wikis

Wikis are websites (content) that allows for editing requiresusers to register before they can make any changes. Wikis can be useful in the classroom in many ways. First of all, teachers could collaborate on a project. One teacher could begin the project descript and then another could add onto it, and so on and so forth until the prject descriptionis complete. In the classroom with the students wikis could be a useful tool as well. Collaboration, group stories, group research, all of this could thrive using wikis.

 

student blogs

The website 21classes.com is a great resource for creating student accounts. One reason is that you don’t need to set up the accounts using email addresses. There is an option on the setup where you can set up accounts without using email. Also, this site is great because it has settings that allow for more security, which is important when using with students.

A good idea when using blogs with students in the class is to have students sign a blogging contract. This ensures the expectations and hopefully the consequences as well.

budget concerns

This post is the place where anyone with updates on the latest budget news can post new information or comments. Also, I attached the link to the UTLA website.

http://www.utla.net/

rss feeds

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It is like a subscription and is used for things that publish and update often. Most RSS feeds have a free subscription.

 

Simple steps to add RSS feeds to a WordPress blog.

1. Start with this website. It is Education Week and has a list of different education based RSS feeds.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/feeds/index.html

2. Choose an RSS based on the list of RSS feeds.

3. Click on the RSS icon. That will open up a new window. Once that new window is open, copy the url.

4. Next, on the dashboard in WordPress go to widgets.

5. From widgets, drag the widget titled RSS over to the right (where your widgets are housed).

6. From there you will be asked to input information from the widget you just found (name, description and finally paste the url).

7. Then hit update and it is finished.

post and a page 101

Here are the differences between a post and a page:

-pages cannot be tagged or categorized or dated

(pages just hold the content i.e. the posts so one would not sort by page)

-posts can be tagged and categorized

(posts can be tagged and categorized because all info is stored based on posts so one could try to find something via category or post)

-posts do not show up as menu items

(posts are woven throughout and are based on topic or category. one could would not be able to find a menu of posts)

Blogs, tags, categories, and sub-categories

I am just now beginning to learn the difference between blogs, tags, categories, and sub-categories. Although it seems complicated, once you are able to figure out the difference between all of these, it will start to become second nature. This is a graphic organizer of how I see it. bloggraphic

WordPress post 10.12.09

There are many different ways to use a wordpress blog in the classroom.

• One way would be to use it as a journalism/newspaper medium. This could keep the parents and community informed on what is happening in the classroom and/or the school as a whole. Students could take pictures of these various events that they’ve covered and include the picture with their news write up.
• Pictures could also be taken of art projects and the blog could include a description of that project. This could then be shared with the school and the internet community to compare/contrast art projects on the same topic.

• Another idea would be to post student work. It could be by category (writing, social studies, etc). Pictures could be included that showcase students working on the classroom on those assignments.
• This kind of blog could be used for post-field trip sharing. The teacher (or student) could write a reflection after each field trip and include pictures from that trip.

All of these uses for blogs could be linked to a class website for students and/or parents to view.

hello world!

This is the first real post on my blog.

Posting a picture

Learning how to post a picture…