Image by Jenn and Tony Bot via FlickrMr. McClung's WorldThe first comment for kids this month was a little unusual. It wasn't for a student's blog, but rather a class blog. I was assigned to Mr. McClung's post on the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure post. I thought it neat that Mr. McClung encourages his students to give to such a great charity. It wasn't a requirement, but he did "sweeten the pot" by allowing the class with the most funds raised to shave his head. Not only his, but the boys in the class could shave theirs too and the girls could dye their hair pink. Since they are only 6th graders I wonder if participating in the charity walk would count toward community service hours for graduation if an Alabama school did something like this?
Week in Review 24/02/11
I really enjoyed my next comment for kids assignment. KM is a year 6 student and blogged about a physics experiment the class conducted with paper airplanes. As a biology major, anything science related interests me. I asked if the class figured out why paper clips on the planes helped them fly further. I didn't get a response yet, but still found the experiment to be a great visual and hands-on learning tool for exploring the physics of flight.
Mrs. Yollis is one tough cookie! I mean that in a good way though. I would love to have ANY of her third graders as students someday. For family blogging month (April), Mrs. Yollis showcased some of the quality comments by her students and their families. She requires her students and visitors to use proper spelling, grammar and blogging etiquette when blogging. I think this is great for many reasons. First, it enforces the writing techniques her students are learning in class. Second, with texting and on-line acronyms it is easy to lose spelling and grammar knowledge as visitors. Lastly, teaching proper etiquette at such a young age must have life-long benefits of imprinting what it means to be a good person since her proper etiquette includes such rules as only saying encouraging things. It is great that she is teaching basic html codes as well. I am glad she posted some for visitors to use as well since I am not strong in html code yet. All of the videos both tabbed and on the blog are very helpful as well. Such a quality blog really encourages me to have my own class blog.
Grace's Post on Quality Comments
Grace is one of Mrs. Yollis' third graders. She composed a well thought out, visually appealing post on how to write quality comments. She suggests the following steps: make a connection, pose a question, always comment back when someone comments on your post, and never publish anything until you are certain your spelling and grammar are correct. Finally, she poses two questions to end her post. "Have you ever had a conversation with a friend, a family member, or someone you do not even know?" "What is your favorite step in quality commenting?" I answered her questions as follows: "I recently received comments from two ladies who were not in my class and it really made my day. I followed your advice here for leaving quality comments and I was able to have a nice conversation with them. I really like the picture you used and I was just wondering if you or Mrs. Yollis wrote that? Diagrams are a great way to learn. I use them often when I am learning something new." In case you missed it, I did not answer her last question. I think what happened is I misread because I said my favorite part of blogging is getting comments. I should have said my favorite part of quality commenting is asking questions because it allows the conversation to continue.
Grace's Post on Quality Comments
Grace is one of Mrs. Yollis' third graders. She composed a well thought out, visually appealing post on how to write quality comments. She suggests the following steps: make a connection, pose a question, always comment back when someone comments on your post, and never publish anything until you are certain your spelling and grammar are correct. Finally, she poses two questions to end her post. "Have you ever had a conversation with a friend, a family member, or someone you do not even know?" "What is your favorite step in quality commenting?" I answered her questions as follows: "I recently received comments from two ladies who were not in my class and it really made my day. I followed your advice here for leaving quality comments and I was able to have a nice conversation with them. I really like the picture you used and I was just wondering if you or Mrs. Yollis wrote that? Diagrams are a great way to learn. I use them often when I am learning something new." In case you missed it, I did not answer her last question. I think what happened is I misread because I said my favorite part of blogging is getting comments. I should have said my favorite part of quality commenting is asking questions because it allows the conversation to continue.
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