryout with the Chicago Force women's tackle football team, it says in all caps: "WHAT AM I DOING????" For a story for ESPN the Magazine, I'm pulling a George Plimpton and practicing with the local sports team you never heard of.

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Ciara's Blog

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Posted on April 28, 2015 at 5:48 pm by Climate Change
ciarawo8b and

My generation needs to know important questions and answers about climate change like; what climate change is, what the green house effect is, what global warming is, what causes global warming,how global warming effects us as humans, and lastly how we can solve this problem.

Firstly the definition of climate change is a long term change in the earth's climate, or a change due to an increase in the average temperature. An example of climate change is when the icebergs start to melt, and when the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases than the climate begins to change and we have to worry about problems such as floods,and droughts.

Next you need to know what the green house effect is,the definition of green house effect is when sun rays heats up the

Posted on September 30, 2014 at 4:18 pm by Why I Want To Go To Mars
ciarawo8b and

If I had the opportunity to go to Mars I wouldn't go, because I believe that it is too dangerous. Previous astronomers have been to the moon, but nobody has been to Mars. Astronomers said that when they went to the moon that they have lost at least 14% of their bone density. Also they are in danger, because they have to worry about getting cancer from the charged partials that comes from exploding stars. Those are not the only reason I wouldn't go is because scientist haven't created a suit that has enough pressure in it, because the suit that they have for astronomers to go to the moon doesn't have enough pressure that they will need to go to Mars. Another reason why I wouldn't go to Mars is that I would have to worry about is meteoroids hitting the space ship scientist have proved that a meteoroid moves faster than a bullit. Also that a small piece of a meteoroid can do a lot of damage.

Posted on September 2, 2014 at 3:57 pm by My First Blog Post
ciarawo8b and

My first three weeks in eighth grade have been fun so far, because I figured out who were my true friends, got to hang out at the beach every weekend, and got to meet new people. I feel like everything is new now, because people treat me different, they give me more respect. Also I get more responsibilities now than when I was in seventh grade.

Eighth grade will be very different, I would have to get use to getting more assignment s and using my time more wisely. Also I would have to figure out when i will do my community service, where I will do it, and what did I learn from all of it. I am looking forward to the end of the school year, because the entire eighth grade will have so many field trips. Plus we will see who has the best grades and who will graduate with no problem.

Posted on August 29, 2014 at 3:55 pm by Hello world!
ciarawo8b and

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs!

To get started, simply visit your blog's dashboard, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

Like more help?

We can walk you through step-by-step in our guide to getting started with your blog.

Happy blogging!

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Ciara's Classrooms Blog - My Thoughts and Experiences

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Posted on April 28, 2015 at 5:48 pm by Climate Change ciarawo8b and My generation needs to know important questions and answers about climate change like; what climate change is, what the green house effect is, what global warming is, what causes global warming,how global warming effects us as humans, and lastly how we can solve this problem.

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How the heck do we keep track of all this?

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In the course of a year I get to run a lot of workshops about blogging. One of the questions that frequently comes up in those workshops goes something like this, "do you recommend that I have just one blog or should all of my students have their own blogs?" There is not a clear cut answer to this question because the answer depends upon how you envision using blogs in your teaching practice.

If your use of blogging is going to be limited to just distributing information about your class(es) to students and their parents, one blog is all that you need. Even if you teach multiple courses, one blog is sufficient if you're only using it to distribute information. Simply label each new blog post with the name or section of the course for whom the information is intended. From a management standpoint it is far easier to label each blog post on one blog than it is to maintain a different blog for each course that you teach. That is a lesson that took me one semester to learn.

In the fall of 2005 I was teaching five sections of the same ninth grade social studies course and even though the content was the same each class always seemed to be in a different place than the others so I tried to maintain five different blogs. Before long I found myself either posting to the wrong blog or my students were going to the wrong blog because they had forgotten the blog's URL and asked a classmate from a different section of the course for the blog's URL. After that semester I decided to create one blog to use as the central online hub for all of my students. All students who took a course with me would have the URL for my blog and go there whenever they needed an update about their courses. I found it very easy to say to students, "go to my blog and click on the label for your class." Even when I started to have students contribute to group blogs they started out by going to my blog and clicking the link to their group blogs.

If you envision having all of your students write blog posts, proper planning of the blogging process is critical to being able to keep track of your students' work. Teachers who have twenty-five or fewer students might be able to have each student maintain his or her own blog and keep track of all of them, but even twenty-five blogs is a lot to keep track of. The solution that I recommend is to create a group blog for each class that you teach. Create the blog using whichever platform you like then make each student an author on the blog. To track who wrote what on the blog make sure that the author's name (first names only or use pen names with young students). Alternatively, you can have students label or tag posts with their names or pen names to sort out who wrote what. As the creator and owner of the group blog you will be able to see who wrote what from your administrative panel, but that doesn't help parents who want to check the blog to see what their children have been sharing.

Teachers who want students to use blogs to experiment with web design and coding will have to allow each student to maintain his or her own blog. Likewise, if the goal is to have each student showcase work for college or internship applications then each student will need to be the sole author on that blog. Keeping track of all of those blogs is a challenge, but a manageable challenge. One quick management method is to create a spreadsheet of all of your students' blogs. Another quick management strategy is to create a list of links to the blogs then post that list in a side column on your own blog so that you or anyone else visiting your blog can quickly jump to a student's blog.

On a related note, if you're trying to convince a teacher to start a blog, this slideshow that I made five years ago still illustrates one reason to have a blog that every teacher can relate to.

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In the course of a year I get to run a lot of workshops about blogging. One of the questions that frequently comes up in those workshops goes something like this, "do you recommend that I have just one blog or should all of my students have their own blogs?"

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Readwritethink.org's take on how to teach with blogs.

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

Home › Professional Development › Strategy Guides

Strategy Guide

Reading and writing texts online are basic skills that students need to be literate citizens in the 21st century. Teaching with blogs provides the opportunity to engage students in both of these literacy activities, and the strategy has the additional benefit of enabling students to publish their writing easily and to share their writing with an authentic audience.

When students write entries and comment on the entries of their peers, blogs become an integral part of a lively literacy community. Students can post on such topics as journal/diary entries, reflections on their writing process, details on their research projects, commentary on recent events or readings, and drafts for other writing they are doing.

Once a student posts an entry, others in the class can respond, provide supportive feedback, and offer additional suggestions or perspectives. By writing and commenting on blogs, students write for real readers (not just for their teachers). As a result, students focus on clear communication and get immediate feedback on whether they communicate effectively.

Students can write blogs that fit any genre from diary entries to reading journals, from reflective comments to literary analysis, and more. Any genre that a student can write with pen on a piece of paper can also be written online as a blog entry.

Review your district's appropriate use policies to determine the requirements for a blogging site that students can use. Remember that anyone can post to most of the public blogging sites. Some material on them will be inappropriate for your classes. Some schools filter blogging sites, so you may need to speak with your technology coordinator ahead of time to get approval.

Make sure that all students have e-mail accounts, which are needed to set up accounts with blogging sites.

Choose a method for your students to blog:

o Use a free, Internet-based site. These sites allow students to connect from any place there is an Internet connection, so they are often more accessible and open. However, because anyone can access these sites, you must take special precautions to ensure that students work safely and avoid inappropriate content. Choose and test a blogging site for your class. Free blog hosts include LiveJournal, MySpace, Blogger, and Facebook. Most course management software, such as Blackboard, Ning, or Moodle, include blogging tools as well.

o Use an Intranet-based site. Intranet sites can be set up within your school or district network, so they are usually accessible only from school computers or via school logins. Because these are closed networks, they provide a greater ability to control the content that students access and to protect students from those outside the school's network. Choose a blogging site such as ePals or 21Classes. You can also work with your district's technology specialists to set up a private site using software such as Drupal or Moodle.

Review Common Blog Features and some example blogs with students. Discuss the features that are available in the blogging site that you have chosen for the class. If students are familiar with blogging, you can invite class members to share what they know about the different features.

Share online help and any available cheat sheets on the specific blogging site that you have chosen for the project. If you are using Blogger, use the Getting Started with Blogger, and Blogger Entries and Comments sheets. Otherwise share the details for the blogging site that you have chosen.

Demonstrate the blog hosting site that you have chosen for the class. Students should know how to accomplish basic tasks such as making text bold and italics and adding a hyperlink.

Choose a purpose. For their first few blog entries, provide several writing prompts that students can respond to. Choose writing activities that fit your goal for the blogs. For instance, if you want to use the blog entries to discuss literature, provide some discussion questions based on recent readings.

Remind students to preview their text before posting their entries, to make sure that the entry is ready for others to read it. Once a post is published, show students how to revise a post if necessary.

After students have posted entries, talk about the purpose of blog comments. Look at the comments on a popular blog or posted on a local newspaper in response to articles. Emphasize the importance of providing useful suggestinos and supportive feedback.

Share the Online Commenting Guidelines and discuss these general rules. Add details on your district's acceptable use policy as appropriate.

Begin the commenting process by asking students to respond to a certain number of blogs each week or to respond to everyone in their writing group each week.

Blogging With Photovoice: Sharing Pictures in an Integrated Classroom
Make the most of your students' diverse ability levels and experience with a prewriting activity in which they describe an abstract idea using blogging and photographs that they have taken.
Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia
Students work together to create their own utopias, using blogs as the primary source of publication.
Creating Character Blogs
Students view examples of blogs, learn the basic elements of blog creation, and then create a blog from the perspective of a fictional character.
Exploring Careers Using the Internet
Doctors, astrophysicists, and daycare providers are only some of the careers that will be explored in this lesson in which students research careers and publish occupational summaries about them.
Latino Poetry Blog: Blogging as a Forum for Open Discussion
In this lesson, students use blogs to hold discussions about the effect of the factors of culture, history, and environment on Latino poetry.
Weekly Writer's Blogs: Building a Reflective Community of Support
Students explore the conventions of blog writing while using it to self-reflect on their writing and communicate with classmates about each other's reflections.
Finding Solutions to Food Waste: Persuasion in a Digital World
Using various reading strategies and resources, students explore the issue of food waste. They also create persuasive arguments and blog posts examining this topic.
What Would Ben, Tom, and George Think? Blogging about the American Revolution
After researching famous people of the American Revolution, students take on the identities of these Patriots and Loyalists. Students then participate in a blog, writing responses about events leading up to and during the American Revolutionary War.

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Mr. Hepburn's 8th grade scholars are using this platform.

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Share, collaborate, build, and learn.

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Share, collaborate, build, and learn. Use our easy invite codes and class management tools to get started. And most importantly, it's free! Our content filters, moderation options, and multiple privacy tools keep everyone safe. Leave private teacher feedback, easily embed videos and other work, and build community.