Make sure you add the Badge for the 2011 Edublogs Challenge to your Sidebar.

Click HERE to select a badge to download and save to your computer. You’ll need to visit this site for instructions on how to get the image to appear on your Sidebar.

I’ve tried to simplify the steps for you here. It’s actually easier than it reads.

1.  Open up a draft post in your blog dashboard.
2.  Click on Add an Image to upload your image to the post.

3.  Click on Insert into Post.

4. Now click on the HTML tab and copy all the HTML code from your image.

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

6.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets.)

7.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

8.  The widget will automatically open — add a title to your widget, paste the HTML code and click Save.

You should now have your badge on your Sidebar!

CHALLENGE 3 has been posted. There is a Youtube Video you are asked to watch about your Digital Footprint (also known as “Digital Dossier”). It will not work at school. I’ll show this video to you in class, but you may need to watch it again at home. You’ll need to watch this before completing Activity 1.

Please complete Activities 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.

Visit CHALLENGE 3 to get started! The activities for Challenge 3 will be due October 7th. The sooner you get them completed and posted, the better chance you have of getting recognized on the Edublogs Challenge website.

**Don’t forget to include a link back to the Challenge 3 post for EACH post you write for Challenge 3.**

Image Source: Hub from Flickr.com

 

As you know, there will be a General Election here in Ontario on October 6th.

You will be participating in STUDENT VOTE this year, which will give you the opportunity to cast a ballot for one of the candidates in our area.

In order to make an informed decision, it’s important for you (and every Ontario voter) to get to know the platforms of each of the parties in the Election.

To see the candidates who you are up for election in our riding, click HERE and select ONTARIO, then our riding. You’ll see these names on your ballot next week. Take the time to get to know where they stand on important issues.

Another excellent website, created by The Globe and Mail has simple point form summaries of the platform for each of the parties. Compare the Ontario Party Platforms is a great place to start. It’s organized under eleven different categories, including education, environment, healthcare, jobs and more. Spend some time at this website and see which party has many ideas which appeal to you or you agree with.

COMMENTING

Once you’ve spent some time comparing the party platforms, leave a comment on this post. Respond to the following:

• Which 3 issues do you feel are the most important in this election? Why?

Challenge 2 should be completed by Friday, September 30. If you are able to, work on your blogs from home. Keep up on commenting and visiting other student blogs.

Please take the time to visit these blogs and look at the posts I’ve decided to include in Honourable Mentions I.

I’ll be posting a checklist in the classroom so you can see where you are in completing the various challenges and other activities. Please make sure you keep up with your blogging. Timeliness is a very important part of being a good blogger.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS 1

Chelsea has completed Challenge 2 and has done a great job at each of the three post activities. She combined all three into one post, which is a great idea. You can also complete each post activity one at a time. Visit Chelea’s Blog to have a look at her responses.

Lauren also combined the 3 post activities into one post. She didn’t forget to include a link back to the Challenge site as well. Here’s Lauren’s Challenge 2 post.

Debra has added a lot to her blog already. As a new blogger, she is obviously getting the hang of blogging. She’s already added lots of posts to her blog. Here’s an extra post Debra wrote that you should have a look at. It’s always great to add your own posts to your blog, besides the assignments and challenge posts I ask you to add. The more you add to your blog, the more readers you’ll attract and keep coming back.

Dylan has also added a lot to his blog as well. He has already uploaded his Biography and Podcast Interview on Keith Urban to his blog. Here is a link to Dylan’s podcast.

Emma posted her podcast interview. I like how she added a brief introduction about who her interview is with, as well as giving credit to who the other person was in her interview. Here’s Emma’s interview (with Jared).

Hannah uploaded her Biography and included her Podcast interview in the same post.  She did a wonderful job! Click here to read her biography and listen to her interview.

Have a look at Jared‘s post on Challenge 2. He begins by explaining the activities he had to do, and embedded a link right to the Challenge on the Challenge Site. This way, Ms. Wyatt knows right away when he’s posted his activity. It’s very important that you do this for every post you do (even if there’s more than one post per challenge. Here is Jared’s latest post.

Laura did a great job at including a link at the end of one of the activities for Challenge 2. She had a well written, well organized post as well. Here’s a post Laura wrote on Attractions in different U.S. States.

Jeremy has done an amazing job desinging his blog background. We’re going to have to have him teach the class how to do what he did.  Jeremy writes extra posts on his blog. Here’s a post he wrote called “Why I Love Star Wars.”

Matthew has written a very informative Biography on Steve Jobs. He included his podcast interview at the end of his post. Click here to read his biography and listen to the interview.

Simone‘s post on Challenge 2, Activity 3 was outstanding. She added LOTS of detail to her post, and included pictures as well. It’s always great to add relevant pictures to your posts because it makes the reading exprience more enjoyable for your readers. Simone also embedded the link to the image source in her picture. Here’s Simone’s post.

Keep up the great work, everyone!

Once again, all of you are doing an amazing job at keeping up with your blogging. Ms. Wyatt created a post which mentioned several of you as writing some great posts for Challenge 1 and 2. Have a look at “Visit These” to see other students who were mentioned from around the world.

About My Avatar Post (From Challenge 1)

Alexandra 7, Alexandra 8, Brooke, Jacqueline, Olivia, Amber

Tourist Attractions (from Challenge 2)

Alex, Alexandra 7, Alexandra 8, Brooke, Jacqueline, Olivia, Simone, Laura, Hannah, Chelsea

Where I Would Like to Visit and Why (from Challenge 2)

Alexandra 7

 

 

Some things you need to remember to do for Challenge 2 (which is due Friday):

1) Don’t forget to embed a link back to Ms. Wyatt’s Challenge 2 post at the end of each of the posts you are supposed to complete for Challenge 2. If you don’t do this, Ms. Wyatt will not know you have completed the post for the challenge.

Copy this trackback link in any posts you complete for Challenge 2 activities:

Challenge 2 Sept 2011

2) Watch for capitalization, spelling and sentence structure in your posts. There is a spell checker which you can use, but don’t rely on that for catching everything.

Hopeully, Edublogs will fix their server issue and you will have a faster, more positive blogging experience this week.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/25426957/sizes/o/in/photostream/ (Loupite)

As you know, Challenge 2 was posted on Monday.

Please complete the following activites from CHALLENGE 2.

Many of you have already completed several of these activites.

Activity 1 – Add a ClusterMap or Flag Counter to your blog.

Activity 2 –  Add one or more widgets about your area of the world.

This might include a clock or weather or a translator widget in case students who don’t speak your language can translate your post. **Remember, don’t provide any personal or identifying information. It’s OK to include information saying you’re from Ontario, Canada.

Activity 3. Write a post about a tourist attraction in one of the states or provinces listed on the Challenge 2 post..

Activity 5. Visit other participants and ask questions

Visit at least five other blogs from students or classes around the world and ask some questions in your comments.

Click on “2011 Challenge” at the top of this page to access a list of students participating, or click here to access the page.

Activity 6. Questions in a post

Write a post asking questions about the different countries mentioned in activity 5. Have at least 6 questions in your post.

Activity 7. Where I would love to visit and why

Write a post or use a web 2.0 tool telling your readers about a place you would love to visit and why. Try to include some hyperlinks (links that are underlined in your post and take your readers to another website)

Don’t forget to embed a link back to the Challenge 2 post on the Student Challenge website. There is a post from yesterday on how to embed a link.

Copy this trackback link in any posts you write about these activities:

Challenge 2 Sept 2011

Doing this will let Ms. Wyatt will know to visit your blog and read your post.

All of your blogs look great! Keep up the great work!

Image Source: Martin LaBar from Flickr.com

One part of blogging is sharing links you’ve found with your blog readers. This allows you to share your interesting finds and express why you like the website you’ve found. This will also hopefully create some comments from other readers. To make your post look cleaner, you can embed (hide) the link to the website you want to share in a word or phrase in your post. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the website you want to share. Highlight and copy the address from the address bar.
2. In your post, make sure you’ve written a brief description of the website and why you like it or think it’s important to share with your readers. For example:

“I’ve found this great search engine that I think everyone will find easy to use. It gives many relevant hits when I type in a search query. It’s called ‘Google’.”

3. Now, you can hide the link under a word in your description under a word. I’m going to hide the link to “Google” under the word “Google”.
4. Erase the word “Google” and leave your cursor there.
5. Click on the HTML tab in the top right corner of the typing area.
6. Click on the link button. If you’re using MS Explorer, a bar will appear at the top of the screen as a warning. Click on that to allow scripts. Click on the link button again.

Paste the address to the website in the box that pops up and click OK.
7. Now type the word (or phrase) which you are going to embed the link in. I’m going to type the word “Google” right after the long code that appears.
8. Click on the link button one more time. This tells it that you’re finished.
9. Preview your post and click on the link just to make sure it works.
10. Publish your post.

Image Source: sparktography from Flickr.com

I would like you to have all the components of Challenge 1 completed by FRIDAY. Challenge 2 will be posted tomorrow.

Thanks everyone!

Today, we’re going to begin yet another new and exciting project in our classroom. We’re going to begin to learn about “Blended Learning”– a pilot project with our school board and e-Learning Ontario. You are going to be participating in several online courses, where the assignments will be posted online and you’ll need to submit the assignments electronically to me. You’ll also be able to see other blogs of students who are also participating in this project. We are one of a few classrooms in our board and our province who get to do this. I know this will prove to be a worthwhile experience for all of us.

Like blogging, there is a lot to learn. I’m very confident in your abilities and am sure you will be come very comfortable using E Learning.

Once again, please work closely with your “Blogging Buddy” during the first few times you work on E Learning.  They will show you today several important activities:

• how to access the Blended Learning site
• how to log in
• how to access the different COURSES (eg. BLPepper, Geography, etc.)
• how to use the LOCKER
• how to use the DROPBOX
• how to access the DISCUSSION

Once you have spent some time with Blended Learning, continue working on Challenge 1 from the Edublogs Challenge.

 

 

 

 

CHALLENGE ONE has been posted at the Student Challenge site.

There are 6 parts to this Challenge. You’ve all finished the first one, which is creating or updating an About page.

Read the other Activities carefully and begin completing them. Don’t spend too much time creating an avatar, but please make sure you do.

 

Image Source: Mrs. Logic