Blogging at Caribou

I'm hanging out at Caribou Coffee and writing the first post for the 20 Day Blogging Challenge. This is an idea I got from Kelly Hines. Here is a link to her post. http://kellyhines.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/self-initiated-blogging-challenge/ Even if I don't get all 20 posts done in the same month, I'll be ahead of what I have been doing. You can find my posts at http://daysclassnotes.blogspot.com/. Wish me luck!

Photo #257/365: Paper Blogs

We have been learning about blogging and how blogs work.   To understand how blogs work, we made paper blogs.  Students wrote their first blog post on paper.  They glued their post to a poster and decorated it to make it look like a blog.  Then we hung them around the room. On top of the bulletin boards, on the white board, taped to bookshelves.  We visited a blog by a teacher in California, Mrs. Yollis, and watched a short video that her students made about writing comments.  Their advice was to be positive and specific.

Armed with pencils and sticky notes we all moved around the room reading each other's blogs and writing comments on the sticky notes.  We stuck the sticky notes to the blogs.  Some people tried to sneak back to their own blogs to read the comments, but they had to wait until the end.  When we were finished, everyone got their own blogs back and got to read the comments that had been left for them.  Now we are ready to write our first blog post for our on-line blogs.

This was the first time I tried the paper blog idea, but I will definitely do it again.  The original idea comes from middle school teacher, Karen McMillan.  You can read about it on her blog, Notes from McTeach.  Also, here is a link to Mrs. Yollis's blog.

Photo #347: iPad Bloggers

When we first got our ten iPads I was rather lukewarm to them. I was frustrated because there were so many things we could not do with them, that we could do with the laptops. It turns out that a lot of our problems were being caused by the school district's filters. After changing the settings, we can now access our class wiki, and our Kidblogs, and now that Google Docs can be edited on the iPad, they are so much more versatile. Later this week, I will write more on my Day In the Classroom blog about the ways we are using the iPads in our classroom.

Today we started using them to blog. It's interesting to see how the kids get comfortable with their iPad. Some like to lay them flat on the desk, others use the case to prop them up, still others are lap bloggers.

Photo #240: Class Blog

Here I am hanging out again at Caribou Coffee. This time I'm working on a new post for our class blog. The kids decided what should be included, and I'm doing the writing. My job will get much easier next week, when they collaborate to write our weekly post.

It was out with the old and in with the new. We've only been in school two days, but I was able to take lots of photos, so I could update the blog with photos of this year's class.

Once again, my trusty little netbook handles it all. And my Mango Black iced tea, keeps me going,

Photo #66: Grande Mocha Frappucino

I love Sunday afternoons at Barnes and Noble. Meeting my sister there on Sunday afternoons has become a wonderful routine. Today Jacci went to study, and I went with the intent of writing my blog post for my other blog, Prospecting for Treasure. Having a Grande Mocha Frappacino to sip on while I work makes it even better.

Hanging Out At Barnes & Noble

It is time to begin thinking about school again. Although I brought home a whole stack of work, I have not touched it. So today, I started out my day working in my craft room, making thank you cards and bookmarks for my students. This flurry of creativity prompted a blog post on my other blog. In the afternoon I headed to Barnes and Noble with the intent of working on my American Revolution webquest, but as you can see by the pile of books, blogging was on my mind. I love hanging out with my little netbook at Caribou Coffee, or Starbucks at Barnes & Noble. When my sister joins me, even better!