Kidblogs as Portfolios

We use our Kidblogs as our portfolios in first grade. At times I have all of the students upload a specific piece of work. For example all students uploaded a ShowMe of their All About book as a piece of evidence of where they are in writing. Other times students choose what they would like to upload. Currently I have asked every student to do a reading ShowMe with photos of pages from a book that they can read and a recording of them reading those pages. Keep checking the blogs as more of those will appear in days to come.

There are a few things you should know about how blogs work in order to view your child's blog as a portfolio:

1. The most recent posts are always at the top of a page when you visit a blog. Older posts will be further down the page. Many blogs have many pages so you might need to click on the page numbers at the bottom of the page to navigate to other posts.
2. I have "tagged" all of the posts the crew has made as I have approved them for publication. This makes it easy to view all of your child's math posts or writing posts at one time to see the growth that has happened throughout the year. You simply click on the subject that you would like to view in the tag box. (Photos below.)
3. The size of the words in the tag box indicated the number of posts in that category. The large the print, the more posts in that category.
4. On the main page of our crew Kidblog site, you will also see a tag box on the right-hand side of the page. Clicking on a subject in this box will allow you to see posts by all crew members in that subject area.

Some students have many more posts than others and that is just fine. All students have some posts and they all have the "required" posts. It is fun to scroll back through the posts to see just how much your child has changed this year.

I will also be sending home a file of paper work samples from throughout the year in a couple of weeks that you will enjoy flipping through, too.

Click on the picture to visit our Kidblog page.

The tag box on the main page of our crew blog.

The tag box on Brianna's blog

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 10.2 Telling Time

Crew News August 23, 2013

Blogging and Tweeting
We have introduced blogging to the crew. They are all very excited about it. Each child has their own blog at a site called Kidblog. All blog posts are approved by me before they are posted to ensure that your child shares only appropriate information. Similarly, all comments on each post must also be approved by me before they will appear. You are welcome (and encouraged) to comment on any blog, just know that your comment won't appear immediately. It will appear after I approve it. This prevents spam comments and other types of comments that the crew doesn't need. You may share the link to our crew Kidblog page with your extended family so that they can comment, too. Nothing encourages a young writer more than getting a comment and knowing that someone has read what they have written. Commenting on students' blogs could count as part of your volunteer hours!

We take turns posting on our blogs so it might take a while before you see your child's first post. No one is required to publish a blog post but they will all at least create a draft of a post. We will add more and more different items to our blogs as the year progresses.  We will add things like photos, ShowMe presentations, Telligami presentations, 30 Hands presentations and more. They become so independent with all of this so quickly. Your child's blog will be a great place for you to visit to get a glimpse into what your child is learning at school. Remember, they would love a comment.

Your child may also blog from home. If they can't remember their password, just send me an email and I will send it to you.

The link to our Kidblog page is on the sidebar of our crew blog.

Tweeting
I have recently connected with a teacher, Mrs. Price, in Australia through Twitter. We are hoping to have our classes connect with each other through Twitter (time zones will make Skyping or connecting live a bit tough). She has also commented on a few of the students' blogs. Our class Twitter account is @MsJillsCrew. We learned about it today and sent a couple of questions to Mrs. Price's class. We can't wait to read their responses.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some good books with your child.

IA (Integrated Arts)
Our IA next week is Music.

Crew News January 23, 2012

Kidblogs

Our crew is still blogging. We have been experimenting with some of the features of Kidblogs like bold type, italic type, font size, font color and spell check. If you haven't been to our crew blog page for a while, you might want to check it out. There are new posts about a coyote, a new cousin, a trip to California and more. You can find posts by going to our crew page and reading those that are recent. If you would like to see older posts then you can change the number of posts visible at the top of the screen or you can click on an individual student's name to see their collection of posts. You can find the link to the our crew blog page by clicking on the colored words in this post or by going directly to our blog and clicking on the link on the right hand side of the page. While you are on the crew blog, you might also want to check out the links to Ms. Pam's and Ms. Cheryl's blogs. All of the bloggers (our crew, Ms. Pam and Ms. Cheryl) would love to have you visit and perhaps even leave them a comment. You can also share the link to the blogs with grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. and they can leave comments, too. Remember that comments won't appear immediately though because they all must be approved by me first. It is very exciting to the crew to receive comments on their posts. They love to know that someone is reading what they write.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 5.13 More "What's My Rule?'