Welcome to the third step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging!

The aim of this step is to:

  1. Help you understand how posts are used on class blogs.
  2. Provide tips on how to write effective posts.
  3. Teach you how to publish your first posts.


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Introduction To Posts

Your posts are where you’ll publish your main content such as:

  • showcases of student work
  • information about what’s been happening in class
  • assignment information or learning resources

They are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post at the top of the page.

By default, your home page is your blog post page and this is where you’ll see your new posts published.

If you look closely at a post you will see it is normally made up of:

  1. Post title – This tells the reader what the post is about. Be specific. A great post title grabs your reader’s attention and makes them want to read on.
  2. Date published – You’ll normally see this displayed at the top of the post.
  3. Written by – Most themes display the name of the post author. Your username is automatically displayed unless you have changed your display name. Even if the teacher is the only one with an account, student work can still be showcased. You could introduce the name(s) of the students at the top of the post.
  4. Comments – Readers can click on the word ‘comments’ or click on the post title and scroll down to write a comment in response to your post. Comments allow students and other readers, to engage in discussions, share their thoughts, and connect with your class blog. We will be exploring the topic of quality commenting in step four.
  5. Your post content – This is the main information that you want to share or reflect on. It could be a mixture of text, links, images, videos etc.
  6. Categories – These are used to help readers locate posts on your blog. Categories are often used like chapters of a book; they provide a general overview of the topics you blog about.
  7. Tags – These are used to help readers locate posts on your blog. Tags are more like the index at the back of the book and explode the topic into many bits.

Anatomy of a post

Watch the following video to learn more about the difference between pages and posts.

Here’s a quick summary of the difference between posts and pages.

Posts vs Pages


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Who Writes Posts On Class Blogs?

If you look closely at class blogs you’ll see on some blogs only the teacher publishes posts. On other blogs, both the teacher and students publish posts — or the students publish posts on their own student blogs. Some class blogs are written entirely by students.

Who writes on a class blog continuum Edublogs Teacher Challenge

Different Approaches To Publishing On Class Blogs

Here are a few examples to check out of different ways that posts are published on class blogs.

  • On blogs like Swoop Into Kindergarten and Room Three @ Auroa Primary School the teacher publishes all the posts, however, student work is showcased in the posts. For example: photos of work, videos, slideshows etc.
  • Becky Versteeg also weaves links to student blogs in posts on the Team 2 Eagles class blog. The student blogs are also listed on the sidebar of these two blogs.
  • In Blogging with 2/3 Moore, Julie Moore publishes some posts and allows students to guest post as well (student blogs are also earned and these are listed on the sidebar).
  • On the Chickering Reports blog, all the posts are by students. They often create audio and video interviews with members of their community. Most of the posts on the Live Learn Blog are written by students.

It’s really up to you which approach you use.

Consider A Progressive Approach

If you do decide you want your students to publish posts we recommend the best approach, regardless of student age, is to introduce blogging slowly in the following order:

  1. The teacher writes posts on the class blog.
  2. Students write comments in response to posts (the focus is on teaching students quality commenting skills).
  3. Students write posts on the class blog or their own student blog.

Many educators with successful blogging programs use the following scaffolded approach:

Scaffolding blogging

As Jan Smith says:

The big idea is to go slow to go fast.

If you don’t lay the groundwork by building a community of trust, risk, support with your kids they fail big.

Reading and commenting have to be the core, or else a blog is just a digital bulletin board.

The progressive model Kathleen Morris has used is as follows:

  1. I establish the class blog and wrote the posts while teaching the students to write quality comments.
  2. As students became more familiar with blogging, some students started publishing guest posts on the class blog and learned posting skills.
  3. Depending on student age and computer access, either certain students who have demonstrated enthusiasm, parent support, and blogging skills, earned their own blog or all students had their own blogs as digital portfolios.

Throughout all stages, quality commenting and parent participation is taught and encouraged. Starting initially with more of a teacher-controlled blog is a great way to get comfortable and set expectations.

We’ll show you how to teach quality commenting skills, how to connect parents with your class blog, and how to add students to blogs so they can publish posts later in this professional learning series on class and student blogging.

For now, we’ll focus on teaching you how to write your first posts.
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First Post Examples

What do you publish as posts on your class blog?  Pretty much anything you want to share with students, families, or other educators you’ll publish as a post.  What’s been happening in class, student work, assignments, homework information, documents — there’s so much you can share!

Here are some examples of first posts, or posts for the new school year, to check out for ideas:

  • Mrs. Yollis’ Welcome Back :: 2017-2018. This includes a personal video message from Mrs. Yollis and a screencast showing how to leave a comment.
  • Baldock & Grantham Class blog — A Sneak Peak at your new classroom for 2018. The teachers published a few images of the classroom a week prior to school starting.
  • Mrs. C Class Connection — Welcome to blogging. High school teacher Kae Cunningham included a video to explain what a blog is. She also included links to the history of blogging and asked students to respond in a comment.
  • Welcome to Mrs. Fernandes’ First Grade Class 2018-2019! Mrs. Fernandes has written a welcome post to new students prior to the summer holidays. It includes a list of school supplies.
  • Mrs. Moore’s Class Blog — Our First Week. This includes a video overview of what the students have been doing in the first few days of school.
  • The Cross Chronicles — Kelly Cross published a series of welcome posts over a week or so.

Check out The Edublogger’s Class Blog list for more ideas on what the teachers post on their class blogs!

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Integrating Blogging Into Your Day

Integration is key. No teacher has time for add-ons, so it’s a case of considering how can a blog enhance your regular classroom program.

Consider this:

  • Can some traditional analog tasks be replaced (and enhanced) with digital tasks in your classroom? For example, well known blogger, Linda Yollis, swapped a traditional pencil and paper history lesson for a blogging task. Students responded to one another in the comment section from the point-of-view of the biography figure they studied. Helen Keller was responding to Louis Braille and President Lincoln. Neil Armstrong had a conversation with astronaut Mae Jemison. Parents got involved as well. Here blogging wasn’t an add-on but a swap for a more effective activity.
  • Can certain tasks be done better or more quickly with a blog? For example, can you spend less time on things like publishing assignments or parent newsletters by housing all this information on your blog?
  • Where can you slot blogging into the day? Many teachers start the day (or class) with a routine. It might be running around the oval, silent reading, doing a weather report or looking at the news of the day. Are these routines still valuable? Could they be discarded, rescheduled or alternated? Could blogging be slotted into your opening routine?

Also consider:

  • Can you add blogging to your literacy block instead of a traditional writing or reading task?
  • Could a maths prompt be posted on the blog and students share their explanation through a comment or post?
  • Could your inquiry or social studies topic be explored through creating a post or multimedia for the blog?
  • Could some physical displays of artwork and other creations become digital displays on the blog with rich reflections?
  • Could traditional homework tasks become more meaningful blogging tasks? Eg. working with a family member to share insights in a comment.

Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier to understand how blogging can be integrated into your classes.

How To Publish A Post

1.  Go to Posts > Add New.

Add New

2.  Give your post a title and add your content.

Add your content

3.  Add your tags and categories (learn about categories and tags here).

Add your categories

4.  When finished writing click Publish.

Click Publish

3.  Presto! Your post will now display on your blog so others can read!

Below is a quick video tutorial on publishing a new post:

Previewing Your Draft

Before you publish your post it is a good idea to use the Preview option to see what it looks like to your readers.

You preview a post by clicking on Save Draft and then click Preview. This opens up a draft version of your post in a new tab.

Preview

Then just go back to your draft and make any changes you want!


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Introduction To The Visual Editor

The area where you write your post is by default in Visual Editing mode which uses WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option for formatting.

It works similar to any word processing software.

Simply write your post, highlight any text you want to format and then click the appropriate button in the toolbar to add formatting such as bold, italics, number list.

The Toolbar toggle icon is used to view the advanced formatting options including heading styles, underlining, font color, custom characters, undo, redo.

You switch between Visual Editing mode and HTML editing mode by clicking on the Visual or Text tab.

Visual Editor
Below is a quick video tutorial on the visual editor:


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Putting It All Together: PDF Guide

Feel free to print the following PDF guide on how to publish a post, or download it to your computer and then upload it to your blog for your students to refer to.

These instructions explain how you would do that.

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Tips For Writing Better Blog Posts

Reading online is different from reading on paper.

Ultimately, you want your content to be read. The easier to read and more engaging your posts are, the more likely they are to be read!

We’ve outlined five tips to help you write better posts on your class blog.


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1.  Use short paragraphs

Posts with really long paragraphs are harder to read online.

Consider these tips about paragraphs:

  • Break your posts up with paragraphs.
  • The more paragraphs the better.
  • Short paragraphs are better than long (they can even be one or two sentences long).
  • Make the first sentence of each paragraph make your readers want to read on.


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2.  Use Headings

Use headings, and, where appropriate, bullet points and numbered lists, to break up the post into manageable bite-sized chunks.

To create a heading you simply:

  1. Highlight the text you want to change into a heading
  2. Select the Heading Style you want to apply from the advanced formatting toolbar (you access the advanced formatting toolbar by clicking on the Toolbar toggle icon). Heading 1 is your post title. Start at Heading 2, then Heading 3 for sub-headings under that and so on.
  3. Preview your post to make sure that Headings you’ve used have broken your post into manageable chunks

Heading style

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3.  Remember to link

When you write about a website you should link to it as your readers often want to check it out in more detail. Refer to Add Links support page to see how to add a link or watch this video below.


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4.  Consider colored text

While you’re less likely to use colored text in posts on a personal/professional blog, it can engage students and draw attention to specific information on posts on a class blog.

You’ll see examples of it used in posts on Miss Jordan’s Class blog and the Student Challenge blog.

You change the color of text as follows:

  1. Highlight the text you want to change
  2. Select the text color you want to apply from the advanced formatting toolbar (you access the advanced formatting toolbar by clicking on the Toolbar Toggle icon)
  3. Preview your post to make sure the text is readable and you like the color (darker colors are best).

Text color


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5.  Enhance posts with images and media

When you look at class blogs you’ll notice they enhance their posts with images and other types of media including videos and by embedding online tools.

We’ll show you how to add images, add videos, and embed content later in this professional learning series on class and student blogging.

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Read more tips for making your blog posts easier to read.

10 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Easier to Read Infographic Edublogs

Commonly Asked Post Questions

Here are the answers to commonly asked questions we receive into Edublogs Support:

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What does the “Not found” message on my homepage mean?

By default, the front page of your blog is set to display your latest posts.

If you delete the default “Hello World’ post before you publish a new post then your front page will display ‘Nothing Found’, ’404 – Not Found Error’ or something similar depending on the theme you are using.

This message is displayed because there is nothing to display on your front page.

Not found message

All you need to do is go to Posts > Add New and publish a new post.

Once the new post is published you’ll see it displayed on your homepage.

You’ll find more detailed step by step instructions on how to fix a Not Found message here.


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How do you delete the Hello World Post?

Every newly created blog is the same default layout with posts displayed on its home page with a ‘Hello World’ post and and ‘Sample’ page.

You can delete this post at any time by going to Posts > All Posts.  

Hovering your mouse over the title of the Hello World post brings up four action links.

Now just click on Trash.  This sends it to your Trash folder where it is permanently deleted within 30 days of when you trashed it.

Trash post

Remember if you delete all posts, and your homepage is your blog post page, you will see a “Not Found” message.

To remove that message you just need to publish a new post by going to Posts > Add New.

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Is it possible to publish posts to different pages on my blog?

We’re often asked if it is possible to add posts to other pages, rather than just the front page of the blog. This is commonly asked by educators who want to use one blog for multiple classes or subjects.

And yes you can! But it does involve slightly advanced blogging skills.

You do it by sending posts to different pages on your blog by assigning different categories to posts, based on the class or subject, and using a custom menu to create links to the categories from your top navigation. When students and parents click on their category they’re taken to all the posts for that class or subject. Check out Mr. Cartlidge’s Science Blog to see how it works.

You’ll find step by step instructions on using categories to organize multiple classes or subjects on your blog here.

Remember, it does involve slightly advanced blogging skills — so leave a comment or email us at Edublogs Support if you need our assistance.


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Your Task

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. Check out the post examples and then publish your first post. Leave a link to your first post in a comment so we can have a look at how you went.
  2. Or, if you’ve already published a few posts, share an idea on how your introduced blogging to your students or how you’re integrating blogging into your curriculum.
  3. Read through the most recent comments in reply to this post and leave a response to another person’s comment.

513 thoughts on “Step 3: Write your first posts

    1. Hi Gill

      Well done on your use of categories. You might consider moving the Categories widget in the right sidebar higher up so it is more accessible to your site visitors.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

    1. Hi moodyteam.

      Congratulations on your first post!
      I suggest you set up some Post Categories and assign your posts to thos caterrgories to help site visitors navigate your blog.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

  1. I have used tags and categories in the post. It will be interesting to see how this helps the organisation and management of the blog over time. The post is a brief message to the class and poses some questions about blogging for them to reply to.
    http://tinam.global2.vic.edu.au/

    1. Hi Tina, your blog is coming along nicely.
      Try adding more categories, and even adding some Posts to more than one category so they get maximum exposure.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

  2. Here’s a link to my post: msboychuk.me/2015/09/07/september-9-week-at-a-peek/ Although not my first post, it is my first weekly post of this school year. I enjoy how this challenge has us exploring and getting ideas from other bloggers. I can feel the excitement in the comments. Thanks everyone!

    1. Hi Ms B., you’ve made great use of categories and sub-categories to group your blog posts. Your tag cloud is also useful for navigating your blog.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

    1. Hi Mr Read

      Thanks for sharing a link to your Welcome post. I’ve done a really quick edit of your post to link to your About page. Hope that was okay?

      Another option, besides the ones I mentioned in reply to your comment on Set up class blog, that we occasionally see used is the students submit their work using a Formidable Form. The photo is added directly to the media library. The teacher uses the information submitted in the form and the image from the media library for the post. This is less common but you will see an example of the form used here – http://imaginationeast.edublogs.org/submit-artwork-here/

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. I love how you decided to structure your blog, with students posting their writing and then providing constructive criticism to other students’ writing, for the purposes of editing and revising. What an awesome tool to apply real life revision and editing skills.

  3. This is not a post that I made specifically for this challenge, but it is a recent post from my blog. As we discussed the events of September 11th this year, my students had very strong reactions to what they were learning and left comments to my blog post. This was one of those days as a teacher that I really feel I made a difference so I wanted to share that with you.

    http://mcfalla.wonecks.net/2015/09/14/never-forget-2/

    1. Hi April

      Thanks for sharing a link to the post. It was powerful reading the student comments.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi Mrs Sheffels

      Thanks for sharing a link to your new post and congratulations on using categories and tags. Love the cute photo of your toddler and baby.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi maistirscoile

      Most days I check the latest posts being published by Edublogs blogs for the past 24 hours and have been monitoring your blog closely as I love what you’ve done with your theme and am interested to see the different ways you use it with your students. I loved how you did the logo competition with your students.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

      1. Thank you, I hope to get the class started with the student challenge soon and commenting properly. This series is a great help.

  4. Here is my 1st post. http://kdruckmiller.edublogs.org/2015/08/
    We are so excited about blogging that we now have a butcher paper wall to record our ideas for possible posts.
    The Edublogs Teacher Challenge is the perfect way to learn blogging. I was so excited to reveal our blog at Open House and the feedback I got from families did not disappoint. Edublogs rocks!

    1. Hi Kerri, thank you for the positive feedback! The butcher paper wall of ideas is a great idea. Please share your ideas on this thread so we can follow your progress. Please create Post Categories and assign your posts to these categories, to help site visitors find information easier on your blog.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

    1. Hi Mr. Harris. I love the theme you have chosen. It complements your content well. I suggest you create Post Categories to help your site visitors better find content on your blog as the number of Posts increases.
      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

    1. Hi “lyailya18”, congratulations on your first post. I suggest you add Post categories, as they are a great way of organising information on your blog.

      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

  5. Still loving this challenge. I’m definitely learning a lot! Since I have been blogging for a couple of years now I guess this is not my first post! BUT, this is my first post of the new school year (well one that I have not adapted from previous school years). I’m proud because I have used an embed code to include a file larger than 21mb. I also activated the Google Fonts so that I could use one of my favourites (Comic Sans MS).

    Here is a link to the post: http://mrsgorley.edublogs.org/2015/09/13/fabulous-first-week/

  6. Hi Sue,

    I set up a blog with my stage partners at the beginning of Term 1. Each class has it’s own page. For now this is working. I have included the link to my page (not sure if you can view it though as it is private) http://pnpsstage1.edublogs.org/12-matthews/

    Would love to hear from you and anything I can add/change. The children are enjoying the blog and I’m looking forward to connecting with other schools.

    Thanks,
    Sam

    1. Hi Zerlina

      Thanks for sharing a link to your first post! It looks good. Would you like me to share some links to students’ posts for maths which might help you work out how you want to use with students?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  7. Here is the link to my first post. Because it’s a private site right now for me to play around with, I just wrote about whatever came to mind.
    I like the Brilliant Muskie and Interactive English blogs. They include lots of good visuals.

    1. Hi mrsdeespencer

      Thanks for sharing a link to your first post! It looks good. I’ve made a couple of quick edits to break into paragraphs as it makes the text easier to read online. Hope that was okay?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi Mrs Q

      Thanks for sharing a link to your post! Your theme Wilson really makes the posts easy to read. The theme interacts nicely with the text and image you have used.

      I would be interested in having a look at the permission letter parents sign. Are you able to email a copy? I won’t share it with others (unless you give permission).

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  8. Hi there, I am starting to get my head around this process now and am enjoying the step by step learning process that edublogs has set up to navigate all the features of this program.
    My favourite post – I really enjoyed the Mystery Skype post that is posted on Ms Feist’s Grade 3 class. I’d like to give something like this a go too.
    My first post link: http://missbryceland.edublogs.org/
    My Blogging Guidelines link (still needs updating with student input, once I get to this stage with my students): http://missbryceland.edublogs.org/blogging-guidelines-2/
    A quick question – I would like to change the font size on my current Theme Header. Is this possible? Thanks.

    1. Hi Miss Bryceland

      Great to hear the step by step process of our course helps! Mystery Skype is a good way to connect with other classes.

      Thanks for sharing a link to your first post – http://missbryceland.edublogs.org/2015/03/02/stage-2-and-3-welcome-challenge/ I did a quick edit to the post so it now links to the page where you’ve embedded the video.

      Your blogging guidelines page is coming together nicely.

      To increase header font you would need to use the CSS simpler plugin.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi 4A

      Your first post looks really good! Great use of text and images,

      I just did a quick edit to make it look like your Trailer is embedded into your post. Hope that was okay?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  9. Definitely have to agree with all of the tips for better posts. I quite frequently give up on reading slabs of texts on blogs, just can’t do it!

    I find the Jetpack spelling and grammar checker feature a very useful addition as well. Not a good look if I’m posting content with lots of spelling mistakes!

    http://103classblog.global2.vic.edu.au/

    1. Hi Alicia. I agree with you as well. I have been blogging for a few years now but am just now doing the teacher challenge so that I can continue to learn about blogging and use my blog to the best of its abilities. I think this is something that we should share with our students, the fact that we make mistakes and learn from them and are lifelong learners, don’t you?

  10. I can’t find my comment I thought I’d left here a couple weeks ago, so maybe I forgot to post for this! My blog was already started when I took on this Challenge, but I am learning so much and it is really helping the clarity of my posts. I appreciated the tips on how to write a clear post that is easier to read. Here is a post I published since I read this (and you are welcome to follow the links to the kids’ stories, if you so choose).

    http://julie7760.edublogs.org/2015/02/26/scratch-stories-are-here/

    1. Hi Julie

      Each post has so many comments they can be hard to find or remember if you’ve added!

      Checked our comment folder and this is the first comment on this step. Thanks for sharing a link to your post. I enjoyed looking at some of your student’s scratch movies.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  11. I have finished step 3. I enjoyed looking at the different blog post examples. Eventually when I have a class, I hope to use posts to showcase what we are doing in class and what helpful study tools I can find. For now, I am using my kids earth science chapter guide and adding internet resources to complement it. I think this may have made my post to lengthy. Also, I am looking forward to learning how to imbed images and video.

    Thanks for your feedback!

    1. Hi Mrs. Mundt

      Your post looks good ( mundtscience.edublogs.org/2015/03/03/making-earth-science-fun-using-the-internet/ ). There used to be a belief that there was a maximum length of posts and all posts should be short. This is no longer the case. Short and long posts can both be popular. The key is the content you share. Some of our most popular posts on The Edublogger are our longest posts.

      Here are a couple of changes I would suggest for your post:
      1. Try embedding the YouTube video using the video URL – help.edublogs.org/embedding-with-a-url/ It is easy once you know how and enhances your post as readers can watch the videos on your blog.
      2. Change the URLs in your posts from being URLs to linking to words. For example, where you have the link kyle-history.wikispaces.com/Unit+2+Regions+of+the+U.S I would use the words Here is a map you could use and link the words here is a map to kyle-history.wikispaces.com/Unit+2+Regions+of+the+U.S How is how you link words to a URL – help.edublogs.org/how-to-insert-links-in-your-post/

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

      1. I Like that we can embed the videos directly to the site. I will definitely have to do that. Can you embed directly from sites like Google Drive or Symbaloo? That would make things great for my classes.

    1. Hi Dominie

      Thanks for sharing a link to your first post! Looks like you have a busy time ahead organizing their iPads, apps and their email accounts. Let us know what email domain your students are using so we can make sure they have been added as an allowed email domain in Global 2.

      Mr Baldock shares some really helpful posts on his class blog.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  12. I have updated my blog to include my next posts. I focused on a new welcome and was more detailed and explicit in my language. I was able to get tips and information from looking at other blogs. In addition I added a link to our official school website in a post. I hyperlinked the address in the text. I also created two new posts. One is regarding upcoming announcements and the other on the time change. I really like the use of graphics or visuals so my posts have those. It makes it more friendly looking. Let me know what you think.
    https://swatkins.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi swatkins

      Your new posts look really good! Graphics and visuals are always a good addition to posts because they do help grab attention while breaking up text making it easier to read.

      I noticed that you’ve mentioned all comments will be moderated in your Welcome post. Your comment moderation is currently set to the default which is the first comment by a new commenter is moderated and any subsequent comment by the same person is automatically approved. To moderate all comments you need to select “Comment must be manually approved” in Settings > Discussion. You can read more here – http://help.edublogs.org/moderating-comments/

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  13. Here is a link to my post: http://ksandora.edublogs.org/what-we-learned/

    Although, I guess technically it’s a page, not a post. I made it static on the page, as it will be a standing assignment for the students once they complete their research and presentations.

    Also, in looking at some of the examples showcased, I liked the Mystery Skype one. I do Mystery Skype sessions with my Third Grade computer classes and I enjoyed reading that post. I liked the alternative solution that was used to get around the time zone problem.

      1. Since my other link was for a page, I thought I would share a new post that I just posted today. This one is from my blog where I have my first grade computer class students communicate with first graders in Canada. This post gives a glimpse into our weather in Pittsburgh and our snow day today (we heard about their weather yesterday via an email). I’m hoping to elicit a new conversation between the two groups of students with this blog post…

        http://kidblog.org/CanadaConnections2015/62648f71-4755-466b-9143-a294954ba8da/snow-day-in-pittsburgh/

    1. Hi Mrs Packer

      Thanks for sharing a link to your first post! Would love to know more about the CSER Digital Technologies online course. Are you able to provide some information about the course or tell us what was covered in the course?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

      1. https://csdigitaltech.appspot.com/cser_foundations6/preview is the web site for the online ( and free) course. It is based on the Digital Technologies Australian curriculum and covered data – patterns and play and represetnation, lookingat digital systems, information systems, algorithms and programming and visual programming. It consisted of a range of video presentations covering each topic,short material to read, links to resources and tasks for us to complete with each unit. i really like that we put all our responses on a Google community so all the great ideas and links are available to everyone in the course. Our final assessment task was to use the digital technologies document and create 2 lessons plans as a portfolio. Again a wealth of information shared through this task.
        It made me look at the curriculum a bit more and decide what I need to change/ add to what I already do – including my use of language such as letting student know what an algorithm is and looking at binary with them!
        I did enjoy it but section were a challenege. There are core units and other you can opt to do.

  14. I made my 1st post and then read the tips to making a better post and created a second post. My posts can be found here : http://swiseman.edublogs.org/

    The process was easy and I look forward to writing more and helping my students become good commenters and eventually making their own good posts.

    I really enjoyed looking at the library blogs found on the Edublogger classlist. I got many good ideas for things I might want to add in the future.

    1. Excellent first post Mrs Morris! Great explanation of why you are using a blog and great goal!

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi Room 402

      Looks like you’ve changed your theme? Your posts look really good with this new theme and like how you are sharing class news. You may also find some extra ideas by checking the latest posts published by class blogs in the Edublogs Reader here – http://edublogs.org/reader/

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. HI Ms. Joiner. I think it looks great and you are off to a good start. We have lots of magazine style themes in appearance > themes if you ever wanted to look for something that has that print look right out of the box.

  15. I wrote my first past a week or so ago, so it’s not a first day of school post, but here’s the link. http://msrawlings.edublogs.org/2015/02/03/welcome-to-the-new-digital-home-of-ms-rawlings-class/

    I looked at the example posts and have two favorites. Mrs Hamman’s Sneak Peak is enticing enough, I kind of want to be there on the first day of school! And Ms Feist’s Mystery Skype is the perfect hook to get kids excited about coming to school. Since I haven’t gotten far enough to envision this as a daily blog for my class, the idea of running the blog alongside the class is very intimidating. My goal right now is to get it ready for summer reading.

  16. My favorite of the blog examples was http://mcdonald3rd.edublogs.org/2014/08/
    Even though it was geared toward an elementary school application, I liked the organization of the posts, the color and the concise information. This is one that I could see myself using as inspiration for the start of my next school year.

      1. Thanks Mrs Packer
        I am playing with a mobile friendly background called EduBoard. I really like the dark background as I think it will work well when we start adding some images of student work up there. I can’t wait to see what my students think of it!

    1. I like the photos that allow parents to see what their kids are doing in class. Are the students contributing their own writing as well?

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