Words to blog by...
I found these blogging guidelines on a cool classroom blog  from New Zealand and I thought they were very good.  It gives us a good place to start and then we can modify them and make our own list.
Room 7 Bloggers:

* Think before they post. Once something is posted, it can be online forever.

* Don't post anything they don't want others to know—or that you wouldn’t say to them face to face.

* Respect their friends too—that ‘funny’ photo of them might not be so funny for them, and they might not be very happy if it is posted for everyone in the world to see.

*Treat others as they would like to be treated.

* Respect other people’s content. For example, a photo that a friend took is their property, not ours. It can only be posted online if they say it can be.

* Keep their personal information private. They don’t share personal details like their name, address or phone number with people they don’t already know in real life.

 
We are going to take a break from the blogging for a couple of weeks and do some good old fashioned story reading and face-to-face discussion in class.  We'll return to the world of blogging in January.  Until then, here are some of the helpful links to give us a better understanding of "the blog" when we return. 

First, is a video simply describing "blogs in plain english," no fancy talk, just plain english. 

Second, take a look at book reviews online (Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Scholastic.com, etc).  Look up a book you like or don't like, or are just curious about whether you would like... read the reviews and see what other people say about the book.  If it's a book you've read, think about whether you agree or disagree with specific things the people said in their reviews.  Did they address everything you thought they should?  Is there more you could add without ruining the book for people who haven't read it yet? 


Then, we'll discuss in January what are good rules of blogging "Netiquette," that is, how to write a great post.  We'll go beyond the discussion of how to be safe online and talk about what would make your writing great.  Until then, continue to play around with posts on kidblog and see what you can learn.  Try writing about something that matters to you.
 
The sixth grade is working on their own private blogs using a site called kidblogs.  One of the topics they are discussing right now is whether celebrities have a responsibility to be good role models or not.  The following commercial is here to give them a specific example to which they can relate the question.  Feel free to write in and give the kids your opinions about this... you may inspire some discussions on their blogs!
 
Keep checking the Links page for the link to the Week in Rap.  After this time, I won't add it in to our blog.  If you want to follow me on Twitter (@kdv24), though, I will also post links to the weekly update on there.  Until then, here is the latest..."Week...in...Rap!"  Be sure you leave a comment after you view it!
 
I've been so excited to see all the visitors we're getting to our site!  Audrey and Savannah we got a visit (see our Guestbook comments) from the class with the blog you visited in Australia.  Maybe we can see if we can work on a writing project together with them.  We've also gotten visitors to our site from France, New Zealand, England, Canada and all over the U.S.  Our superintendent has checked out our site too.
Make sure you bring your parents in on Open House night (this coming Tuesday) and show them how to make a comment.  I'll take pictures of you and your parents commenting and post them on here.  
 
We're going to visit some classes around the world.  Below are some links to school websites in England, New Zealand, and Australia.  We can leave them some comments and hopefully they'll visit us too!  When you comment, be sure to tell them:
1.   where we are
2.  how to find our blog (our web address is rolibrary.weebly.com)
3.  something you think is interesting on their site
4.  that we'd love to hear from them. 

Click on these links below to explore three types of blogs:

England (Nottinghamshire)
New Zealand (St. Clair)
Australia (Sydney)
Australia (see if you can figure out where)
Pondo (Mr. Rickett's class)
 
I spent some more time with kidblogs and I think it will be great for us to use as students become more independent and proficient at blogging.  Until then, we will use our blog here to get our skills up.  Hopefully we will have some students who are able to move up to having their own blogs soon!
 
I'm excited because I think I've finally found a blog/website system that will all work together the way I want.  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!  We'll see how it is to manage once I have all you in the library trying to get this to work.  I'm going to post the link to this site on edmodo so that those of you who've been on there this summer can come try it out and give me feedback before school even starts. 
 
So, I think I have it set up now so that if you post a comment in the [email protected] website, it will automatically post to Edmodo.  Edmodo only checks for updates once an hour, so it may take awhile to show up, but I think will work.