Welcome to Blogging

A Colleague of mine Mr. Kuropatwa created this post for his students. Since it is Internet Safety Week please pay attention to the videos below.

Blogging is a very public activity. Anything that gets posted on the internet stays there. Forever. Deleting a post simply removes it from the blog it was posted to. Copies of the post may exist scattered all over the internet. I have come across posts from my students on blogs as far away as Sweden! That is why we are being so careful to respect your privacy and using first names only. We do not use pictures of ourselves. If you really want a graphic image associated with your posting use an avatar -- a picture of something that represents you but IS NOT of you.

Here are a few videos that illustrate some of what I want you to think about:




Two teachers in the U.S.A. worked with their classes to come up with a list of guidelines for student bloggers.

One of them, Bud Hunt, has these suggestions, among others:

1. Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.
2. Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.
3. Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.
4. Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.

Another teacher, Steve Lazar, developed a set of guidelines in consultation with his students. You can read them here.

Look over the guidelines and add the ones you like in the comments section below this post; either from one of Steve's students or one of your own. I think Bud's suggestions are excellent. We'll be using the one's I highlighted above as a basis for how we will use our blog.

Cheers,
Mr. K.

I could not have written it any better. Enjoy blogging and use your head. Thanks

Mr. Harbeck

First Blogging Assignment

I should of done this earlier. Sorry it took so long.

You need to create an introductory post for the blog. We will use this post to introduce ourselves to the procedures of making a post and moving around your post.

The first thing you need to do is put labels on your post. Always use your profile name as one label and the assignment as the other label. Separate your labels with a comma. My labels would be Mr. H, mmm.

The second thing you do is to create a title for your post. Please call this @@@@@'s Measures of Central Tendency.

The third thing you will need to do is to type from your large piece of paper the definitions of Mean, Median, Mode and Range.


The fourth thing you will do is to create an image for each of the measures of central tendency. You can make them in paint or do them on paper and take a picture with your camera. You will need to upload them and put them in the right spot. Pictures always get put at the top of a post. Cut and paste them into their proper spots.

Following the pictures please make links for Mean, Median, Mode and Range. A different link is required for each one. To make a link have to browser tabs or windows open. In one find a link that is understandable for grade 8 students. Copy the url and get ready to paste it. In the second window have your post open. Highlight the word you want to be the link and click the link button on the toolbar. Paste the link into the pop up link box.

The final part of the assignment is to go to youtube. You will need to search for mean, median, or mode. Perhaps a search for measures of central tendency will work. Find an appropriate video that teaches something about the math we are learning. Copy the embed code and go back to your blog post. In your post write something like Here is a video on MMM the MMM is to help you in the next step. Change your blog viewer from Compose to Edit Html. Scroll down in the post window until you see MMM. Hit enter 3 to 4 times and paste your embed code in. You now have an embeded video on your post.

Before you publish you need to make sure the post looks good. Click the preview option and see if the post is "pretty" enough to publish. Try to get rid of formating errors and empty white spots. When your post looks great hit the publish button.

The best part about blogging is audience. You are creating a post for all of your classmates at Sargent Park to read and for people all over the world to read as well. Leave comments behind on other students blogs. Positive comments and helpful hints will motivate all of us to do a better job.

Good luck students. These posts are due on Friday October 10th.