Cougars, we have fallen behind! I will chalk it up to a 3 day week for us last week, but that is just making excuses! The challenge for week 2 was to leave some good quality comments. Some of our students have been receiving comments but have we reached out to others? (I have approved several comments. Did you get one yet?)

Here are some students who have some interesting posts and are worth a visit. Please explore other class/student blogs and make some new connections! I have left one or more comments on these class blogs. (If you click on the logo for the blogging challenge on the side bar and then look at the top of the page you will see a link to the list of 2017 classes. Look around and see who you can find.)

Grade 6 Explorers blog – I have left comments for Kait and Vince but all 7 of the students have shared a lot of great posts. Check out their writing and also note that in some cases when a commenter has asked a question the blogger has continued the conversation and made a follow up comment. The class blog lists Thailand as the location but Kait is talking about her experiences in Indonesia. Check the map.

CJH Bobcat Bloggers, junior high students from Texas – Check out some very interesting posts from 7th and 8th graders. I can also recommend you check out Beta Academy Middle School blog in Texas. There are also students such as Riley from Louisiana writing about their experience with the recent hurricane and the flooding.

How do you know if you are leaving a quality comment? There are several things to be included. Saying, “Good job” or “I like your post” just doesn’t cut it. Here is a video that clearly explains how to write a quality comment. Don’t be turned off by the fact that this advice is being given by a group of third graders (who are now about your age). Their advice is spot on and this video has been used all over the world to teach about commenting.

How do you know if you have visitors to your page? Sometimes people come and read but do not comment for one reason or another. You may want to consider adding a visitor widget to your sidebar. Check out Sue Waters post on widgets and look at some of the visitor options on the right side of the page. By the way, some of you have chosen cool themes but they do not have a sidebar area so you would not be able to add widgets with that theme. Reach out to me if you would like help with adding a widget. I have added 2 widgets to our class blog side bar.

Mrs. R.