Sign up for March #28daysofwriting

Blogging and commenting are like Luke and Leia Skywalker. Blogging comes first (like Luke did – they are twins y’know) but commenting and discussion makes everything better (much like Leia’s influence) – they are lonely when they are apart. If you are keen to get into a writing habit during March sign up for #28daysofwriting.

#28daysofwriting continues in MARCH

I am delighted to keep this momentum rolling with a new round of March sign ups for#28daysofwriting. It is open for those of you keen to get into a writing habit and itching to join the 115 or so writers and educators who are taking part in #28daysofwriting. Add your details below to the signup form for MARCH, we’ll kick things off on 1st of March.

Remember the rules are simple – write about whatever you like, as much as you like, but you have to stop after 28 minutes and you have to stick at it every day for 28 days. #28daysofwriting.

Signup for #28daysofcommenting

We have over a week to go for the first cohort to get through February and this inaugural round of writing. But the more I have been thinking about blogging this month the more I have been considering the Skywalker Effect (yes I am calling it that!) – the lack of commenting. So for those of you keen to stay in the blogging habit consider signing up and committing to #28daysofcommenting.

Same rules apply: every day for the first 28 days of March, read and leave comments on blog posts you come across. Do as much as you can in 28 minutes. No need to hit up new posts everyday you might continue a discussion taking place somewhere as well. One key thing would be to share to your networks, through Twitter and G+ etc, the comment you just left.

“I just commented on … for #28daysofcommenting” sort of thing, you get the idea.

Just a quick signup form to get a sense of numbers really nothing more for now – and we always feel more committed when we have filled out a form.

It works as a nice parallel to the writing challenge – we will have a crew writing everyday and we will have a bunch of supportive people chipping into the discussion too.

Discussion is such an important part of our edublogging community so I hope you will consider taking part and supporting the new bunch of people taking the writing challenge. Really l0oking forward to kicking on with this challenge for month – we have 10 days to get signed up using the forms above. Don’t forget to share this with those people who didn’t quite commit for February – it’s be great to continue to grow the community.

So the hashtag lives on and we now welcome the twin to the edublogging galaxy!

#28daysofwriting

#28daysofcommenting

Unstoppable Creators and Powerful Thinkers

This is one of the finest descriptions of a class blog I have ever come across:

We are a class of groundbreaking inventors, unstoppable creators and powerful thinkers. We learn cooperatively together but most importantly with a shared dream of success and impact. We are shaping the future and grabbing every opportunity life throws our way. Join us as we work hard to reap the rewards…after all, to appreciate the beauty of a snow flake, you’ve got to stand out in the cold.

These 5 and 6 year olds must have a great time!

Class 1JR at Rosendale Primary School

20+ Classroom Blogs to Enjoy

2image.png.scaled.1000I spent today working with staff at Christ Church Primary School in Brixton, South London – and we were predominantly talking about the use of classroom blogging to support learning.
During the day I was tweeting to ask people to share their own class blogs as I was working with different year groups and it was lovely to look back this evening and find so many all across the world that people sent me – so a big thanks to those of you in this list.
I have gathered them up and indictaed where the cass blogs are from and thought I would share in a post for everyone to benefit from.
And here are the class blogs from Christ Church Priary School too – they would be so pleased if you and your classes dropped by and added a comment or two. They have just started their blogging journey and would welcome the support.

Make sure you spend some time exploring the different blogs and look for links to other school blogs they have displayed and I hope you perhaps find a class to link to and share some stories with.

Please share your class blog in the comments below

#classblogs

2372269050 e323e2dfa7Recently I have written a number of posts about class blogging and have begun using one again in our classroom. One of the things that I wrote about in my previous post is how useful it is to keep tabs on your visitor numbers and locations, and how children get very excited about this.

One big influence on this is a separate network that allows you to promote your class blog and drive traffic to it. I am aware that with a larger Twitter network you can drive a larger amount of clicks. I am going to put mine to good use and post on Twitter a class blog recommendation every single day.

I hope that this helps drives traffic to your class blogs, widens your audience and continues to spark curiosity about different visitor locations. But perhaps more importantly it might help you and your class make some meaningful connections with other classes around the world.

I have started the #classblogs hashtag to keep track of everything to do with … class blogs!

Here are the first 4 recommendations taken from various tweets and recent comments on blog posts.

If you haven’t already please drop by and leave them a comment, remember if they have a visitor map even if you just take a look you will add a little dot. That dot may lead to a question from one of the class…

If you have a class blog and want me to help spread the word about what you are doing I am taking examples from the existing comments on my previous post, otherwise just let me know the details.