Blogging Tips

Blogging is for everyone - but there are some pitfalls. Photograph: Juniors Bildarchiv/Alamy

Yes, this picture grabbed my attention, but the post's title is what really caught by eye: Top 10 Don't for Wannable Teacher Bloggers . 

Check the post for some motivation to get going with blogging. 

Which advice in the post do you find the most helpful?

The Importance Of Using Images In The Classroom

The Importance Of Using Images In The Classroom is a short piece that reminds us of the power of images. Check the piece and the use of a famous painting, The Scream, to motivate the writing of a poem.

How are you using images in your classrooms? In reading blogs, do pictures draw you in?

Where would you rather be?

Connecticut, Feb. 8, 2013

Hawaii, July 21, 2012

Literacy Shed

Stuck at home with our snowstorm, I'm on Twitter, Google+, reading class blogs, and just surfing around. One of my Twitter friends, tweeted out about this exciting resource that fits with our course, Integrating Technology and Literacy. The site's title, Literacy Shed, caught my eye, so I started exploring, and invite you to, also. Take a look at what the site offers, and let us know if the site sparks ideas for your teaching or in general. Without further ado, link to the site; just click on the image.

Okay, I know you can get lost in exploring the site, but come back here to post a comment to share what you find and like.

Required Reading

In class this week, in one section of Integrating and Technology, we discussed whether the 4th grader of today will be writing the standard research paper when she enters college in the next decade. This article from The New York Times, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade," suggests we are teaching students for a world that we don't yet know exists. We can't predict the jobs our young children will have in the future. We don't even know what these jobs will be.

To quote from the article, "According to Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions, fully 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet." In her book, Now You See It, Davidson urges teachers to stop teaching according to the Industrial Age model.  

The contemporary American classroom, with its grades and deference to the clock, is an inheritance from the late 19^th century.

She claims that the standard research paper assignment, popular in college classrooms, not only yields awful results, but is not even representative of the students' talents.

Check the article, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade." In addition to what the title suggests, Davidson advocates for a whole new approach to education, not just in terms of technology tools. Do you agree with the statements Davidson makes? If so, with which assertions? In what directions do you believe education should be heading?

Can Teachers Avoid Digital Resources?

In a recent national survey of teachers, conducted by PBS Learning Media, it was found that a high percentage use digital media regularly in their teaching. The landscape of the classroom has changed from the old days of a reliance on printed books and students writing on paper. The following infographic shows the results of the survey.  Review the infographic. Where do you stand?

Do you agree educational technology motivates students?
What do you see as the benefits of educational technology?
What are the tech tools you use most often?
Consider other data available in the infographic. What is your reaction?

image Image via iStockphoto, sturti

On a related note, the House of Representatives is reviewing a bill to increase access to technology in schools and teachers' professional development in this area.  On Feb. 6, 2013, the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) posted this information: "Great Start for Digital Learning Policy in 113th Congress: Comprehensive Technology Bill Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives."

Overall, how do you feel about the influx of technology resources in the educational setting? Would you rather see the pace slow down, speed up, or go in another direction?

Digital Story: The Crayon Box That Talked

As you think of ideas for digital stories, this one created by young children to address the theme of cultural diversity might stir your imagination.  After viewing the video, leave some comments. What does the story say to you about the children's creativity? What about their approach to explaining cultural diversity? Does their video give you ideas for digital storytelling? Would you show this video in your own classroom? Would you consider making a similar video using a story such as "The Crayon Box That Talked"?

Kindergarteners Blogging: No Kidding

Listen to these kindergarteners from Ms. Cassidy's class talk about what they think of blogging and how they're using it.  Be sure to leave a response. What do you think of their comments?

Do you think kindergarteners should be blogging? What will happen when they enter first grade? Should they continue blogging? What about when they enter upper grades? How do you see their blogging experiences affecting their literacy skills?

Five Card Flickr Stories

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The Five Card Story is a quick digital story game put together by an educator, Alan Levine, who also goes by the name of CogDog. Check out his site, Five Card Story, and create your own Five Card Story. The images are ones stored in Flickr under the Creative Commons License, free to use.

After reading 31 blogs this weekend and then preparing website notes for this week, I needed a break, so played with Five Card Story  This is an idea you can implement in your class by giving your students any five photos available, and for older students, you can even have them try out the Five Card Story site.

Once you finish creating your story using Five Card Story, you will see a code that you can embed into your blog by switching from the Compose to the HTML tab in Blogger. The URL for the story is also available and that can be shared with others for them to access your story at the site.

In addition to using random photos to stir one's imagination for story writing, the exercise serves two additional purposes:

• It initiates the idea of matching photos to storytelling, serving as an introduction to a unit on digital storytelling
• It helps teach students about what photos found on the Internet they can legitimately use. In Flickr, photos that can be reused are marked as such and have in their posting both the URL to use for attribution and the embed code for converting the photo with its attribution right into a website, blog, wiki, or other online platform. Those using the photo can use either method to acknowledge the source. 

Here are five cards, photos, I was randomly dealt to create a story. Note the attributions for each photo automatically pop up under each.

Five Card Story: Walk on the Wild Side
a #etmooc story created by Midnight Poker Player (that is the nickname I chose since I created this around midnight.)

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

And my masterpiece (joking) story. If I had more time and energy, I would have created a story with dialogue and more.


I escaped into the woods one snowy night. What I thought was a polar bear turned out to be a snow figure. On the run, I looked for a car to escape. On the dashboard, I found a pair of dark sunglasses, perfect for my disguise. Hungry from days on the run, I sought food, but only could find oranges. To my dismay, they were already eaten, and just the rinds remained. I trembled as someone shook me and realized it was all but a dream.

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Lip Dub: Collaborating World Wide

As some of you know, I've been participating in an online course, the Educational Technology Massive Open Online Course (known as ETMOOC). There are thousands of people in the course. We get a chance to participate in various ways, and we can select how and when we want to participate. One recent project was a Lip Dub, and I am sharing the final video to illustrate how people from around the world can collaborate online. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Do You Want to Share a Pinterest Board?

Sharing is caring, so if you have a Pinterest account where you have created boards with resources for learning, would you consider letting us know? Just post the URL in the comment section.

While reading through blog post responses, I came across a link to an excellent board with resources for teaching in the lower elementary grades. Here is a screen capture of that board.

It seems many of you already have a Pinterest account, and as teachers, let's assume you have considered pinning school resources.

Although I am  an avid Diigo fan, I also use Pinterest. I am also posting a link to my account. This account is used only for educational resources. I hope you find something there that you can use.

Click on the image to get to my boards. Happy pinning! If you don't use Pinterest, perhaps you can share why. And if you do, remember, sharing is caring. Post what you generously want to share in the comments by copying and pasting the URL for pertinent boards.  Thanks again.

Blogging in the Elementary School Classroom

I found a link to this great YouTube video on "Blogging in the Elementary Classroom" while reading Lesley's blog, Teaching in Heels, and just had to share it. I appreciate that Lesley posted this video. Check her blog for other valuable resources.

The video captures teachers and students speaking about the value of blogging. I like that the teachers also address how blogging promotes literacy skills. After all, we should be first figuring out our goals and not just implementing tech for the sake of tech. The real goal is to expand students' literacy skills.

Let me know if this video gives you ideas for expanding students' literacy skills. For those who teach young learners, who might be too young to blog, does the video give you other ideas for how you might promote students' engagement in the literacy process in other ways?

Additionally, today a principal I follow on Twitter put up a link to blog post that Karen Lirenman wrote in which she embedded a video about how she uses blogging in her first grade classroom: "Blogging in Grade One". Karen's blog, Sharing and Learning with Ms. Lirenman, is an excellent one to follow. I am embedding the video she posted here.

After viewing her video, share what ideas you gained from her presentation. As always, comments are welcomed. How are you feeling about blogging as a professional, as a teacher, or with students? What advantages are you seeing in students blogging?

Fun Way to Teach Spelling

Today when I was on Twitter, I came across a tweet from a Canadian school principal whom I follow that tweeted this:

I was curious about why George sent out this tweet, so clicked on the hyperlink in his tweet, and found this image, which I captured and annotated using the Awesome Screen Capture and Annotate feature I have attached to my toolbar. Take a look at what these 2nd graders are doing with the tweets of the NFL football players.

I retweeted George's tweet, and one of my followers, a college English professor, was concerned that the exercise might reinforce stereotypes about football players.

I tweeted back that this activity could be used in the classroom with tweets from others on Twitter.

In addition to building spelling skills, this activity can also build proofreading skills, and it might encourage students to proofread their writing, especially when it will go online. Now, I know we encourage young learners to use invented spelling to get their ideas "on paper," but still the misspellings these 2nd graders noted are easy enough for the average student that age to find.

What is your opinion on this teaching strategy? How do you encourage the development of spelling skills in your own teaching?

Now, if I have misspelled anything in this post, please feel free to so note it, and to use my post as a learning activity in your own classroom.