Fifth Graders' Animoto: Classroom Vision

Mrs. Ripp, a 5th grade teacher from Wisconsin, is the brains behind the Global Read Aloud. She also has several blogs, and her students blog with KidBlog.

Here's an Animoto that her students recently produced and that Mrs. Ripp posed on two of her blogs:

• Blogging through the Fourth Dimension: My Students' Classroom Vision
• The Adventures in Mrs. Ripp's Room: My Students' Classroom Vision

   

Mrs. Ripp also invites others to post comments on her students' KidBlog: Mrs. Ripp's Class 

To get students ready for blogging, Mrs. Ripp introduces a paper blogging project, where students practice writing comments to one another's writing using paper and sticky notes. Here are two pictures she posted on Twitter showing her 5th graders doing paperblogs.

If you're looking for some fresh ideas to implement with students or ways to communicate with parents, scroll around Pernille's professional and parent blog. Also, search through her students' KidBlog, and leave them some comments.

To access each of the blogs, click on the images.

Professional Blog:

Parent Blog:

Mrs. Ripp's Class KidBlog

What ideas for implementation in the classroom did you get from flipping through Mrs. Ripp's blogs or her students' bog?

Kidblog Keeps Getting Better

For all those Kidblogging or to-be Kidblogging teachers, in case you missed this announcement, I am posting a link to learn about the new features.  Click on the image below to access the information about the 14 New Kidblog Features. And if you're not using Kidblog, you might start wondering why you're not. We already know blogging empowers students and avails them of powerful ways to communicate, interact, and engage.  Although I don't endorse any individual product, I must say the folks at Kidblog figured out a lot to make blogging safe, easy, and productive for students. Plus, the platform easily creates a community of learners within the classroom as well as outside the classroom, especially as students join with other blogging classrooms. And don't let the name put you off. High school teachers, not just elementary and middle school teachers, have adopted Kidblog for its ease of use and versatility.

A great way to explore how teachers use platforms such as Kidblog is by checking #comments4kids on Twitter. Just enter the hashtag and term in the Twitter search box, and you'll find teachers inviting you to read their students' blogs.

For beginners, Linda Yollis, a long-time blogging teacher, suggests these tips for getting started.

And if you say you don't have time for students to blog, check how blogging meets the new Common Core with this resource:

Digital Literacy Demands of Common Core

In particular, note that "production and distribution" are included in the writing standard. Blogging does both and also addresses collaboration, another skill included in the writing standard.

So will you implement blogging any time soon with students? Why or why not? If you already have integrated blogging, how's it going for students? How are they reacting? Are they meeting the standards noted in Digital Literacy Demands of Common Core?

Get Going with KidBlog

Looking for some additional information on using KidBlog. The first video takes you through a teacher's and student's explanation of the why's and how's of KidBlog, and the second video is a quick overview of how to get started with KidBlog. Let me know if these videos are helpful to you. Post a comment.