Topher McCulloch via Compfight
Topher McCulloch via Compfight
Yesterday we received a comment on this blog from a school in London. They are starting a blog and wanted to know some tips. Year 5 worked in small groups to come up with the following advice. I think our students have great ideas. Is there anything we’ve missed? Let us know in a comment.
Hi Year 4 and Ms O’Donnell,
Thanks for visiting our class blog. We really enjoy blogging and think that you will too.
When starting a new class blog you should:
- Include a Blogging Guidelines Page so commenters know how to comment and to leave a nice comment which keeps them safe on the internet. Respect your school’s blogging policy.
- Make sure you don’t give away any personal details. Also you will probably have the ability to edit comments, so make sure that the people who comment don’t give any personal details about themselves.
- Include an About me page – it is necessary to have an about me page so visitors who look on your blog know a bit more about you / your class
- Add a few widgets: (example) Clustrmap, Flag Counter, or a Class Pet. This can make your blog look more interesting and organised. But please don’t go crazy with cyber pets!
- Choose a theme that you like and don’t change it too often
- Post once to twice a week (regularly) and use categories and tags. Make your posts interesting – write about things you love!
- Add some media: pictures or videos – they will make your post much more interesting but be sure that you acknowledge where they come from and who owns them. Always check that you are allowed to publish images to your blog.
- We would recommend telling people about your blog so they visit and comment. You can also add a subscribe by email widget which means your visitor gets an email when you publish a new post. You should comment on other blogs and interact with other classes. That way you will get more visitors and comments on your blog.
- Once your have started we highly recommend that you sign up for the student blogging challenge on http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/ you will learn lots about bloggging!
- We use the edublogs platform and highly recommend it for student bloggers.
You might find this video from Mrs Yollis helpful too. She and her students are very experienced bloggers. We learned a lot from them.
We wish you well at the start of your blogging adventure. Please visit us again and let us know your blog address so we can visit you too.
From the Year 5 students at year5rc
