My Top Ten Blogs

The class blog has been given this blogging award by three different teachers. The first is Mr. Webb from http://melvilleroom8.blogspot.com/ As any reader of my blog knows I have the utmost respect for Mr. Webb and his use of blogging in the classroom. His emphasis on student created video is inspiring and he is a valuable member of my personal learning network.

The second class blog that gave us the award is Super 7 Scoopers @ St. Clair. Ms. Bee's has become part of my extended personal learning network. Although she has had ties to several class blogs that I follow in New Zealand, I know her best from my class leaving Comments4Kids. The Scoopers blog is another amazing blog from New Zealand.

The third class blog that gave us the award is Bailey Road Team 17. Mr. Wood has become a real Comments4Kids warrior. When I see a link to comment on more often than not Mr. Wood has already left a great comment on it. To top it all off, he also has an amazing class blog! If you are not familiar with NZ's schools quality of blogging, I suggest you visit these three great examples.

For those receiving the award, here are a few rules to follow:

1. Copy and display the picture of the award.
2. Link back to the blog that nominated you.
3. Nominate 10 new blogs.
4. Inform the people who's blog you nominated so they can continue to spread the word about the other great blogs out there.

As usual I am going to do things a little differently. The blogs I choose are important to me for a variety of reasons. They may not be the 10 best blogs of all time, but they all have qualities that I appreciate. Please enjoy!

Daraja Academy-Official Blog I admit that I am not brave enough to quit my job and move to Africa to build a school. That is why this blog is so important to me. While I complain about computers not working, the staff at Daraja is finding solutions to their school's lack of drinking water.

At the Fireplace Mrs. Tarasevich's blog really interests me. She teaches in Russia and fills her blog with great information about her school. I really enjoy learning about education in other countries and her blog is a joy to read!

East Dragon Den Mr. Moore and Ms. Vander Velde have created a wonderful learning environment on this blog. Their use of back channeling for their students is cutting edge. While I experimented with the bacK channel last year, these two perfected it


Fairview Physical Education Mr. Beringer probably doesn't even know who I am, but I am a big fan of his blog. I rarely find physical education blogs but if I were to give only one blog as an example it would be this one. Mr. Beringer fills it with explanations of what his students are doing and great pictures of them doing it. A real find!

Flattening the World Mrs. Pohanka's blog focuses on geography, but she accomplishes so much more with her students. Not satisfied with teaching facts about the countries her students study, she gets them to think about the problems and issues those countries face. This is how technology can truly transform a curriculum.

Little Voices, Little Scholars Mrs. She works with young children's literacy. She uses audio, video, and web tools to help her students learn how to read and write. If you teach very young children you can learn a lot about literacy from Mrs. She and her class.

Mr. Lamshed's Class Mr. Lamshed personifies making a class a family. He teaches an all boys class and has created an amazing atmosphere. Through Mr. Lamshed's hard work his students get opportunities that otherwise they would never experience. If I was making an all star teaching squad, Mr. Lamshed would definitely be on the team.

Mr. McClung's World Mr. McClung is a former colleague of mine. Two years ago he showed up for his first year of teaching and promptly jumped into class blogging. His progress has astounded me. He makes me feel like a Sith Lord uneasily waiting to be challenged by his brilliant apprentice. Mr. McClung does two things with his blog that are amazing. First he posts almost daily (which can be unbelievabley hard) excellent posts on what his students are learning. Second he reflects weekly about what he has learned. This is a wonderful example which I plan to emulate next year with my students.

My last two blogs are not class blogs. (I told you I do things differently!) These two blogs are by young ladies that attend the Shanghai American School in China. Tiffany and Rachel are probably the ones most responsible for my drive for commenting on blogs. They noticed my blog a few years ago when I was not getting any comments (especially from oversees.) Not only did we trade comments, but we often communicated through Google chat (even during school when they were supposed to be working :). The interactions I had with them showed me that connections can be made through blogging. Unfortunately because Blogger is blocked by China they no longer can leave comments on my blog. This too is a bitter lesson I have had to learn.

Tiffany
Life Long Learner Rachel's blog.

Year Two Blog Wants You to Comment!

Mr. Sloan from Year Two Blog would like some comments quickly! I made a mistake and forgot to add him to my list for Comments4Kids Wednesday. Please help me fix my mistake and leave a comment on one of the posts!

Yendarra School Kiwis

While doing my usual snooping around for new blogs to read and comment on I came upon this wonderful site, the Yendarra School Kiwis.

What caught my eye was a post on several of the teachers of the school visiting Samoa to learn about the island. I also learned from the post that a tsunami had recently hit Samoa.

I left a comment asking about the Samoan schools compared to the schools in New Zealand. Soon I received this email.

Hi Mr C

Just thought I would answer the questions you left on our blog about Samoa. First of all, thank you for leaving the comment. My name is Vanessa Venturi and I am the classroom teacher here in Room 14. Yendarra School is in Auckland, New Zealand. The ethnic make up of our school is 70% Pacific Island (mainly Samoan, but also Tongan, Cook Island and Niuean) and 30% Maori (native New Zealanders). Earlier in the year, some of the staff went to Samoa to gain a better understanding of where our Samoan children come from and to better enable ourselves to transition children who move from Samoa to Auckland. What an eye opener! The schools there have little in the way of resources, no equipment, very little paper, some classes had no desks or chairs. Some of the classrooms had up to 45 students and some teachers taught two classes at the same time, just running between two rooms. Because of the heat, the classrooms have no windows. Because of the huge number of children in each class, we didn't see any group work happening. The teachers teach in both Samoan and English. It was amazing to see what they can do with so little, the children were incredibly happy and very proud of their schools. The Samoan people are incredibly musically talented and their performances were stunning.

Schools in Auckland are very similar to yours, I would imagine. We have lots in the way of resources, computers, books, internet access, interactive whiteboards, playgrounds etc. We work very hard to be at the cutting edge of education in New Zealand. Visiting Samoa has really helped me to understand where my students and their families come from and relate to them more effectively. We were very lucky that we didn't lose any of our students in the tsunami because we were on school holiday when it hit and many students were at home in Samoa. Families at our school lost a lot of extended family members, auntys, uncles and cousins etc. The other question you had was about karakia, karakia is the Maori word for prayer. At the end of each day, one child stands up and leads the class in a karakia. This isn't something we have to do, but one of my boys asked at the beginning of the year if we could do it and its become a really special way to end each day together.

Thanks so much for commenting on our blog, I hope I've answered your questions for you. Please let me know if you have any others!

Have a great week :)
Vanessa Venturi and Room 14

What a wonderful surprise for me. I suspect most people think that most of the learning in school (and especially in my lab) happens with the students. This is obviously not the case today! Again, our ability to communicate and learn from people all over the world is amazing. Thank you Vanessa!

Using Vocaroo for Blogging

Today we are going to add some audio to our blog. Blogger is notorious for being difficult to add audio to it. I ran into this website last year and found it works really well for adding audio to my blog. Here is a link to the page. I would give directions, but it is so simple I don't think I need to.

Our Last Chance to Comment This Year

Here are two posts that were inspired by you! This is what happens when you reach out to others, you change things and make them better. Show them some comment love!

Mrs. Pohanka's post.
Daraj aAcademy post.

Here are some more blog posts to comment on. Make sure you give positive and relevant comments.

Little Voices, Little Scholars
Creative Voice- Dante
Creative Voice- Caitlin
Room 15 Point England School

Friday is Comment Day

It is time to comment on other students' blogs. Remember to make your comments positive and relevant.

The first blog we are going to comment on is Mrs. Owens' Noel School Library Blog. Pick a post and leave a comment. We want to encourage more teachers here to blog!
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The second blog we are going to comment on is Mrs. Heaton's Class in South Carolina.
Click the first link and read the explanation of The Best Part of Me Assignment and then leave one comment for each link.
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Page 3 Comment only on The Best Part of Me Posts

The third blog we are going to comment on is the Eagles' Nest Radio and Class Blog. Listen to the podcast and then leave a comment. With luck we will be creating audio this good next year.
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The fourth blog is the Fairview Physical Education blog. This is the only physical education blog I have ever seen. Mr. Berenger has asked for us to leave a comment.
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If you finish with these posts early, leave Devon a comment on his story in the post below. I am sure he would like to have your comments.

Learning from Mrs.She and Little Voices, Little Scholars

Here is Devon writing a story for me. I showed him the excellent stories Mrs. She's students are posting on her blog as inspiration. Devon wrote and recorded this story in less than an hour. Special thanks to Cole who listened to Devon practice.

Evans Elementary Wants Comments

Evans Elementary from Seminole County, Florida did some amazing work with reading discussion blogs. They have asked us to look through them and leave them some comments. It is a real honor to be asked to do this, so make sure you your comments are positive and relevant. They deserve your best effort.

Visitors, we invite you to follow the links and make a comment or two as well. Comments motivate students and teachers.

The first blog we will look at is the Swindle discussion blog. Here are the links to the 3 pages:
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Page 2
Page 3

The second blog is The Lightning Thief Discussion Blog. Here are the links to the 4 pages:
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Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

We Need to Comment on Content

My classes spent the last two days commenting on blog posts. This is why we did it.

#Comments4Kids was started because several people thought that more attention needed to be spent on content created by students. They need feedback to improve and get better. They need others to notice what they create. I decided my class needed to go out and do commenting because they want others to comment on their content.

Let's Do Some Commenting!

Today we are going to go commenting to some classroom blogs! You and your partner will need to leave a comment on each of the blogs listed below. Remember, do not use your last name. Please link back to this blog when they ask for a url.

Make sure your comments are positive and relevant (they should have something to do with what is posted). Discuss with your partner what to write before you start to write. Please remember these students and teachers are important and deserve your best!

Geography 6: from Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Little Voices, Little Scholars: from Auckland, New Zealand

Live and Learn: from Missouri

My Web World: from New Zealand

The Official Blog of the Daraja Academy: from Kenya, Africa Watch Welcome to Daraja video before commenting on the blog.

Room 11 Bloghetty Blog: From Hamilton, New Zealand.

Classroom Collaborations: ToonDoo

I love to have my students share what they learn with others. Even though my students and I have found ToonDoo to be a bit difficult to figure out, we have finally started posting our cartoons. 

The best part about doing something new is giving my students the opportunity to help each other. After I showed Parker how to download the picture and then upload it to the blog, he showed Tristin. Within ten minutes I had students helping each other get the job done. 

Using ToonDoo With Journey to the Center of the Earth

Toondoo is an online cartoon maker. Your assignment is to create and post a cartoon related to your Journey to the Center of the Earth stories. You will need to create an account using your email address and password. After creating your account explore the site and see what you can do. I want your cartoons posted by the end of Reading tomorrow.

Here is an example:

Blog Check: Live and Learn

Live and Learn is the Mrs. Hake's fourth grade class blog. The class studies Missouri history and has several posts about that subject. There are many pictures showing activities that the students have had including a trip to the Magic House and an author's visit.

The posts that caught my eye talk about the class's service project. The class has adopted the Eddie Cemetery and they are busy making it a nice place to visit. Obviously, this is a blog I think you should check out.

A Couple Classroom Hacks:Solutions for Hanging Posters

Since my class is busily engaged in MAP testing this week, we are in the middle of a posting slowdown. I do have some good things being prepared to put on the blog, but they won't be ready until next week, so in the mean time I decided to write a post about a couple of classroom hacks I use.

The first hack is probably not original. I don't like the work of taking down and putting up new posters. Over the years I have done sticky tack, masking tape and hot glue (see below). Last year I received a box of bulldog clips for summer school. It occurred to me I might be able to use them to hold up my posters. I simply hot glued the bulldog clips to my wall, waited a few seconds for the hot glue to cool, and put up the posters. It was a quick and easy solution. I did learn a lesson about spacing the clips. Posters are different sizes and I did have to move some clips around after I put up the posters.


As I mentioned earlier, I have hot glued my posters to the walls before, but unfortunately I have sometimes had problems removing them. I came up with a solution that has worked very well. I put masking tape on the back of the poster that I am going to hang. I put the glue on the masking tape. This allows me to put the posters up without the glue sticking to them. When I take the poster down, it peels off and the hot glue comes off easily as well. This has made removing hot glue from the walls incredibly easy.

50,000 Hits!

Last night someone from Ohio followed a link from My Ecoach and became the 50,000 visitor to our blog. It has taken slightly less than two years to reach the milestone. Thank you to everyone that has visited, linked to, or written comments on our blog.
Mr. C

To Mr. Webb With Love: Answers to Room 8 Melville, New Zealand's Questions

Here are the long awaited responses to Mr. Webb's students' questions. Please keep in mind my students did not receive help answering the questions, these are their real answers.

Nathan is going to answer the questions from Prshant.



Seth is going to answer the questions from Scott.



Saul is going to answer the questions from Kaiya.



Sergio is going to answer the questions from Bradyn.




Kayla is going to answer the questions from Baily.



Gavin is going to answer the questions from Arahia.

Blog Check- Rachel's Creative World Blog

Rachel is a student at the Shanghai American School in China. She has been gracious enough to comment many times on my blog as well as occasionally chatting with me online. Rachel left a comment last week asking for me to come check out the video her brother made which she posted on her blog. Here is a link to the excellent video. If you are interested in creating movies or would like an example of a student's work, then you need to watch it!

Thank you, Rachel for your support of our class blog.

Shared Experiences: Some of Our Closest Friends Live on the Other Side of the World

New Zealand Pt. England Primary was featured on television last week. Not on our local television, not even on our national channels. Pt. England was featured on television in New Zealand. The reason why I am blogging about it is we follow Mrs. She's class blog Little Voices, Little Scholars. The news story talks about how they use technology in their school. This school should be a model for our schools in the United States. Here is a link to the video of the story.

During our live streaming of career day, I was back channeling through Twitter. One of the people that came to watch the video on the blog was Piers, age eight, who lives in New Zealand. Piers has a blog, My Web World, which I discovered through Mr. Webb's new blog Room 8 @ Melville Intermediate School. If you remember, Mr. Webb was the teacher we created the Samoan Slap Dance for last October.

We are very fortunate to have these friends to share our experiences with. The fact that they are 8,000 miles away no longer makes a difference!

I'm Sorry But....No Streaming Over Christmas Break!

If you have come from Dean Sharski's blog, I apologize for the class stream being down. I simply couldn't justify the use of electricity for two weeks for streaming a room with nothing going on. I promise that the stream will be back up January 5 (weather permitting).

Water Conservation Wordle

My students posted on the Compendium on the topic "What can I do to conserve water?" This is a wordle created from their posts. A wordle is a word cloud created using words from a blog, a post, or any text entered. The more often a word is used, the larger the word appears. This is an excellent way to examine your writing.

What words do you think the students emphasized the most?

This picture was created at: Wordle.net