What next?

Alright, so now we have student blogs created, and we even have some students linking, quoting, and ranting about current events on their blogs. That's definitely a good start. We still need to clear up some technical difficulties: inviting me as a co-author, tinkering with the templates to remove the navigation bar, adding the rest of the class as links on the sidebar, and limiting comments to registered users.

I want to find a way to get students used to the mechanism of blogging (links, block quotes, commenting, etc.) without turning them off to the idea of blogs. Yes, there will be some "blog-homework" throughout the year, but I really hope that the blogs become a continuous online discussion and a chance for students to express themselves. We might have a fun "blog meme" this week just to jump start the process and to help us get to know each other.

As a way to encourage our new bloggers, I'm going to try and use this space for more than just daily assignments. (We'll still have our assignments up on www.mrdaly.com and at www2.ccs.k12.va.us/teachers/daly/--click on homework for this week's assignments). I'd like to use this space to "teach transparently" and give a look into my thoughts on blogs and teaching. Ideally, this will also include thoughtful suggestions from students (and maybe even parents).

This week we'll get all of the student blogs listed on each other's blogrolls (links) which should encourage them to read and begin to comment on each others blogs. Hopefully less technical problems than last week. Wish us luck.
- Mr. Daly