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The Primary Blogging Community is currently accepting classes that blog for the October rotation. The last rotation was a huge success with over 80 classes participating from all over the world. Here is a brief description of what the blogging community is:
What is the Primary Blogging Community?

The PBC is a community of primary teachers (K-4th grade) that want to share their students' learning via their classroom blog and their students' personal blogs. Classrooms will be grouped with 3 or 4 other classrooms from around the globe. The program is 5 weeks long. The first week will concentrate on the classroom blogs only. During this week, you will visit the other classes' class blog. This is a chance for the other classes to see what is happening in your school and class, to discover where in the world you are located and to learn about how to write a good blog post and to watch how you model and work together to write a good comment. After the first week, we switch the focus from your classroom blog and concentrate on student blogs. The second week, one class will be the focus class with the other 3 classes commenting on the first class' individual blogs. The cycle continues for 3 more weeks. The focus is solely on your student's individual blogs.

1. You will be collaborating with other like minded educators on this project and in return will build your PLN.

2. PBC creates enthusiasm in reading and writing.

3. It gives your students a voice and lets them be the teacher to their peers.

4. Your students will have a built in audience that will provide authentic feedback to what they are writing about on their blogs.
5. On some days in the last rotation, my students had over 100 comments on their blogs! The excitement and engagement piece to this blogging community is huge!

You need to have a classroom blog (could be a blog that is part of Kidblogs, just to give the rest of the participants some information about your school and community) and your students need their own personal blogs. We also communicate frequently on twitter, use #PrimaryBC on twitter and follow me on twitter for news and updates @mrswideen.
Where do I sign up?

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Primary Blogging Community Registration is OPEN

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The Primary Blogging Community is currently accepting classes that blog for the October rotation. The last rotation was a huge success with over 80 classes participating from all over the world. Here is a brief description of what the blogging community is: What is the Primary Blogging Community?

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There are many ways that teachers can integrate blogs into curriculum. Here are a few ideas to get you started!

1. Blogger

Empower students! Most bloggers are experts in a particular area. They write articles based on their experience. Encourage your students to recognize that their experience has value. Have them write a series of articles about a topic in which they are knowledgeable such as a hobby or area of interest. For example, skateboarding, hockey, piano, video games, dirt bikes, pets, or fashion. Each week or month students write a new blog entry using a different writing style: how-to, opinion, biography, product review, pro/con comparison, top 10 list, personal story, inspiration/quote, useful links, timeline, or interview. By the end of the term or school year, students will not only have a series of articles that inform, instruct, and inspire others, but also a body of work that highlights their unique value.

2. Reading Response

To track independent reading many teachers have students complete a reading response. This activity often has a standard form such as title, author, pages, summary, and response. The response may require students share their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the story. It may also require students to make a personal connection or prediction. Make this task digital! Have students write a blog entry for each reading response (or at least some of them). These entries can be set to private so that only the teacher is aware of the content of each post. The benefit to blogging is that now teachers can engage in an online discussion about the book. They can comment to ask questions to provoke deeper learning, offer a fresh insight to promote new ideas, or establish a connection with students by sharing their own experience. The goal is to offer comments that encourage a further response.

3. Digital Reading Log

Don't just create a reading log, instead create a reading community. Teachers are always looking for creative ways to track the books students read throughout the year. As part of the reading program, have students write a book review on their blog. By using tags such as genre or rating, it is easy for fellow students to peruse the articles for recommended reading. As well, if a student reads the SAME book, they can add their own comment about the review.

4. Collaborative Novel Study Activities

Transform some of your class novel study activities into blog entries that encourage collaboration. To get started, gather a list of standard discussion questions or written assignments associated with the novel. Now divide your class into small groups. Assign one member the role of blogger and the remaining students as commenters. The blogger selects an item from the list and writes a short blog post. Commenters read the post and then offer their comments. Here are some ideas:

have the blogger pose a question they would want to ask a character in the story, and then have the remaining members comment upon what they think the character might respond to the question

have the blogger post a picture of the latest action in the story with the text, what will happen next and then have the remaining members post comments outlining their predictions

have the blogger write a short article about how they think the book will end, and have the remaining group members comment upon whether they agree or disagree

Collaborative novel study activities are an excellent way to engage all students in a conversation about the novel.

5. Writing Buddy

Pair an older student with a younger student to foster writing skills. The older student reads the younger student's work and then offers positive feedback. This encouragement is a great way to boost confidence and enjoyment in the writing process.

6. Peer Editing

Revision is an important part of the writing process. Students can post their draft and receive constructive feedback from peers to improve work. Feedback can take the form of compliments, suggestions, and corrections. It is a good ideas to provide sentence starters to help your students learn to phrase comments appropriately.

7. School or Class Newspaper

A blog can act as a school or class newspaper written for fellow students. Articles can be about a range of activities including field trips, fundraising events, concerts, sports, assemblies, project displays, and more! The blog can be part of an extracurricular club or it can be undertaken as a class initiative. If writing a class newspaper, the teacher can assign student bloggers each week to post articles allowing everyone the opportunity to contribute throughout the school year. This is also an excellent way to manage blogging if access to computers is limited to only a few at the back of the classroom.

8. Current Events

A blog can transform teaching about current events. Instead of clipping an article of interest from the newspaper, then sharing it with classmates by standing at the front of the classroom, relaying the article details, students can post the news story or video report to their blog. Fellow classmates can then write comments that state their opinion about the issue. It is a great way to engage everyone in an online discussion, leaving no "voice" unheard.

9. Brainteasers

Post a weekly or monthly brainteaser that encourages problem solving. Have students post their answer using the commenting system. Teachers can set the comments to require approval, which sends a copy of the responses to the teacher, but prevents them from being visible to all the other students. After a specific amount of time, the teacher can discuss the answer to the brainteaser and can either delete all comments or approve the correct answers.

10. Video Tutorials

Assign students to create videos or screencasts of a math concept. Post the tutorials to a Math category on the blog. Now when students are doing homework they can quickly refer to the blog if they need help.

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10 Blogging Activities for Elementary Students - TechnoKids Blog

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There are many ways that teachers can integrate blogs into curriculum. Here are a few ideas to get you started! 1. Blogger Empower students! Most bloggers are experts in a particular area. They write articles based on their experience. Encourage your students to recognize that their experience has value.

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My students love to tweet. They share photos on Instagram. They know all the cool viral videos on YouTube.

They are expert digital collaborators, connecting with others to discuss topics near and dear to their hearts.

That's why I had them start blogging this year. Theirs is an online world, and I want them to be there when they engage with my content.

It's a work in progress, and I'll do it much differently next year than I did in this inaugural year. But I like the connections they make with each other when they blog and do it well.

After a year of experience and absorption of as many student blogging articles/chat comments/podcasts as possible, here are 20 things to consider:

1. Write about class and more: Connections to and opinions about class content are great, especially if students discuss via comments. But we're missing a great opportunity if we limit it to that. Kids don't automatically reflect on their lives and what's important to them. Their blog in your class may be their only opportunity.

2. Open topic posts are good: Richard Byrne of Free Tech for Teachers recently suggested that students reflect on what they've learned that week in a simple blog post. It could be open to all classes or just from your content area.

3. Go to their world: So what do they write about? Try to meet students in their world as much as possible. Making content touch their own lives is a connection that can last a lifetime. Pop culture, music, sports, etc. Listen to what they talk about in class. Example: How does one of their relationships mirror the relationship that two characters from your class have?

4. Let students pick: Open the floor for writing prompt suggestions. You might be surprised at the kinds of creative, relevant connections they make.

5. Teamwork works: Encourage students to connect with each other in their posts to make them more personal, and not just in the comments they leave. Q&A interviews and polls work well.

6. Do your homework: Encourage (or require) students to link facts in their posts to real-world sources. Hyperlink webpages. Cite hard-copy texts. Use direct quotes when citing a classmate's opinion.

7. Encourage readability: Good blog writing crosses over from the "real world" to the classroom. Catchy introductions. A "what's it about" paragraph early on. Bullet points and lists. Short paragraphs. Simple sentences. Conclusions with questions.

8. Reward out-of-class blogging: I believe in making student blogs a place where students want to go at home and on the go. I'm interested in trying incentives for after-hours activity (i.e. extra points/privileges, polls/games for interest, etc.) Real-time blog responses to events (i.e. school activities, news, etc.) can do this.

9. It takes time: I've found that rushing students to write and comment leads to shallow content. A little time can encourage a great digital conversation.

10. Emphasize clean copy: Online writing doesn't mean text-messaging writing conventions, and some students might miss that point if you don't bring it up. Solid spelling, grammar and idea development gives them credibility in the eyes of their readers.

11. But don't nitpick: Avoid the temptation to correct every spelling and grammar error. Real-life blog readers don't do that (not much at least!). Plus, it discourages their creativity and initiative. If a spelling/grammar pattern emerges, consider addressing it privately.

12. Good comments are key: Well-thought-out comments are online conversation jewels. Good ones add ideas/information to the discussion, insert personal experiences, provide insightful links/quotes, ask follow-up questions, etc.

13. Choose a stance on comments: I can see two schools of thought on comments: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative stance has countable requirements (comments, words, etc.). It can assure participation but promotes an "I have to" mentality. The qualitative stance values quality of discussion over quantity but may result in less participation. A mix of both may be the best option.

14. Create respect: The lack of face-to-face communication in online discussions makes it easy to forget that real people actually read what we write. Students can become brazen with harsh comments if they don't remember the peers they're addressing. Civility should rule.

15. High-five good work: Find ways to promote quality blog posts and comments outside of the student blog. Mention them or post them in class. Add them to the class webpage. Include them in school newsletters. The sky is the limit.

16. Decide on privacy: Public student blogs can open children to the harshness and dangers of the real world, but they offer an authentic, global audience. Students thrive on outside-of-school comments. Link to student blog posts on Twitter with the #comments4kids hashtag to open them to a huge worldwide audience.

17. Find a medium: There are plenty of potential homes for your students' blogs. Richard Byrne lists several in this post. They range from the basic ( Kidblog, Edublogs, Blogger) to the complex (self-hosted WordPress).

18. Break the economic barrier: Students without home Internet access are at a disadvantage. Help them find Internet time in school (study hall, library time, computer lab time, before/after school time) or out of school (at a library, a friend's house, etc.). A phone call or e-mail to a parent could uncover the answer.

19. Cumulative products are good: Find an end-of-the-year product students can create using their blog posts. They could create a book (print or PDF ebook), derive a Weebly website, compile a top-10 list of posts or comments.

20. Reflection is good, too: When students look over their work for a year, they can see how they've grown as a writer, a learner and a person. They relearn important lessons. They combat the "I didn't learn anything in that class" mindset.

What are your experiences and lessons learned from using student blogs? What encourages or discourages you from trying them? What are your reactions to these suggestions? Please tell us in a comment below!

(For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links, "like" Ditch That Textbook on Facebook and follow @jmattmiller on Twitter!)

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My students love to tweet. They share photos on Instagram. They know all the cool viral videos on YouTube. They are expert digital collaborators, connecting with others to discuss topics near and dear to their hearts. That's why I had them start blogging this year.

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Flickr:Pixelsrzen

In the digital age, kids need to have an understanding of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. They need to learn the technical how-to's, as well as a more global comprehension of how to navigate the online world. To that end, Melbourne educator Jenny Luca made a commitment to help her students start blogging and to create ePortfolios. Here are six reasons why, at her school, these skills are now a high priority.

By Jenny Luca

CREATING POSITIVE DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS. Kids need to start establishing a positive digital impression of themselves. Without question, it will be the norm for these students to be Googled when they begin to look for jobs -- even if it's part time. As young as they are, they need to cultivate their personal brand, and they can do this by posting about what they're involved in at school, learning in their classrooms, or other co-curricular activities they enjoy. We want our students to understand that they can control the message about themselves on the Web, and that they can point prospective employers, colleagues or university admissions officers.
"As of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW."
COMMUNICATING WITH DIGITAL TOOLS. We want our students to have a handle on how to use digital tools to communicate, and not just through networks like Facebook. Plenty of our students are Facebook users, but there is a higher order skill set required to maintain consistent posts on a blog. We've taught our students how to set up categories, add widgets, use the HTML editor to embed code, and how to tell the difference between a legitimate comment and a spammer. As our world moves ever closer towards the Internet as the main vehicle for communication, we feel that we are helping our students understand the language they will need to navigate this new territory.

TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS AND FAMILY. Our curriculum is becoming more transparent to parents. As our students write more about what they're learning, we now have a means for their parents to feel more connected to what happens at school. Where once a child would write for an audience of one - the teacher - now they are writing for a potentially much larger audience that includes their immediate and extended family. Students will not only have a digital archive of their learning, but will see comments from friends and family that they can revisit in years to come. Their access won't be limited to the box of cherished school records and mementos relegated to the attic. For these kids, an Internet connection will enable them to revisit their childhood and adolescent school years.

NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT WEB TOOLS. We need a digital space to demonstrate new methods of learning how to use important Web tools. Already this year, our student ePortfolios have been used to embed Slideshare and Google Docs presentations, Glogsters, podcasts created with Garageband, Google MyMaps, Prezi, and links to Wiki pages they have edited for different subjects. Just having our students understand how to hyperlink to other people's content, and the potential this opens for two-way conversation, has been eye-opening for them. These spaces have helped provide even more reasons for our teaching staff to use Web-based tools and teach themselves new skills in the process.

EFFECTIVE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP. By creating ePortfolios, or a digital collection of their work, our students learn how to conduct themselves in digital spaces in the context of their curriculum, not just in isolated lecture-style presentations that may strike a chord with some students, but miss the mark with others. When I talk to my seventh-grade students, they can clearly articulate why we're using these ePortfolios. It makes sense to them, and they know it is important for their future lives.

PRIDE IN THEIR WORK. For many of our students, their world view is changing as a result of posting in public spaces. Many of them have embedded clustr maps into their sidebars, and they can see where people are visiting from. Recently, one of our students posted about the effect this global audience has had on her: "Okay- so is this is amazing. I've used this blog since March 30th and so far it's been a great resource and an amazing display of some of my work this year. It hasn't just been my teachers, my classmates, my family and I that have looked at it -- as of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW."

Wow indeed.

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Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog

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Flickr:Pixelsrzen In the digital age, kids need to have an understanding of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. They need to learn the technical how-to's, as well as a more global comprehension of how to navigate the online world.

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Enthusiasm is typically high when student blogs are first set up. Students often can't wait to unleash their creativity and publish for an authentic audience on their own online space.

Sometimes when the initial excitement wears off, students start facing 'bloggers' block' or get in a rut of writing the same style of post over and over (eg. 'My favourite...').

With a little guidance and encouragement, you can ensure your students reach their full potential as a writer, while extending themselves by exploring various genres and mediums.

This post aims to provide prompts to inspire you and your students for a whole year of blogging.
This is a lengthy resource, but scroll down and you will find a PDF version that you can save, print or share! This post was originally published as 50 Ideas For Student Blogging And Writing Online by Ronnie Burt, on The Edublogger, in October 2015. In October 2017, it was updated to 100 Ideas by Sue Waters and Kathleen Morris, with some added links to posts by student bloggers for even more inspiration.
Types Of Blog Posts

Though you can certainly have overlap and combine multiple types into one, there are 10 types of blog posts you commonly see on the web:

5. Marketing/Sales - Typically these are commercial style posts. Students could use blogs to advertise school events and fundraisers etc. The students at Auroa School made a video to promote their school.

10. Curation Posts - Sometimes people use a blog post or page to curate a list of resources on a particular topic. Refer to Curation: Creatively Filtering Content by Sue Waters for more information.

Common Formats Of Blog Posts

The format of blog posts is evolving. Now there are a number of ideas on how to structure posts. They can be long or short, heavy with text or heavy with visuals and multimedia. The choice is yours.

Informal - This style include short paragraphs and doesn't always follow academic writing standards. Lewyliel's Wordle is an informal post.

Long Form - This is a comprehensive post like a chapter of a book. The Edublogger's Twitteraholic's Ultimate Guide to Tweets, Hashtags and all Things Twitter is a long form post. Long form posts aren't common on student blogs but are often popular on traditional blogs when used to share advice or resources.

Micro-blog - These are short posts of a sentence or two that usually link to another site or encourage readers to leave comments. Comments Count is a micro-blog example.

Slideshows - These are sometimes created as an alternative form of a listicle. Thanumi used this approach to share her favorite authors and their books.

Photo Posts - Images can be used as prompts, to demonstrate or to share a journey. Helen's Original Shirt Design uses a series of images to document her process of designing a shirt as part of her portfolio.

Video 'Vlogs' - A video can be embedded with extra information, links, or a summary. Here is Thanumi's comment starter video.

How To Apply Blogging Prompts To The Classroom

Writing is a learning process. The more you write, the more you'll learn and the better you'll get.

- Darren Shan

As you think about writing assignments for your students, try to vary it up. Even better, give your students some choice in the type of posts they write. The end goal is a relevant, authentic and engaging learning opportunity for all.

It can be helpful to keep the SAMR model in mind. Sometimes, you might simply be substituting traditional pen and paper tasks for an online task. As you and your students become more comfortable with blogging, consider ways you can redefine tasks to achieve something that would not be possible without a blog and online tools.
Ready for 100 prompts and ideas? Let's dive right in!
Connecting with Others

Research has shown when students are asked to write for a real audience, their writing has better organization and content, is longer and they learn more than if they were writing for just their teacher.

Below are 14 ideas for connecting your student bloggers with others:

1. The Student Blogging Challenge - This runs twice yearly, in March and October. It is made up of a series of 10 weekly tasks designed to improve blogging skills while connecting students with a global audience. The challenge is supported by a team of blogging mentors.

2. QuadBlogging - This simple project involves connecting your class with a quad group of four classes. Over a four week period, each classroom takes turns being the focal point of the quad. Kathleen's students made a video about QuadBlogging to explain the concept.

3. Global Read Aloud - This is a popular project created by Pernille Ripp that runs each year from early October to mid-November. Participants read the same book aloud to their students and then use whatever online tool they prefer to connect.

4. Twitter - Some teachers use class Twitter accounts to share posts and to connect with other classes and content experts. Drew Frank's Classroom Twitter list is a good place to find class Twitter accounts to follow. He updates the list annually.

5. Comments4kids - #Comments4kids is a Twitter hashtag used as a way for students and teachers to find blogs to comment on, and to get their own posts commented on. You could ask for comments on an outstanding student post, or as encouragement for particular students.

6. 100 Word Challenge - This is a weekly creative writing challenge for students under 16 years of age. Each week a prompt is given, which can be a picture or a series of individual words, and the children can use up to 100 words to write a creative response.

7. 5 Sentence Challenge - Similar to the 100 Word Challenge but for younger students or those learning English, this challenge involves responding to a prompt using five sentences.

8. Projects By Jen - Developed by Jennifer Wagner, this project hub provides a wide range of activities that teachers can use to connect their class with classes around the world.

9. Skype in the Classroom - This Microsoft Community offers teachers and students the chance to connect through Virtual Field Trips, Skype Collaborations, Guest Speakers and Mystery Skype. Mystery Skype involves connecting classrooms by playing a yes/no guessing game. Learn more about Skype Etiquette and Mystery Skype on Mrs Morgan's Superstars' blog.

13. Question for Parents - Encourage families to comment with a question specifically for parents. Miss Jordan's class have an example post on their blog where parents were asked about old technologies. Students could also pose questions on their blog for a specific audience.

14. Celebrate Comments - Use a blog post to highlight recent comments and encourage connections. Linda Yollis has an example on her class blog. Students could create a post like this, or a class blog could be used to showcase posts and comments from student bloggers.

Check out our Teacher Challenge guide for more detailed information on connecting with others.

More Specific Blogging Prompts

If you are looking for more specific ideas for post topics for students, here's a list of prompts that you can modify and make your own. They are divided into broad topics:
Getting Started With Blogging Online Prompts General/Interdisciplinary Reading/Writing History/Geography/Social Studies Math/Science Web Tools
Getting Started With Blogging

These topics are ideal for getting students used to publishing online. Tip: ensure students are aware of what information should be kept private before they begin blogging. You can also use My Class to moderate students' posts and comments.

20. Hero/Mentor - Write about someone that inspires you. What is it about this person that makes them so special? Terapat (Tony) shares why soccer player, Chanathip, is his favorite person.

21. Digital Citizenship - Come up with a set of rules or guidelines for publishing online. How is writing online different to writing in private? Refer to The Student Blogging Challenge's Footprints for resources and ideas.

Online Prompts

There are a number of resources online where writing prompts are published on a regular basis. Two are 100 Word Challenge and 5 Sentence Challenge as described above. Here are some others:

25. Pobble 365 - Every day there is a new photo prompt and literacy starters posted on the Pobble 365 website. Students could respond to these prompts in a blog post.

27. What's Going on in this Graph? - Another initiative from The New York Times, a graph, map or chart is published regularly as an invitation for students to discuss.

29. Practice Your English - MMG's English blog has been created by a teacher with prompts for students to practice their English. You will find jokes, quotes, recipes, videos and more. These prompts could be useful for any students.

31. Creative Writing Prompts - Writer's Digest offers regular written prompts which would be ideal for older students.

32. Writing Prompts for all Grade Levels - Edutopia has published an interesting list of topics that students could refer to.

33. Scholastic Story Starters - This is a fun interactive site for students in K-6 to create their own prompts for a variety of writing genres.

General/Interdisciplinary

36. Wikipedia Entry - Without going to the actual Wikipedia site, publish a post that reads like a Wikipedia article on a topic you are studying. Include references, images, and more. Tsuyoshi's History of Comedy is an example of this approach.

37. FAQ - Write 'Frequently Asked Questions' and answers on a topic. Here's an example of FAQs about blogging by Leigh Cassell.

39. Test Review 'Cheat Sheet' - Use images, videos,and writing to create a post that your classmates can use as a study guide to prepare for an upcoming assessment. Here's an example of a Cheat Sheet for Git/Github.

41. Exit Ticket - Write a summary of what was learned in class before leaving. Include any questions you still have and a list of any assignments or tasks you still need to complete. Check out Shoichi's Session with Kindergarteners post.

46. Photo Blog - A few years ago there was a rise in 365 photography or 'a photo a day' type blogs. This is something Linda Yollis still does with her Yollis' 365 Project. Students and the community are invited to send in photos and captions. Student bloggers could create a similar style blog or post series.

47. Future Me - Write an email to yourself when you are one, five or ten years older. This could be a blog post in itself, or for 13+ students, the FutureMe website could be used to actually send the email.

49. Gratitude Journal - This reflective tool is popular in many classrooms. Students can use their blog to reflect on what they're grateful for. Even young students can get involved like the children from Swoop into Kindergarten.

50. Guest Post - Offer another blogger (or someone without a blog) a chance to publish a post on your blog. Student blogger, Miriam, had her brother, Michael, guest post about hiking on her blog.

51. Meme - These are fun messages that are spread widely online. My Virtual Classroom shares their meme creation activity on their blog.

Reading/Writing

57. Book Reviews - This traditional pen and paper task can easily be shared with an authentic audience on a blog post. Check out a great example by year 8 student, Ella, who reviews Galax Arena by Gillian Rubinstein.

58. Wordless videos - Speech pathologist, Sarah, has compiled a list of wordless videos. You could embed one in a blog post and write a script, recount or reflection on the meaning behind the video.

59. Interactive Stories - Google Slides can be used to create interactive or 'choose your own adventure' type stories. See the examples on The Electronic Pencil blog.

62. Newspaper - Media literacy and fake news are hot topics. Create your own online newspaper to share on your blog. Kathryn made Early Bird News in Google Docs and added the link to her blog post. It even includes fake news stories, advertisements and a comic.

History/Geography/Social Studies

65. Historical Report or Guest Author - Write a traditional report profiling a historical figure, or pretend you are a famous historical figure that is blogging about a significant event. Ellie posted her historical report on Alexander Hamilton.

66. Historical Stories - Create a story based on a certain time and location in history. Amelia created a historical story set in England and Australia in 1788. She recorded it as a podcast for her blog.

67. Historical Comments - The commenting section of a blog can also be used for students to 'be the voice'. Check out Linda Yollis' example where the students commented in the voice of a historical figure they were researching.

68. Maps - Find different types of maps (and from different time periods), that show the same location. What are the similarities and differences in the maps? Refer to Comparing Maps for ideas to help create your post.

69. World Views - If you could live in any other place and time, what would you choose and why? Check out these student posts on 'If I could live anywhere '.

75. Projects - Present your project as a blog post. Anton published his earthquake project as a long form blog post, while also converting the information into a downloadable PDF.

76. List of Items - Create a list of items that would be used in a certain time in history or particular location around the world. The students from Histories and Mysteries of the United States were required to list ten things a witchhunter would have in colonial Salem, Massachusetts.

Math/Science

77. Vocabulary - Choose a vocabulary word that you are learning about and write a post that describes this word in different ways such as: a definition, in a sentence, in an example/image, in a table/graph, in symbols/equations etc. Check out this vocabulary slide deck template by Meagan Kelly which students could fill out and embed in their blogs.

79. Favorite Topic - Write a post about your favorite math/science topic including links to information on the topic and some images with attribution. Seb's favorite topic is the four fundamental fources of nature.

82. NRICH - This project by the University of Cambridge publishes weekly maths problem solving tasks for students. Students can submit answers on the website, but they can also publish them as blog posts. Problems are broken up into age groups. Here are the current live problems for: lower primary students, upper primary students, lower secondary and upper secondary.

84. Math Journals - Student blogs can be used as a journals to reflect on learning. Here are some math journal prompts from Read Write Think that students could base their reflections of their math lessons on.

Using Web Tools

There are countless free online tools that can be used to create, publish, collaborate and present. If working with younger students, it's important to check the terms and conditions on the site as some tools are only suitable for students over the age of 13. For more information and ideas on web tools that you can embed, check out this Teacher Challenge post.

86. Infographic - Use a tool like Canva, Piktochart, Venngage or Infogram to create an infographic and then write a post describing why you included the ideas you did. Alternatively, create infographics using several of these different tools then write a review of the tools you used. Courtney made a Piktochart about Peru, while Milani created one about Japan. Check out The Educators' Guide to Infographics for more information.

89. Image or Artwork - Create your own images using an online tool like Befunky, fd's Flickr Tools, Wordle, CutMyPic, PhotoFunia, Picasso Head, Paper Critters, or Sketch.io. Check out Fluffy Whisker's Create Your Own Image post. Sarah used a tool called Tagul / Word Art (similar to Wordle). She surveyed her class on their favorite foods and displayed the results in her word cloud. If you want to be blown away with what's possible, check out the Fugle Blog where K-5 teacher, Tricia Fuglestad, combines art and technology in truly creative ways. She has produced a lot of tutorials for teachers and students to follow.

Want A Free PDF Resource?

This post has covered a LOT of ideas. To help you refer back to it regularly, we have adapted the information into an ebook in PDF format. You can save the PDF or print it for easy reference. You could even embed it on a page on your blog for students.

Don't Stop Here

Hopefully this list will ensure you or your students are never scrambling for blogging ideas again, however, it is far from exhaustive.

Another idea is to recycle posts. You might take an old essay style post and turn it into a slideshow, podcast or video. Additionally you could make a part two of a post. You might have an old post with jokes, reviews or comics that struck a chord with readers. Why not do a follow up post in a similar style? Reflect on your best content and re-purpose or repeat it.

If you have a class blog, you could create a page with writing ideas for your student bloggers. Room 6 in New Zealand have done this on their blog.

This post is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of getting students to write online.
Do you have any additional ideas to share with fellow bloggers? Have you tried any of these ideas? How did they go? Please leave your comments and links below.
Happy blogging!

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100+ Ideas And Prompts For Student Blogging

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Enthusiasm is typically high when student blogs are first set up. Students often can't wait to unleash their creativity and publish for an authentic audience on their own online space. Sometimes when the initial excitement wears off, students start facing 'bloggers' block' or get in a rut of writing the same style of post over and over (eg.

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Tools Promoting Global Communication in the Classroom

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Tools Promoting Global Communication in the Classroom

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Kidblog

http://www.kidblog.com

Edmodo

http://www.edmodo.com

Google Docs

www.docs.google.com

ePals

http://www.epals.com

Kahoot

http://www.kahoot.com

Student Letter Exchange

http://www.pen-pal.com

Kidworld Key Pals

http://www.bconnex.net/~kidworld/keypals4.htm

Penpaland

https://www.penpaland.com

Smore

https://www.smore.com

VoiceThread

https://voicethread.com

Glogster

https://www.glogster.com

Voices of Youth

http://www.unicef.org/voy/

More Teacher Resources about Global Learning

The World is Your Classroom

http://www.educationworld.com/a_books/books125.shtml

What is 21st Century Education?

https://youtu.be/Ax5cNlutAys

Multicultural Kid Blogs

http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/global-learning-for-kids/

Global Learning Projects (NEA)

http://www.nea.org/home/16868.htm

Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World http://asiasociety.org/files/book-globalcompetence.pdf

14 Fun Multicultural Education Activities

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/24727/multicultural-education-activities

Global Learning: Connecting the World with ePals http://www.edutopia.org/epals-online-community-pen-pals

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4 Paths to Engaging Authentic Purpose and Audience

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4 Paths to Engaging Authentic Purpose and Audience

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience"

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The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience"

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I've been spending time over this past year reflecting and evaluating on how I can be more effective in teaching writing - both to English Language Learners and my mainstream ninth-grade students. In fact, all the English teachers at our school have been doing the same thing. Our school got a grant that enabled us to contract with the California Writing Project to do ongoing teacher development.

In addition to that work, those of us who teach English Language Development (which is what most others call ESL) classes have been refining our work with the extraordinary The Write Institute curriculum.

I've also been thinking more about the idea of students writing for an "authentic audience" - in other words, someone other than me.

In practice, so far that's meant my ELL's writing penpal letters (with pen and on paper) to students (who would respond) in another mainstream English class, and that has worked very well for both classes.

In addition, students have enjoyed participating in our International Sister Classes project, but, because of other commitments, I haven't made that much of a priority this year (I hope to do better next year!). Developing online presentations is great, though time consuming, and then there's the responsibility of communicating and commenting back-and-forth. Of course, there are a lot of benefits to that kind of relationship, too, which is why I want to re-engage in the fall. You can find more information on how to connect up with "sister classes" at The Best Ways To Find Other Classes For Joint Online Projects.

Also, check out The Best Places Where Students Can Tell Their - And/Or Their Families - Immigration Story.

I've also been trying to pull together a list of easy online sites where students write more for an "authentic audience" and meet the following criteria:

* The writing required would be short, not lengthy pieces, that could be done in a reasonable amount of time - a few days at a maximum and preferably less.

* The creating and posting process is simple - accessible both to my English Language Learner students and to me.

* Posting the piece does not necessarily require any kind of ongoing commitment for communication - once it's up, it might be interesting to check-back after awhile to see if there have been any reactions (if the site is set-up for that kind of involvement), but it's really just a matter of sticking it up there in a place that gets a fair amount of "traffic" and knowing that it's likely others will read it.

* There seems to be some kind of enforced standards for all the content that's posted on the site. In other words, when students explore it to see models of what others have written, it's unlikely they will encounter something that is inappropriate for classroom use.

With that criteria in mind, here are my picks for The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An "Authentic Audience" (not in order of preference):

Recipe Key lets you drag-and-drop items into a virtual pantry, and then provides recipes of dishes you might be able to prepare with them. More importantly, students can also write for an authentic audience by contributing their own recipes.

Yelp is the enormously popular site where people write reviews about everything. Sometimes you'll see other reviews that might have inappropriate language and haven't been removed yet, but that problem seems pretty rare.

Book reviews are great writing opportunities. ELL teacher Jennifer Duarte had some challenges having her students write ones for Amazon (not least of which being you have to buy something before they let you publish a review).

Library Thing is one good place for writing book reviews. Goodreads is another book review site.

is a free and easy way for students (and teachers) to create webquests (though they might be more appropriately called Internet Scavenger Hunts). Zunal also acts as the host for the webquest or scavenger hunt after its been created. All "webquests" that are created using their fairly scaffolded system are listed on the site, so there are plenty of examples.

I've posted about Culture Crossing before. It's a wonderful social studies resource, but I neglected to include that it would be a great opportunity for authentic writing, too. It's a unique resource for information about different countries. It provides some basic demographics, but it also shares details about communication style, dress, gestures, etc. It's unlike any other source of information about countries that's on the web, and accepts user contributions. Certainly, English Language Learners are well-positioned to write about their native countries.

Scribd also seems to me to be a good place to upload a variety of student writing, especially now since they've supposedly removed all pornography from the site. They used to have a great text-to-speech feature, but they've eliminated it.

Students both asking and answering questions at the various online Wiki-like sites like Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers, and Wikianswers (yes, the last two are indeed different sites) are definitely examples of writing for an "authentic audience." I had considered including students writing in Simple English Wikipedia, but decided that it was just too complicated for English Language Learners (and even me!). These question/answer sites, though, are pretty simple.

Dogo News is a site designed for young people "of fun and inspiring news from all around the world." It's written in relatively simple English with short articles, and is accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. Readers vote on which articles they like, and can leave comments. Because it's easy to leave comments, and they appear to be moderated, I'm adding the site to this list.

My Hero is a site where students can write about people they view as...heroes. You can register and create a multimedia webpage about your choices, but, even better (at least, in my view), you can go to the Guestbook area and write a short piece that appears immediately (there are automatic filters to screen content, plus it's manually screened later).

Tikatok a site that is a real find for English Language Learners (and lots of other students). Users can create online books that they write and illustrate (they can also use lots of images available on the site). It has a number of features that really make it stand-out. You can make a book from scratch, or you can use one of their many story frames that contain "prompts" to help the story-writer along. In addition, you can invite others to collaborate online with you to develop the book.

Once the book is done you can email the link to a friend, teacher, or yourself for posting on a blog, website, or online journal and the site is available on Titatok for others to read. You can create the online version for free, but have to pay if you want them to print a hard-copy version.

Tar Heel Reader has two great features: 1) It has 1,000 simple books with audio support for the text immediately accessible to Beginning English Language Learners and 2) It makes it as simple as you can get for students to create their own "talking" books using images from Flickr.

Anybody can read the books on the site. However, in order to have your students create talking books using their "easy as pie" (and free) process, you need to register and have to have a code. They're rightfully concerned about publishing the code because of spammers. Gary Bishop from the site, though, is happy to provide it to teachers. Just write him at gb@cs.unc.edu and he'll send it to you (actually, I don't think that's necessary any longer - I believe anyone can create books now).

Students can make a "top ten" list of anything they want - cars, books, video games - and describe the reasons for their rankings. One popular site that encourage user contributions (and make it easy to do so) is and The Top Tens.

Opposing Views highlights key questions (political, scientific, etc). It then, in a fairly succinct "bullet" format, has an "expert" share pro and con arguments. Users of the site can also leave their own comments. The language and lay-out of the site is fairly accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. After reading the arguments, users can easily leave their own comments on the issue.

The New York Times recently launched Student Opinion "to create a "safe space" on NYTimes.com - and on the Internet overall - for students 13 and older to voice their views on the news." You can read a much fuller explanation about the feature here.

At Site Jabber, users can write reviews of websites. It appears to be primarily aimed at online businesses, but there are lots of other websites reviewed, too. Students can write reviews of their favorite online sites, including (but not limited to) the ones we use for English learning.

Explorra is a new travel site that appears to be designed to compete with the many others that allow you to create your own travel itinerary. I've posted many of those similar sites at The Best Sites Where Students Can Plan Virtual Trips. I wouldn't add Explorra to that list, though - the others seem to do a better job at that.

However, Explorra does have one feature I really, really like - the ability for users to create an online guide to anyplace in the world. After sign-up, which only takes a minute, you identify a city, country or state, and then start listing what you think are the most interesting places there. Explorra will search the Web for images of each location, and you can write descriptions.

"My Immigration Story" is designed for immigrants to share their story in 200 words or less. It's specifically designed to:
Let other Americans know how the current generation of immigrants is helping enrich this land of opportunity.
Baby Name Voyager is a fascinating data visualization tool that shows you the popularity of specific names during the last thirteen decades. You just type in a name, and an interactive chart appears seconds later. It's really pretty interesting. But that's not really why I'm writing about it. Even better, you click on a name and you're given information about it, and offered the opportunity to write about it. Now, for students, this is pretty high-interest stuff - learn how popular your name has been over the past 130 years, learn about its historical roots, and write about your personal experience with it as your name. There are some caveats, though. It only shows the most popular 1000 names in a decade, and it appears (though I can't be sure) to show only names in the United States. It seems to have a fairly large number of Latino names, but there are very few Asian ones. So it's problematic for teachers in a school like mine (one-third Southeast Asian) to use the site.

Tripline just opened for business, and it's a great map-making application. You just list the various places you want to go in a journey, or a famous trip that has happened in history or literature, or a class field trip itinerary, and a embeddable map is created showing the trip where you can add written descriptions and photos. You can use your own photos or just search through Flickr. Plus, you can pick a soundtrack to go with it as it automatically plays through the travels.

Here are examples of the ride of Paul Revere and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

It's super-easy to use, and the only tricky part is that you can't add photos until after you create your trip and save it. That's not a big deal, unless you couldn't figure it out like me and had to contact the site.

Faces of Learning is a new website where, among other things, anybody (including students) can share a short response to the question "What was your most powerful personal experience in a learning community - regardless of whether that experience took place inside or outside of school?" After registering, students can both write their response and make an audio recording of it.

The Good Guide is sort of a user-created geographical, social, cultural guide to the world. You can ask and answer questions about places and, more importantly, can create your own "infoguides" to places of your choice.

Wikipedia announced a new "visual editor" that will make it much more accessible to contribute to its pages. They're introducing it slowly, and it doesn't appear that it will work for most entries for awhile.

I think it will be a great opportunity for students. Wikipedia's complicated interface has made it problematic for use by "mainstream" users. The Visual Editor will make it extremely easy (you can try it out at the above link) to use, and it's a great opportunity to write for an authentic audience.

Voices Of Youth is a site set-up by UNICEF where young people from around the world can write and interact about issues like "Environment, Education, Human Rights, etc."

Here's an excerpt from the sites "FAQ's":

Educators can work with their students using VOY in several ways: read and comment on posts, write original posts as individuals or as a group, create short films to post or take photographs to share with the VOY community.
The Best Places Where Students Can Post Book Reviews For Authentic Audiences
In Looking For Assets, Not Deficits I talk about a new site and strategy called TimeSlips.

Real writing needs an authentic audience. Otherwise it's just an assignment. pic.twitter.com/ArGVJgJDMc

- Cornelius Minor (@MisterMinor) September 5, 2015

Another Study Points To The Importance Of Students Writing For An Authentic Audience Yet Another Study Finds That Having An "Authentic Audience" Impacts Student Learning "Write The World" Provides An Authentic Audience & A Space For Peer Review Create Virtual Classrooms With "Awesome Stories" - Plus Students Can Write For An Authentic Audience "Zooniverse" Is One Of The Coolest Ed Sites On The Web - I Can't Believe I'm Just Hearing About It!

Writing for the World / A World of Writing Skills: A Wikipedia Project https://t.co/VZ80GT3nkg via @AnthonyTeacher #eap #tleap #elt

- AnthonyTeacher (@AnthonyTeacher) December 15, 2016

"Good Judgment" Is A Site Where Our Students Can Showcase Their Forecasting Skills
I'd love to hear other suggestions.

There are a lot of other kinds of "products" students (videos, timelines, online tests, comic strips, etc.) can create for an "authentic audience", and I'll be creating another "The Best..." list sharing them (I've done this - The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An "Authentic Audience"). In addition, I'll be writing another list describing different ways teachers can connect with others who might be interested in developing "sister class" relationships to create and provide more authentic audiences (in addition to the other learning benefits gained).
"Sideways Dictionary" Explains Tech Through Analogies & Lets You Contribute Your Own Now THIS Is An Example Of Writing For An Authentic Audience: Writing For History
Stelum is a site that lets users write and read simple explanations of complex topics.

Students can write movie reviews at DogoMovies.
Google Testing Ideal Tool For Students To Write For An "Authentic Audience" Wow, The National Writing Project Offers Wonderful Online Writing Opportunity To Students Create And/Or Translate Online Books For An Authentic Audience With StoryWeaver National Geographic's "Open Explorer" Lets Anyone Create Their Own Expedition
As always, feedback is welcome.
No Surprise: Another Study Finds That Having An Authentic Audience Results In Improved Performance HOW COULD I NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT "INATURALIST"? IT'S A GREAT TOOL FOR SCIENCE & ELL TEACHERS!
The New York Times Learning Network produces an incredible amount of useful resources. But they've outdone themselves with Out of the Classroom and Into the World: 70-Plus Places to Publish Teenage Writing and Art. You'll want to check it out, and you'll want to use it - often. They also have a companion piece headlined Writing for an Audience Beyond the Teacher: 10 Reasons to Send Student Work Out Into the World.

Today's Reasons Why We Need Students to Write for Authentic Audiences is from The National Writing Project.

HOW TO FIND AN AUTHENTIC AUDIENCE FOR YOUR STUDENTS' WORK is from The Edublogger.

Hey From The Future lets you write advice to your younger self - and other people who presently are that same age. People then read what your wrote and can "upvote" it if they think it's good advice.
NY TIMES LEARNING NETWORK ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE FOR AMAZING STUDENT CONTESTS
What Fan Fiction Teaches That the Classroom Doesn't is from The Atlantic.

Gimkit, the Kahoot-like gaming platform, has just unveiled something called Gimkit Ink. I have to say that I don't quite understand exactly what it is, and I'm wary of anything that takes a twenty-two minute video to explain, but it appears to be a place where students can write and other students can read it.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous "The Best..." lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An "Authentic Audience"

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I've been spending time over this past year reflecting and evaluating on how I can be more effective in teaching writing - both to English Language Learners and my mainstream ninth-grade students. In fact, all the English teachers at our school have been doing the same thing.

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"That's my friend!" students from Lee's classroom whispered excitedly, referring to the one-on-one relationships they'd built through the Intercultural Virtual Exchange of Classroom Activities (IVECA), a nonprofit organization that helps classrooms connect digitally to other classrooms all over the world.

The program, which Lee said has "opened the eyes" of her students living in rural Vermont, is one of a growing number of others like it that use technology to foster global learning among U.S. students and their international peers. Thanks to today's technological capabilities, students from Somalia to Alabama no longer wait weeks to receive a mailed letter from a pen pal halfway around the globe: They can see and hear from one another in real time.

I kind of went into it thinking it was going to be like pen pals, but it's so much more than that.

IVECA uses Lee's standard social studies curriculum as the basis of a cultural exchange between her class and a classroom abroad. Throughout the semester, Lee's students spend weeks preparing presentations on a particular topic to share with their assigned peer class-last year, they focused on Vermont's alternative energy initiatives, and the Sejong City students shared details about their city's shift to solar and wind power.

In between presentations, students communicate regularly through emails, photos, and audio recorded messages.

Lee said the project-based curriculum provides a unique, hands-on learning opportunity for her students, who are often most excited to learn the similarities and differences between themselves and students overseas. For students in rural Georgia, Vermont, with a population of less than 5,000, finding similarities with students living in Sejong City, an administrative capital home to more than 230,000 people, often comes as a big surprise.

"My kids' eyes are huge when they get these emails back from Korea. 'Oh, they have the same food we have? And they read the same books we read? How can that be?'" said Lee, a 42-year veteran teacher who has participated in the exchange for the past four years. "I kind of went into it thinking it was going to be [like] pen pals, but it's so much more than that."

Building Cultural Understanding

A number of education and technology organizations, such as the Asia Society and Digital Promise, are now diving in to help teachers like Lee connect their students to students around the world. It's their hope that online exchanges about favorite foods or pastimes will lead to greater cultural awareness, tolerance, and collaboration across borders over time.

The International Education and Resource Network ( iEARN), for example, offers more than 150 teacher-designed projects for classrooms in different countries to work on together, while the Global Nomads Group has roots in connecting mostly rural North American students with students in Muslim-majority countries, such as Jordan. The group's new virtual reality (VR) component is now exposing students to challenging experiences overseas, such as the crisis in Syria, through 3-D simulations.

Bloomberg Philanthropy's Global Scholars program even helps students from different countries collaborate on solving international problems, like water shortages or food security. The theme for the 2015-2016 school year, "Building Better Cities," asked students how cities could become more sustainable in light of global warming and population growth.

Superintendent Ned Kirsch shared some of these programs' same intentions when he decided to implement a global education program throughout the three rural Vermont districts he oversees, one of which includes Kay Lee's school, Georgia Elementary and Middle.

The combined 1,650-student Franklin West Supervisory Union (FWSU), which Kirsch called "99 percent white, typical Vermont, not a lot of diversity," began using the IVECA program five years ago to show students a world outside of their small communities.

What started in three classrooms has now grown to 12. In addition, FWSU hosts an annual China Camp, in which Chinese high school students spend two weeks in Vermont, practicing their English and soaking up American culture. An exchange program with a school in Puerto Rico may also develop in the future.

Kirsch said the global education program has been a win-win for teachers, parents, and students. Because it blends two classrooms' existing curricula, teachers don't have to plan extra lessons. Parents recognize the program's importance for the future, as many of them commute to nearby Burlington for jobs with international clients.

And for Vermont students like 10-year-old Colby Phelps, who participated in the exchange last year, the cultural connections are opening their eyes, literally, to what life is like for students halfway around the world.

"They were dressed in uniforms, blue shirts with collars, and these thick, dark blue sweaters. It was cool to see them talk in [a] different language," said Phelps of the video meeting with South Korean students, noting that he didn't know anyone who spoke any language other than English.

His mother, Michelle Phelps, added, "It was amazing for our kids to have that experience. We don't have a lot of diversity here, so it's nice for them to see how other kids live . . . I think they got a lot out of it."

Growing Interest

Though no official numbers are available for how many schools are internationally connected, experts report the numbers are rising, driven by a world where technology is rapidly removing borders and changing the way all of us communicate and interact.

When students are doing meaningful work together, they understand that people from other countries aren't that different from them. Students may look different, but they're really dealing with the same issues; they have the same feelings. They're more alike than different.

In 2015-2016, the Global Scholars program had 6,700 students participating in 48 cities from Los Angeles to Zomba, Malawi. The Global Nomads Group expanded from individual classrooms to entire districts in 2015 and doubled the number of participating students. This year, the organization plans to reach 4,000 students in nine countries, including the U.S. And the popular Global Education Conference, a free, weeklong online event and international network that helps facilitate global classroom connections, currently claims 24,000 members from more than 170 countries.

The network helped fifth-grade teacher Will Piper from Milwaukee meet fellow fifth-grade teacher Pedro Aparicio from Mexico City four years ago. Their online friendship quickly blossomed into a series of classroom-to-classroom projects that the two teachers designed themselves. Their students have collaborated on lessons over Skype and by email, and even created websites together, including one about El Día de los Muertos.

The Global Education Conference also provided professional development for Piper, who says he is passionate about "co-teaching across borders." Using free tools like Google Docs, Piper and Aparicio regularly share photos, videos, and lessons, and have even made a game of trying to outdo themselves each school year, he said.

As classrooms grow more diverse and issues like global warming and immigration dominate news headlines, educators are becoming more interested in globalizing their curricula, according to Heather Singmaster, an associate director at the Asia Society. The international nonprofit has spent the last 60 years focused on strengthening relationships between the U.S. and Asia.

Because of increasing demand for global learning resources, the Asia Society recently launched the Center for Global Education, a website for educators, schools, and parents that offers global education lessons, blog posts, and professional development training that can be purchased for a school or district.

Singmaster expects that the interest in global learning will only increase in the future, as more educators realize that students from very different cultures can learn to respect and understand each other when they work together in pursuit of a common goal.

"When students are doing meaningful work together, they understand that people from other countries aren't that different from them," Singmaster said. "Students may look different, but they're really dealing with the same issues; they have the same feelings. They're more alike than different."

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Pen Pals 2.0: Can Technology Foster Global Tolerance? | Edutopia

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"That's my friend!" students from Lee's classroom whispered excitedly, referring to the one-on-one relationships they'd built through the Intercultural Virtual Exchange of Classroom Activities (IVECA), a nonprofit organization that helps classrooms connect digitally to other classrooms all over the world.

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Hello Harrison here with the weekly report.

In math we have switched from area and perimeter and have gone to the measurement of angles. Yeah stuff like 90 degrees and stuff like that. We are now trying to make our own usable protractors out of paper, if you don't know what a protractor is then it's a full or have circle that allows you to pinpoint a angle measurement.

In UOI we finally rapped up our reaserch and are now thinking of big ideas to present in our share outs. I think that so far we have been doing pretty good with reaserch and are ready for the the next step. But we do have awhile to go till it's our actual exhibition so if someone messes up we will probably have enough time.

Writing has basically become UOI but Reading, wow. Everyone, and I mean everyone is trying to read as much as they can in the underland chronicles series and with each book the plot thickens, oh me, I'm still on number 4. Plus in our read aloud things get nerve racking. Benjerman bender bad, New identities, sad dad, new house, IT'S CRAZY!

I hope this was not to short of a report and to you reading this is Harrison Rusie signing off.

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Hello Harrison here with the weekly report. In math we have switched from area and perimeter and have gone to the measurement of angles. Yeah stuff like 90 degrees and stuff like that.

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What are some strategies to create authentic audiences

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What are some strategies to create authentic audiences

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•Amazon.com book reviews

•Tripadvisor.com travel persuasive piece

•Digital pen pals

•Book trailers for the TV screens

•Load clips online

•Peer commenting