Our New "Other" Blog

Having worked hard with my students (6 & 7 year olds) during last term on the basics of blogging they are now ready to be set loose on their own!

They have learned how to independently make a new posting, add a title, write a post and include our names as a label (tag). Later we will be building on this, adding more formatting and layout to our text and inserting pictures/photos too!

A new blog has been born... it is the "Room 9 Writing Spot". I had originally envisaged doing this on Class Blogmeister, however the students had just come to grips with competently using Blogger so I decided not to throw a "spanner in the works".

The Writing Spot is to be totally student run.... with only troubleshooting advice from me... they really are venturing out on their own! I will, however, add a hit counter and a clustr map later if they ask for it. We will continue to add to our existing Class Blog as usual also!

During writing time each day one child will be making a posting on the blog, so theoretically we should have 4-5 posts per week which will be great. They are adding their names as labels (tags) and we have displayed them down the sidebar - this is great because effectively (once there are more posts) it will allow each child to "virtually" have their own special writing page with only their posts on it! I'm sure this will be a hit with parents too!

I have made a conscious decision not to correct the students' punctuation, spelling and grammar. The posts will be as they intended. I am also not providing any guidance as to what they should write when it is their turn on the computer... although we have talked about writing about our personal experiences and more importantly, our reflections on our learning (this will probably take some time to develop).

This is an exciting time for both myself and my students.... I am enjoying seeing what they are choosing to write about and seeing their confidence develop. Please feel free to pop over from time to time and have a visit!

"Oooooh.... look at our Clustr Map!"

PS: We will also continue posting to our Class Blog as usual :)