Blogs are used in this program becaue of their interactivity. The blog you create will be a place where you can write reflections on the tools you are playing with and the experience you are having. Other participants in the program can read your postings and you can read theirs. This design is intended to promote lots of commenting and sharing back and forth across blogs during this program. The more you share with each other, the richer the learning experience will be.
Blog Posts
Your blog will serve as the record of your learning in this course. In order to receive staff development credit, you must make a thoughtful, substantive post for each of the 8 Things that we will be exploring. Please follow these guidelines:
- Label each entry in your blog with the Thing # you are writing about.
- Each of your posts should provide insights into what you’ve discovered and learned. Feel free to share what worked for you … and what didn’t … what surprised you … what frustrated you … what amazed you.
- Your blog posts should be as long as they need to be for you to meaningfully express your thoughts and reflect on your learning.
- You will get out of the course what you put in. Others will read and learn from what you post. What would you want your own students to do?
Tips for a Richer Blogging Experience:
- Your blog will be as meaningful as you make it. Invest in your reflections and spend a little time crafting your posts. Take time to link, format your text and possibly add images. Feel free go beyond the minimum posting requirements. The blog is truly yours.
- Be brave when posting and celebrate your learning. We all struggle and experience frustration and can benefit from hearing about others' experiences. We also want to hear about your discoveries and problem-solving triumphs!
- Be generous in commenting on other participants blogs. Blogging is meant to engage readers in two-way communication. We are a community of learners. If you take a little time to encourage and respond to others' posts, they will respond in kind.
Naming Your Blog
Remember, how you choose to identity yourself on your blog is up to you. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or with your real name. Remember that the whole web world can see your blog title and blog address, so you may want to consider creating a blog name that’s anonymous, yet uniquely you. (For example: coolestmathteacher, boblearns8things, tigerteacher, etc.)
Editing and Accessing Your Blog
Once you’ve created your blog here are two important things to know:
- To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/ Be sure to write down your login and password.
- To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered when creating your blog. Be sure to also write down your blog address. (Try using this form to keep track of your usernames and passwords).
Additional Resources and How-To's
Need help editing, posting to, or formatting your blog? Here are some helpful online resources:
Also, if you're struggling with a particular issue, chances are that someone else has struggled with the same problem. If all else fails, try typing your problem (For example, "change date of blogger post") into Google.