Phase two of blogging

Young Writers,

In the first 5 days since you were given your blogs, you have amassed 50% of the number of posts by students last year! That is amazing. As we discussed in class on Thursday (Mrs. Quam's classes) and Friday (my classes), quantity is not the only goal when using blogging as a writing tool. Since we decided to turn on the approval process for posts, the quality has skyrocketed and the quantity has dipped. This is just fine. We want you to continue writing, and also to continue choosing the right tool for the job.

To recap:

• As Ralph Fletcher says, "Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions. That's what a writer's notebook is for."
• As Mr. Goerend says, "Writers edit, revise, discuss, and revise again. And writers need a place to publish that revised material. That's what blogs can be used for."

So keep writing. Keep collecting those notes in your writer's notebooks. Keep revising, editing, discussing, re-revising, re-editing, and publishing!

Mr. G

If you would like to discuss this post, you can find it at Kidblog.

Seeing you all so excited made my day

Students,

Today you got your blogs. There was a buzz in the computer lab while you were figuring out how to access them. You worked on titling your posts to pull people in. You wrote posts that told us how excited you are to have your own blogs. I hope this first post on your blogs is one you look back on later in the year to see how much you’ve grown.

Some of you received error messages. Some of your computers were slow to connect. Error messages and slow connections are a fact of life on the Internet. As a group, I want us to work to be patient when faced with these challenges. We need to show perseverance.

I’m proud of how you wrote in quality paragraphs. That is a skill we will continue working on. We write in quality paragraphs to give people enough information to be able to connect to our writing. We also want to be detailed enough in our writing so people can picture what we are describing. Quality paragraphs are a foundation of good writing.

We will continue to work on leaving quality comments. We want to encourage each other with our comments. We want to leave constructive feedback so we can learn. We also want to share the connections we make with each other to build community. Giving and receiving quality feedback is an important part of the writing process.

The excitement you showed today while posting on your blogs is one of the reasons I am proud to be your teacher. Continue to be excited about writing and using digital technology to become better writers. Be sure to fill your writer’s notebook with ideas for stories and poems and essays to publish.

Keep up your enthusiasm!

Mr. G

If you would like to discuss this post, you can find it at Kidblog.