The Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge

Participating in the the bi annual 

Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge 

is a very good opportunity

for individual students and classes who blog, 

to learn new blogging skills, 

to develop their blog

and make contact with students and schools 

all over the globe.

 

It is conducted over ten weeks

in September and March of each year. 

Here are the Frequently Asked Questions 

about the ‘Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge’.

 

Our own experience was

that as a result of participating last March,

we made contact with many schools

from all over USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

 

Here is the work that was posted globally during the last challenge

Student Blogging Challenge – March 2013 – on Flipboard.com

In this compilation, you can see the contributions from

2nd Class, Room 6 and ‘If Only the Best Birds Sang’.

 

We found we really ‘took off’ as a result of participating

in the ‘Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge’

 

Bent wings...
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Pam Corey via Compfight

Student Blogging Challenge 2013

We have just completed a ten week Student Blogging Challenge.

365.14 (Blogging)
Photo Credit: Kim Piper Werker via Compfight

Participating in this international challenge was hard work.

It was challenging sometimes to get our ‘homework’

handed in by the end of the week,

 

but it improved our blogging skills and our blog.

and brought us into contact with other students blogging

all over the world.

 

We learned many skills on this challenge but the one that had

most impact was learning how to use Compfight to access

images relevant to our work quickly while observing

the rules of copyright. This has made a big different to our

blog as you can see if you compare our work before we learnt

how to use Compfight in

Week 4 Student Blogging Challenge – Adding Images Using Compfight

at the end of March 2013 and the quality and amount of images

we used before that.

 

The Student Blogging Challenge is run twice a year and is

co-ordinated by a very busy and dedicated

former teacher from Hobart, Tasmania.

 

As you can see from this link, we received an honourable

mention for our work: Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – Great Blogging Posts

 

We would recommend the Student Blogging Challenge wholeheartedly

as enjoyable, educational and a way to connect with other students who blog globally.

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – Week Ten – Evaluation

This is the tenth and final week

of the Student Blogging Challenge 2013.

You can read about it here 🙂

We began this challenge at the beginning of March
and have learnt a lot of interesting things
about blogging in that time.
We have also made contact
with many other students 
in other countries.
This week we were ask to evaluate our blog
and to ask someone else to audit it.
So here it goes:

 

How many posts did you write?
 
Oops we were on a bit of a roll,
 
we have written 121 posts since the beginning of March
 
How many were school based, your own interests
 
or set by the challenge?
 
10 of these were the blog challenges
 
and the other 111 were school related.
 
How many comments did you receive
 
from classmates, teachers or overseas students?
 
Since the beginning of March

 

we have received 98 comments
 
34  were from classmates
 
15 were from teachers from overseas
 
11 were from parents of students in 2nd Class, Room 6
 
32 were from overseas students
 
6 were from students from other schools in Ireland.
 
Which post received the most comments?
 
With 8 comments, 8 replies and 2 pingbacks that would be:
 
 
Why do you think that happened?
Because other bloggers participating
in the Student Blogging Challenge
were asked to comment as part of that week’s challenge.
There were links on this post to other blogs and
those bloggers got in contact.
 
Which post did you enjoy writing the most and why?
 
It is very hard to choose which post we enjoyed writing the best.
We found talking about our digital footprint very interesting

 

But perhaps our favourite post to write was
The image that we were asked to write about
generated a lot of interesting discussion
and some excellent writing.
We made a slideshow
and it was a collaborative effort
with Nicole writing the script
and Matthew, Isabella and Clara
illustrating the story.
We thought the end result turned out well 
and we got some very encouraging feedback from Ms. W. 🙂

 

Did you change blog themes at all and why?
 
No our blog theme is like our identity at this stage.
 
Our parents and friends who visit would recognize it.
 
If we changed it they might say:
 
‘Where are we?
We don’t recognize this place.
We are lost. Let’s go home!’
 
They might leave
 
and we wouldn’t like that.
 
So we would be slow to change it.
 
How many widgets do you have?
 
We LOVE widgets. We have 20 widgets.
 
Do you think this is too many or not enough?
 
This is probably too much
and makes the blog
a bit slow to load,
but we like them so much
 
we are going to leave them there.
If we saw a new one we really liked,
we’d probably add it.
We feel our widgets like our twitter feed
and add to the personality of our blog.
Having our podcast feed in our sidebar
helps visitors find them.
Widgets tells visitors a bit more about who we are
and what is important to us, like our bookshelf,
 
How many overseas students do you have on your blogroll?

 

We have 6 overseas students
and 12 overseas class blogs on our links.

 

 

What were your first impressions of this blog?

Colourful, busy, age appropriate

 

What captured your attention?

I thought the title was good

and I liked all the images.

 

What distracted you on the blog?

The blog takes some time to load

 

What suggestions can you give us to improve the blog?

Shorter, snappier posts!

 

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – Week Nine

This is  Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – Week 9 – Game Week.

 138...
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Charlie Barker via Compfight

We read many posts that we found interesting and enjoyed

and we left many comments.

Of all the blogs we visited and posts we read in the past few weeks

these are our top three:

 

We really enjoyed Mrs Krebs Geography Surveys

We loved participating and we thought it was very interesting

how a language we share in many ways can have

different meanings in different parts of the world.

It certainly gave us  ‘food for thought’

if you excuse the pun.

 

We were very flattened to get a mention on

Mrs Tharp’s Class Blog on ‘Being Inspiring’

but that apart we thought her collection of posts

were very inspiring and that it was clever the way

they were linked together under one theme.

 alwaysbecurious EXPLORED!
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Conor Keller via Compfight

And we just have to give Larkin’s Weirdly Special another mention.

Check the link above and you will see how hard he is working

and engaging with other bloggers.

 

Recognising and commenting on other blogs is key to blogging.

‘No man is an island’ and this is true of blogging too.

 

Since we started blogging we have left oodles of comments

on other blogs and it can be discouraging not to hear back.

 

In general for every 100 comments we leave we get about 5 back.

That is why we treasure those five.

 

Happily this percentage is much better on the Student Blogging Challenge.

 

What can make up for the lack of comments in general is

what good and faithful friends some bloggers then become.

He Waits
Photo Credit: greg via Compfight

Student Blogging Challenge 2013: Some GREAT posts

For the past number of weeks

2nd Class Room 6 has been doing

the ‘Student Blogging Challenge 2013’.

During this time, we have visited

many excellent blogs

and received some very welcome visitors.

Blogging Research Wordle
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Kristina B via Compfight

Here are some bloggers and posts that

I thought deserved

a very honorable mention:

 

I really liked English Beat

from St. Mark’s School,

California, USA

but I warn you …

The quality and the range of posts on this blog is such,

that you may have a ‘Hotel California’ experience.

‘You may check out anytime you want,

but you may never leave’.

 

Not that you would mind.

There is ‘food for thought’

and great depth of feeling

in the student posts on this blog

and if this is the quality of thought

that the new generation is capable of,

the world is in safe hands.

 

The names the students have chosen

as their blog title reflect their originality

and their enthusiasm for blogging

e.g. Barely A Blog, Blogerifica,

Claire’s Pride & Protagonists, Elaine’s Epiphany,

Gabe’s Glorious Blog, Luigi’s Amazing Blog,

Ming’s Laboratory, Simply Sonnets,

T-Bone’s Blog, The A’s Factor,

The Secret Life of a Bibliophile

and Sentences and Sensibility.

I learnt from, and was inspired by their work.

 

I think their teacher must have many gifts

including a special one of being able

to motivate and inspire her students.

 

The following post from Larkin from ‘English Beat’

gives an example of what I mean.

Larkinblog8’s response to Student Blogging Challenge 4: Images

The post is one of quality not quantity

and yet a great deal of thought has gone into

crafting a response to Student Blogging Challenge 4:

Using pictures in posts.

 

Earlier in the challenge there was

Great post from Larkin about 10 things that he values.

I think this is a moving post, 

that lets us know that Larkin 

is a thinking, good hearted person

and an individual of depth.

 

And so onto another post from one of English Beat’s

many talented bloggers: 

Adam’s English Escape’s Online Me vs Real Life Me

I find a visit to Adam’s Blog always arresting

because like Adam, I love widgets.

Adam has a very eye catching blog

with a good design and a judicious choice

of more unusual widgets.

I find the above post written in response to

‘The Student Blogging Challenge 6 – Your Digital Footprint’,

very insightful and considered.

Adam’s perceptive post shows excellent self knowledge and maturity.

He has a balanced and informed view of online dangers.

I comment his understanding that

‘some people may feel pressured in person, but are totally fine online’

and his observation that the opposite can also be the case.

 

I was very taken with this initial post

by David W’s Why You Should Visit My Blog

written as a response to the 1st Challenge.

I thought he sounded like an interesting person

and I thought that his strong post on Singing confirmed this.

I think David is honest in what he writes

and I think this post is well rounded

and shows great range:

He talks about history and tradition,

the role and effect of song.

I agree whole heartedly when he says

‘No matter what the situation singing can make it better’.

I would like to read more of what this blogger has to say.

I think David shows excellent potential.

 

Finally this is one of the first posts

I read during the Blogging Challenge.

Sydney M’s ’10 People I would like to meet’ from her portfolio

I liked SydneyM’s post on that occasion because

she had added images to her post

and this really brought her choices

of her heroes and heroines to life.

Since then, there is every evidence

that SydneyM has worked very hard

on her blog and been very attentive

to the suggestions given by Miss W

in the challenges.  

So there is a Voki Avatar,  

a search and a translate facility,

a poll,

links to other blogs.

Sydney has been inventive

using a variety of blogging tools;

a digital story book and a Thinklink

 

This blog is called: ‘If only the best birds sang’.

So my question for you is:

If you look on the sidebar

to the upper right of this post,

what kind of animated bird will tell you about

how to post comments on this page?

T _ _ _ _ _

Our Favourite Web 2.0 Tool; Audioboo

 

One of our  favourite  Web 2.0 Tools
 
is  a podcasting one;
 
AudioBoo
 
We use Audioboo  to record podcasts.
 
These recordings are called ‘boos’.
 
It is free for recordings of up to three minutes in length
 
which can then be posted on the Audioboo website
 
where we have our on own page.
 
But most importantly we can embed the podcast on our blog.
 
These are three of our favourite ‘boos’
 
from over fifty that we have made:

 

For Mothers’ Day we made this ‘boo’:

 

This was an introduction we wrote

 

for our friends in New Zealand

 

which we based on the New Zealand ‘mihi’
(traditional introduction or greeting):

 

And here you can hear us sing:

 

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 continued. Week 5; A Secret in the Forest.

We are continuing with the Student Blogging Challenge.

This is Challenge 5.

We were asked to write a story

based on an image of a forest

where there was a signpost saying:

A Secret Hides In This Forest.

 

You can read about the challenge here:

 Student Blogging Challenge 5: Secrets

 

We made a Photopeach Slideshow.

Nicole wrote the story.

Isabella drew the cat.

Clara drew the fairy.

 

The other children in 2nd Class Room 6

had already created the backgrounds.

 

HERE it is….

We hope you enjoy it!

 

The Secret That Lies In The Forest 

Week 4: Student Blogging Challenge 2013: Adding images using Compfight

We are doing the Student Blogging Challenge 2013

 

This is the fourth week and

this week’s Blogging Challenge’

gives us the ‘freedom to choose’

what we, 2nd Class, Room 6

want to write about.

 

You can read about this week’s challenge

if you click on this link 🙂

 

This week we are asked

to use images in our post

and were advised how to install

and use Compfight

 

We had learned about Creative Commons

From The Edublogger: Guide to Copyright Fair Use and Creative Commons

and we had heard a very interesting

story about a boy who got into bother when

he used a very ordinary picture

of a slice of salami

without permission

so we are always very careful

about using images on this blog.

 

Mostly we use ones

we have made ourselves.

But when we have used other people’s

we have always used

Creative Commons and

are always careful to say

who the picture really belongs to.

 

Well the children in 2nd Class Room 6

really love writing.

When given the opportunity to write

about something they like to write about

of course they always write about

something they are very interested in.

For example here are two very different stories

written by students in 2nd Class Room 6

The first one is

“Star Wars”

by Zac Berry

Chapter One

Milky Way / Via Láctea
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Chaval Brasil via Compfight

Commander Rex was guarding his ship.

It seemed it would be a quiet day,

but then the Commander saw some enemy ships

heading for the sun.

L I G H T S D A N C E
Photo Credit: Fabrizio Sciami via Compfight

There was a huge laser cannon

on the back of one of the ships.

That worried Commander Rex.

He guessed that the commanders

of the enemy ships planned

to use the cannon to shoot the sun

so they could control the whole world

and all the planets.

Chapter Two


Photo Credit: JD Hancock via Compfight

Commander Rex called his clone troopers

to board the enemy ships

and to shoot down any that tried to escape.

The enemy ships saw Commander Rex’s fleet coming

and they decided that

they would shoot them down first.

X-wing
Photo Credit: Mike via Compfight

Then, Commander Rex called in

the star fighter torpedo cannons

to shoot down the enemy ships.

They succeeded in that mission.

Chapter Three

Finding balance
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Kristina Alexanderson via Compfight

Commander Rex went down to the prisoners

from the enemy ships to find out what

the enemby ship captains were up to.

He asked them to speak up and tell him

what they were doing.

A New Era
Photo Credit: JD Hancock via Compfight

No one confessed so Commander Rex

took them all prisoner

until he worked out what to do with them.

As they left the room an envelope

fell out of one of their pockets.

Google's Master Plan
Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson via Compfight

In the envelope was the whole plan.

It said that the protector droids

would come and shoot Commander Rex’s ship.

Luckily Commander Rex was alerted to this plan.

So the friendly airships were alerted also.

They're here.....
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Ross Pollack via Compfight

They came in and flattened the protecter droids.

And so ends another successful mission

by Commander Rex.

Super Troopers!
Photo Credit: JD Hancock via Compfight

The second story is called

“The Magical Tree”

and it is by Nicole

Snow balls
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: blmiers2 via Compfight

Chapter One

Once on a magical day,

there was a girl called Holly.

She went for a walk in the magical forest.

The Bamboo Forest and some great Twitter Lists to follow
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Trey Ratcliff via Compfight

She saw an enormous tree.

There was a small door,

small enough to fit a little girl like Holly .

She went for a closer look.

She leaned down to see the door and stumbled in.

The Chamber of Secrets
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Justin Kern via Compfight

She found herself in an old castle

as old as her Dad.

She met a girl and her name was Isobel.

Isobel gave Holly a tour of the castle.

Holly was not paying attention

and went through another door.

Chapter Two

Birthday Cake and candy sprinkles free creative commons
Photo Credit: D. Sharon Pruitt via Compfight

She found herself in a land of sweets.

She found lollipops, candycorn and popcorn trees.

Suddenly she saw a nutcracker.

Happy Christmas To All Boots (and family of Boots too)
Photo Credit: Randy Robertson via Compfight

He marched up to her and said

“What are you doing here?”

He locked her up in the dungeon of rotten sweets.

Suddenly she saw yet another door in the dungeon wall.

Stair in Bussana Vecchia
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Marco Bernardini via Compfight

Chapter Three

She heard a noise.

It was a dragon

~ THE EYE ~
Photo Credit: Mohammed Alnaser via Compfight

“Help help!” said the dragon,

“What’s wrong?” said Holly.

“The Nutcracker locked me up in a cage.

The only way that you can get me out

is to get me the key from the windowsill”.

The Key of my mind...
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Daniele Margaroli via Compfight

Holly got the key from the windowsill

and she unlocked the dragon.

Chapter Four

Have a sweet weekend...
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Bernat Casero via Compfight

They busted out with a huge lollipop

and knocked out the wicked Nutcracker

and put him in the dungeon.

After all their adventures,

they had a party to celebrate.

Happy New Year! Colorful Bubbly for You!
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Evan Leeson via Compfight

Using Compfight was quick and easy.

The pictures  really brought

our stories to life.

 It is good to have this new skill 🙂

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – The Third Challenge – 10 Recycling Socks Ideas!

We are doing the Student Blogging Challenge 2013

 

This is the third week and

We found this week’s Blogging Challenge ‘challenging’ 😉

We were asked to think of ten ways of recycling socks.

 

You can read about the 3rd Challenge here.
First some maths!

How many socks do you use in  a year?

 

Over a lifetime how many is that?

In a family of four how many would that be?

 

How about in a neighbourhood

In a school of five hundred?

 

In a country?

In the world?

 

So we are sure you would agree

we need to do more with our old socks

rather than putting them in the bin.

 

We think that there must be

at least three types of odd sock.

 

The Oldies but Goodies

There is the very old and threadbare

It deserves to be treated with respect.

It has done its job well.

They are used to hard work

and won’t mind working some more.

 

The Lovelies

They are the very new, fashionable ones

that we love and then disaster we lose one.

The new job we can give these ones

can be a lot more glamorous

 

The Cuties

They are the really cute ones

that perhaps look almost new.

that Baby has grown out of them.

 

Wash very very well and then…

Wash them again.

 

That the socks are clean

and that they don’t smell is

really

REALLY important

for the success of these recycling ideas.

 

So what to do to recycle socks?

 

You could use them to:

1. dust and polish

2. clean blackboards or white boards

3. protect shoes when we do painting and decorating

4.  You have heard about a soap on a rope. How about a soap in a sock?

Put a bar of soap into a long sock  rub it and it will lather up. 

5. The feet can be cut off the sock and they can be used as leg warmers

6. Tie a few together to use as a toy for your dog or your cat.

7. Stuffing: Cut old socks up into small pieces and use to stuff toys or pillows.

8. Make sock hand puppet

9. If you have babies just learning to crawl, take a long sock, cut the feet off and put the

footless sock over baby’s knees to help protect them and the clothes they are wearing.

10. Ice Pack: Fill with ice and put on the bump.

 

So where do socks disappear too.

It’s well known that washing machines and driers steal them.

 

Buy identical pairs of socks

and then you will be able to make a new pair with the odd ones.

 

We made a short comic using 

 

Make Beliefs Comix

 

We called it:

 

Where do all the odd socks go?

 

 

 

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 – The First Challenge

We are doing the Student Blogging Challenge 2013

You can read about it here

 

The First Challenge 

“If you could meet 10 people,

alive or dead,

who would they be?

Make a list of the people

and include one question

you would ask them

in an interview.

You cannot repeat the same question”.

 

After much debate,

the ten people that

2nd Class, Room 6 chose were:

1. Chris Hadfield

(Chief Engineer of the International Space Centre)

What food craving do you have while you are orbiting the earth?

 

Braille

 

2. Louis Braille (1809-1852)

(Inventor of Braille, a system of ‘reading’ for the blind)

When you dream do you see what you are dreaming about?

 

 

3. St Brigid (450-525AD)

The female patron saint of Ireland

How do you become a saint?

Listen to us sing a song about St. Brigid here.

 

4. Anne Fine, the writer

Did you ever have teachers

like the ones you described in your book

‘The Country Pancake’? 

 

5. Francesca Simon, the author 

Why was your character Horrid Henry so horrid?

 

6. Dorothy Edwards, who wrote

‘My Naughty Little Sister’ and other stories.

Did you have a Naughty Little Sister or were you one yourself?

 

We tried to draw Mondrian's 'Gray Tree'

7. Mondrian, the artist, (1872-1944)

How did you think of such a unique picture ‘The Gray Tree’

 

This is our version of Georgia O'Keeffe's 'The Lawrence Tree'

8. Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986

the painter who specialized

in colourful, large scale pictures

of flowers and nature.  

When did you discover your talent?

 

9. Goliath, the biblical giant

who was defeated in battle

by the shepherd boy David

How did it feel to lose to a lad smaller than you?

10. Brian O Driscoll Irish rugby legend.

What do you think of girls playing rugby?