Category: blogging

blogging, connections, internet safety, students

14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging

Pernille Ripp

So you have heard about blogging with your students and you are considering taking the plunge but just not sure what or how to do it? I am here to tell you; blogging with my students has been one of the most enriching educational experiences we have had this year, and that says a lot. So to get you started, here is what I have learned:

  1. Pick an easy platform, both for you and the students. I used Kidblog with great success, it fit our needs, it is free and it offers easy moderation.  There are other great alternatives out there such as WordPress or EduBlogs
  2. Teach them how to blog first. We did an excellent paper blogging lesson first (found on the blog of McTeach), which brought up why we were blogging and how to do it appropriately.  This got the students excited, interested as well as got them thinking about what great comments look and sound like.
  3. Talk safety! We assume some students know how to be safe, but don’t assume it; teach them the do’s and dont’s. I came up with the lesson of why the Internet is like the mall and it really worked.  I also sent home safety plans for students and parents to discuss and we discussed it throughout the year.
  4. Teach them how to comment. In order for blogging to be effective, comments are needed, but if students don’t know how to properly comment they will lose out on part of the experience. We discuss how to thank people, how to answer their questions, and most importantly, how to ask questions back. This is all part of common conversational knowledge that all kids should be taught any way.
  5. Start small.  The first post was an introduction of themselves. It was an easy topic and something they really liked to do. They then got to comment on each others post as well which started to build community.
  6. Include parents. Parents always know what we are doing and are invited to comment.  The students loved the extra connection and parents loved seeing what the kids were doing.
  7. Connect with one or two classes to be buddies. While comments from around the world are phenomenal, the connections are what it is all about. So reach out on Twitter or through the most excellent #comments4kids and set up something more permanent. The students relish getting to know one another and the comments become even more worthwhile.  Thanks Mr.  Gary’s class in Egypt and Mr. Reuter’s 6th grade class in Merton, Wisconsin for being our buddies.
  8. Speaking of #comments4kids, this excellent site created by Will Chamberlain is a must for anyone blogging with students. Link their blog to it and ask people to comment, tweet it out with the hashtag #comments4kids, and use it to find classes to comment on.
  9. Visit other classroom blogs. Show them how other kids use it and have it inspire them.  Blogs can be found through Twitter or the comments4kids site.
  10. Let them explore. My students love to play around with font, color, and images. They taught each other how to do anything fancy and also let each other know when font or color choices were poor. This was a way for students to come into their own as creative writers and also start to think about creating their online identity.
  11. Don’t grade! Blogging is meant to be a way to practice writing for an audience and learning to respond to critique, not a graded paper. I would often tell students my requirements and even make them go back and edit but I never ever chastised them for mistakes made.
  12. Challenge them. Often students would ask to write about topics but we also had a blogging challenge almost weekly. This was my way of finding out what they really thought about fourth grade, their dreams, their hopes and their lives. The kids always wondered what the next challenge would be and looked forward to writing them.  We would also share creative writing pieces from class, create diaries of work we did, and share our op.ed. pieces.
  13. Map the connections. We have a world map in our classroom that we use to push pin people we connect with, it is amazing to see it grow and what a geography lesson is has turned out to be. Students are acutely aware of where Egypt, Alabama, New York and other places in the news are because they have connected with people there.
  14. Give it time! Some students took to it right away, others weren’t so sure, and yet they all ended up loving it. The sheer mass of paper I have had to print to create their writing portfolio is staggering and it shows how ingrained it became in our classroom. I now have kids blogging when they are sick, out of school or just because.
So here it is, take the leap and believe in your students’ ability to stay safe and appropriate on the internet.  Stay tuned  for a student-created video tutorial on how to use Kidblog, kids teaching kids, that is learning worth doing.  To see our student blogs and maybe even leave  comment, please go here.
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being a teacher, blogging, choices

Don’t Look at Me – Why Blogging is Not for Self Promotion

Pernille Ripp
Perceptions abound when you come out as a blogger.  Particularly if you happen to blog about education like I do.   Some people embrace what you do and find it fascinating, while others shy away from you afraid that they somehow will end up in your blog.  Others just condemn, perhaps not to your face, but in conversations or comments, either way, perceptions about blogging and the people who do it are plenty.

Today, Lyn Hilt wrote an amazing piece regarding why she blogs as a principal.  If you haven’t read it you should, in fact, it is much better than this piece.  A comment in it though started my wheels spinning, Dwight Carter wrote,  “Excellent post and a wonderful defense of blogging as a reflective practice.”  That statement really struck me, “defense” indeed, how often do we defend the act of blogging itself, as if you are not supposed to reflect, or at the very least not in public?  This perception then of bloggers taking something private, the inner-workings of a classroom, and publicizing it can therefore not always be understood by others who do not blog.  In fact, often, it is viewed as a sheer act of self promotion.  And yet, I find that hard to believe being a blogger myself.  I don’t do it to promote what I do, in fact, if I had taken my mother’s advice I would have still made the changes in my classroom but kept my mouth shut about it.  Instead I chose to reflect openly and honestly abut my decision, my journey, my mistakes and my successes.   Put it all out there for others to judge, to inquire, and perhaps to inspire.

So I think it is time we stop tearing down others for decisions that they make that perhaps we do not understand.  I think it is time we view blogging as another way to reflect upon educational practices and not see it as a tool to get attention, or even a tool used for condemnation.  The bloggers I follow don’t set out to divide educators but rather start a conversation about what is happening in classrooms across the world.  Why this is not only viewed as an asset is hard to fathom.

So I guess I am done defending my blogging, instead I want to celebrate all that it has provided me with in the last year.   And I am also done negatively viewing those that don’t blog.  I know many exceptional teachers that reflect in other ways than blogging, who would never think to put their thoughts into cyberspace.  This does not make them bad teachers, perhaps just more private.  I also know some teachers who blog whose teaching style scares me a little, yet I applaud their effort in bringing it all out there.

So once again, we can be the change we want to see:  Blogging shouldn’t be the thing that divides educators, it should be viewed as yet another way educators work and reflect.  What makes one person stronger will in the end strengthen us all.  Isn’t that what we want; a strong group of educators?

alfie kohn, being a teacher, blogging, rewards

I am a Hypocrite

Pernille Ripp
Today I had one of those great thought moments that can only happen during deep professional and personal reflection.  George Couros, a principal I admire, did some thinking out-loud on my latest blog post, a follow up to another post on behavior.  Part of his comment is shown below:


I am going to challenge you a bit on this post, but not necessarily on its content. I noticed that you listed some stats on how many hits you have had, retweets, etc.. I also noticed that you listed that “Alfie Kohn” commented on it (like it was some kind of award that he did that). You have also written how you were disappointed that you did not get an edublog award: (http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2010/12/im-loser.html)

With the listing of these stats (kind of like marks) and discussion of awards, are you somehow showing that you have a part of you driven by the same thing that you are saying we should take away from students in the classroom?

Just some food for thought. I think that your posting discussing the importance of intrinsic motivation and not extrinsic motivators is contradicted by use of the stats of your blog hits and retweets.

Is there room for both to drive us? I know I have a twitter counter on my own blog posts and love recognition.

Part of my response to George was this:

George, what a great comment that really made me think early this morning. I think your questions prove avery valid point for me; we as adults struggle for the same recognition as our students do. However, the reason why I listed those stats etc with this particular post was because it showed that somehow this particular post really struck something in people, which I had no idea it would. I never expect anyone to read my blog so the fact that that many people took the time to share or read shows that this a debate that many others are either thinking about or engaged in.

So all day I wondered; was I indeed a hypocrite (not that George implied it, I label myself that way)?  Had I published those statistics and name dropped because I too craved recognition and reward from my peers?  Could I possible be wanting the same thing that I despise so much in my own classroom?  The answer is not easy to come up with.  On one hand, I really do not seek out recognition but rather reflection, however, on the other hand, do I obsessively look at my blog counts to see if I matter?  Is that what it really comes down to?  

Perhaps when we look at our blog visits or comments received, we are really looking for some sort of validation that there are others like us out there.  That we are not alone in this educational ocean where the tide continuously shifts.  Perhaps, when a lot of people respond to a post we have found an island on which others seek refuge as well.  Perhaps, the need for recognition is so intrinsically ingrained in us that we can never truly escape it no matter how much we try.

I am not perfect, which thankfully no one has ever accused me of being.  I struggle publicly with many of my own teaching practices and choose to chronicle this struggle in order to give myself clarity from a distance.  I wish I could be 100% staunch anti-reward, but I am not, I still praise my students for great behavior, amazing work or just being all around fantastic kids.  Some would consider that a reward as well.  What I am opposed to, though, are the public reward ceremonies, the in-class recognition of only the best and brightest, rather than different categories where all children can be celebrated.  So perhaps I am a hypocrite, but at least I am a hypocrite who is willing to share their thoughts.



aha moment, being me, blogging, mistakes

When You Lose Your Voice

Pernille Ripp
I lost my voice.  No, not my speaking voice but the one that writes, that blogs, that sometimes even inspires others.  It wasn’t something that I noticed happening, it just slipped away until I realized that I was in drastic need of something to regain it.  I didn’t set out to lose it, it just merely happened as life got a little too busy and the rhetoric a little too heavy.  As criticism got to my head and my own self-importance whittled, as did my voice diminish.

I am not that important, in fact, not being important is what makes this journey so incredible.  Being able to reach out to others through this blog and listen to their ideas, their creativity, their passions.  So I knew something needed to change when I started to over-think my writing, limiting myself and my reflections based on what “people” might think.

But I cannot write for an audience, I can only write for myself.  I started this journey to reflect so that is where my focus must remain.  To put it all out there, the good and the bad, the inspired and the embarrassing, because that is what makes life’s journey so interesting.  I didn’t come here to inspire or to engage, only to be me.  So with this; I reclaim my voice, unfurl it and uncover it.  Hopefully this time, I will remember to stay true to myself.

being a teacher, blogging, reflecting

You Know You Are a Blogger When…

Pernille Ripp

Being a blogger has nothing to do with how many people read your blog, so you know you are a blogger when….

While having a conversation with a colleague, you keep getting inspired to write another post about what they say.

When someone tells you a new idea, you think of the comment you would leave if it were a blog post.

You cannot help getting ideas for new post whenever you read anything.

You base your new technology purchases on whether or not your blog platform will be supported.
When signing things you almost sign your blogging name.

You constantly tell others about the incredible comments you have received or made on your blog.

Your students know the names of the top people that you interact with.

Your professional reflection has never been better.

Your PLN is a vital and important part of your life.

You are pretty sure your mother knows everything there is to know about your daily life through your blog.

What did I miss?