It’s great to see how well some of the LA19 students are doing with their blogs. Well done to Jasmine, Tahlia, Dom and Tennille who are constantly updating their blogs with interesting topics. Also, well done to Tahlia and Mason who went to the effort of getting creative with the camera to make their blogs look amazing. Great work!

Last week’s challenge was very impressive, so impressive I thought we could manage another one. This week we will be concentrating on our backgrounds or headers (those who have them). You will need to get creative with a camera. Take a creative photo and use it to enhance and personalise your background or header; if you need any help with this just ask. For the second part you have a choice. Your first option is to think of a song that has meaning for you. Write about why the song is important, what it means to you, how it makes you feel, what memory it brings back… The other option is to embed a short Youtube clip about a sporting event (AFL, Soccer…) and write a short post about it (don’t forget the attribution). If last week is anything to go by I’m expecting great things

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Well, we’re a bit late to start the “Student Blogging Challenge” but there is nothing to stop us trying a few of the activities in order to hone our skills and improve our blogs. This week I want us to create and develop an “About Me” page. I found some really great examples of student blogs by following links on the Student Blogging Challenge page, four of which were Sophie, Shweta, Kyle and Molly. We also need to think carefully about our avatars. Avatars are a great way of helping people remember who we are and of protecting our anonymity. Check out the links on this page, you will need to scroll down just a little to Activity 3, then create a new avatar for yourself.

Copyright is a big issue for bloggers. We have to make sure that the images and videos we use on our blogs are truly free and appropriate for use. This means we don’t just carry out a Google search for just any old image, but we look for ones that we are allowed to use. Any resource (text, images, video, music etc.) that we find online and we wish to use needs to include a creative commons license, similar to the one on this page below the Clustr Map. Two great options to make sure you are safe include Creative Commons Search and the Advanced search option on Google where you can select the right license type (look for the cog).  A great place to find more information, and where some of this is taken from, is The Edublogger by Ronnie Burt. Have a read and scroll down to find Where To Find The Goods to find links and information on appropriate resources.

Check out the Class News page to see some of the excellent art we created on the iPads. The work was influenced by the Blush album cover and was made using the Brushes app. To find out why we did this have a look at The Big IT Project on the Staff Room page.

For anyone thinking of starting a blog with their class this has got to be a great start. Creating a paper blog can be a fabulous introduction to blogging, or it can be used as a stepping stone for younger students before they get to the higher years where they begin blogging on the internet. This excellent post from Karen McMillan is well worth a read.

Penguin Cam has been retired from this blog but you can still catch it here.

This is all about us!

What we will be doing here is talking, talking about everything and anything. We all have opinions, likes, dislikes, things that make us smile and things that make us mad, and we all want to be heard. That’s where Our blogs come in. Our blogs will be used as a motivation for writing as well as a way of letting everyone know who we are and what we’re like. Check out the student’s blogs, the links are on the left, but please be aware that this is an ongoing journey and the end is still a long way away!

If you want to find out how we got here check out the Staff Room page where there’s a link to The BIG IT Project. Again, this is ongoing as it’s a reflection of the ups and downs of our IT experiences. Hope you find it informative.

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Digital Privacy is Everything!

Always follow these few simple steps:

• Use your first name only to identify yourself.
• Leave off your home email, your street address, phone number, or school name.
• Don’t share specifics of your daily routines that involve time and location (ie where & when your soccer practice is, which park you go to…)

Based on the excellent Huzzah! Blog. Check it out.

This site is moderated and all comments will need to be approved before they will appear. These rules meet with the Department of Education and Training’s Internet Publishing Guidelines and will help keep our children safe.

Guidelines for good posts.

• Be topical – write about things that have grabbed your attention and you think need to be discussed. The more interesting it is the more people will want to read it.
• Don’t make your posts too long – keep them to the point as people sometimes get bored if the post drags on
• Try not to use “Hi” or “Bye” as this can make your blog seem a little immature.
• Review any comments that people have made – they have gone to the effort, so should you.