Well, it is a new year and I have made an unofficial plan to make this my break out year as a blogger. I have dabbled in it but never committed. It’s time I settle down and blog. So, even though it’s not the FIRST day of a new year, I am counting this as day one as My Own Personal Blogging Challenge. A challenge of this magnitude should have rules, right? Well, that can come later. Today I just started out by doing some good old-fashioned blogging research. Now I’m going to hook you up with the findings.

Here I go: Early on today I checked out Chris Guillebeau’s website: The Art of Non-Conformaty I believe I was directed there because I subscribe to his 6 Days to Change the World Series, and I get an email when he updates on Mondays and Thursday. This guy is really interesting. I highly recommend reading his stuff that includes, believe it or not, manifestos. I love anyone who admittedly, and unabashedly, self-publishes manifestos. Like this one: The Tower:  A Free Report for a New Way of Life. It is free and I found it captivating. You should read it. Everyone Should. I found myself wanting to show everyone, like Tom Cruise in that movie right before he gets fired….

ALSO TODAY: I was directed, somehow I think through the author mentioned above, I found this delightful blog post, by the most delightful blogger Havi Brooks found on Twitter @havi. Again, I was captivated (either by the blue hair or the charming rubber duckie): The Fluent Self. After gazing at Havi and Selma for awhile, I somehow found my way to: Chrisg.com   where you can download two entirely free e-books about blogging and social media for just subscribing to his blog.

Later in the Day:

I found my way back here to Edublogs.org to ressurect my teacher website: msnichols39.edublogs.org and I found Kevin’s Meandering Mind Which is really weird because I know this guy! Fellow teacher and Writing Project Guru. But somehow, I had never been to his great site about teaching Game creation to 6th grade students. This guy is doing great stuff! Check him out!

Somehow I even ended up over at The Presencing Institute . Never been to their website before, and let me tell you they are pretty deep over there, but they might be on to something.

And even though I was over at this next website a couple days ago, I had rediscovered it via Facebook during the Christmas break and it is really good for a laugh, my homage to Mamas all over the planet: Mama’s Loosing It : Please search and find her letters in attempt to be on the The Ellen Show . Very Funny. She sings to Ellen (yes THAT Ellen). She’s loosing it. You gotta watch.

So there is Day 1 in a Nutshell. You be the judge. Comments Please.

The Webmaster

Hello students! You are near the end of Ms. Nichols Web Quest About Blogging!  Good for you. I hope that you enjoyed learning about blogging today. Have you taken the Web Quest Quiz? There was a link for it on the Web Quest No. 1 page.

Please leave me a comment at the end of this blog. I would love for you to answer some questions in your comment.

Here are some questions:

Do you know what a blog is? Which video was your favorite? Which blog was your favorite? Do you think it would be fun to have your own blog? Do you think blogging would make you a better writer? What would your blog be about? Who do you think would read your blog?

Also, don’t forget to ask me a question in your comment!

Have a great day

Ms. Nichols

See also:

Ms. Nichols Web Quest About Blogging No. 1

Andrea Nichols’ Action Research Website

The Local Economy

My Field of Dreams

My Hometown

On the Horizon

A Long Road Home

Andrea the Artist

I love the movie avatar. I just watched it again last night and I was amazed at a whole bunch of new things that I missed the other 2 times I have watched it. I only regret that I did not get to see it on the big screen.

An avatar is a great way to represent yourself on a blog. A lot of people are uncomfortable putting their image on the internet for everyone to see. If you feel like that, maybe an avatar is for you. I decided to use an avatar for this particular blog. If you check out any of my other blogs you will see real photos of me, but I thought that for this blog an avatar would be something different. To create my avatar I signed up with meez.com. Meez.com is a virtual animated world where you are allowed to design your own avatar for free. I like this site because you can also modify the background and the poses for your avatar. After my avatar was designed, I then took screenshots of it. The background I chose was an artist’s studio because I also like to paint.

The paintings in the background look like some that I have done, so I thought it looked like me! My avatar is much thinner than I am, but I think that’s okay online! It makes me feel good to look at it.

I believe that my students would love to create an avatar for themselves. Some sites, like meez.com, are blocked at school but others are not.

I use Google reader to keep track of the blogs I follow. I love using it because I can easily check on all the blogs (or anything with an RSS feed) that I follow without going to each site individually. Wondering what a reader is? Another word for it is aggregator. Here is a Youtube video explaining readers (or aggregators). RSS in plain English.

Do you prefer to see the blog author’s real photo or an avatar? Do you have an avatar?

See also

My Artwork

Have you ever looked at a word, a really common word, and suddenly it appears very strangely spelled? This happened to me with the word about while I was creating an About ME Page for my blog. I looked at the word and it suddenly looked like the most absurdly spelled word I had ever seen! I had to look it up in the dictionary to reassure myself.

As a blogger, most of the time you will be posting. Posting happens (hopefully) quite often, updating you audience with new blog content. Hopefully your audience will be commenting on your posts. This is how conversations happen on blogs.

Most blogs allow you to have pages. Pages are different than posts in that they don’t change very often. Pages should have information that isn’t going to change all the time. Comments should be disabled on Pages. Edublogs.org has a great explanation of the difference between pages and posts HERE.

All blogs should have an About Page. This is where you, the blog author, get to tell your audience who you are. You can tell as much or as little as you choose, but it’s a great way to engage your audience in your blog. If your audience relates to you, finds you interesting, they might continue to read your blog consistently.

Once you have created an about page, go ahead and make a few more pages!

MY ABOUT PAGE: Most of my blogs actually didn’t have but a blurb about me! I used the directions in the Day #3 Beginner Challenge to figure out how to actually create the page. It took me quite awhile to figure out how to actually make it appear on my sidebar! But, I am happy with the end result.

MY ABOUT CONTENT: For my content on my About Page I used the content from a professional bio that I recently created for myself. I left it in 3rd person which gives My About Page a different kind of feel. I’d be interested to know how fellow Teacher Challengers feel about 3rd person vs. 1st person!

ADDING LINKS: Once I had mastered the widget box, I forged ahead and set up some link categories and added some links, mostly the links to all of my other blogs, (a phenomenon I alluded to in my Teacher Challenge #2 post.) I love that all my blogs are actually listed in one place. It now feels like Edublogs.com is the Bridge of my Blogging Ship.

GREAT RESOURCES: I checked out Teacher Challenge Google collaborative doc and added some ideas on it. Then, in a flash of inspiration, I added a link to it in my sidebar under the heading Great Resources.

Check out my about page:

All About ME!

What do you think of the use of 3rd person vs 1st person?

What would be the benefits of using 3rd person vs 1st person?

Writing a blog post is easy. Writing an effective blog post is a bit more challenging. As part of the Edublogs Teacher Challenge #2 I have written this blog post to clear up any mystery concerning how to write effective blog posts. Hope you enjoy!

Step 1. Create a Catchy Title. Create a title that will really get the reader’s attention. Make your title  practical and informative, telling the reader exactly what they are going to get, (5 Steps to an Effective Post), or make it interesting or funny to draw the reader in (example: I’m Like a Train Wreck, I DARE you to look away). Use the word free in your title, provided you plan to offer something for free. (example: Lots of Free Icebreaker and Team Building Games)Everybody likes free.

Step 2: Don’t Go On. Its a blog post not a blog manifesto. A reader that goes to a website an see nothing but an ocean of text, may not have the time to commit to reading it all. The reader is probably at a desk somewhere, trying to avoid working. Get to the point. Don’t make too many points in one post.

Step 3: Content Counts. Tell the world something important. People want you to give them a piece of the big picture. If you can’t make it important, at least make it profound.

Step 4: KeepIt Real. Use a conversational style. A good blog post is like lunch with your best friend. Information, comfort and a few laughs.

Step 5: Link it Up. Linking to other blogs makes things interesting. Also it shows that you’re not the only person that feels the way you do. It’s kind of like providing academic references in grad school writing. It makes you look like you’ve done your research.

These steps are really just a few suggestions for writing an effective blog post. Do you have any suggestions I might add in future editions of this post? Please comment!

See also:

10 Ways to Use Your Blog

I’m an occasional blogger. I aspire to be a more consistant, reliable blogger with a lot of followers. The only way that I’m going to do that is to just sit down and write on a blog every day. I think that some people think that the hardest thing about blogging is figuring out what to write. For me, it’s about figuring out how to say what I want to say without horrifying my mother.

I’ve decided to participate in the free professional development blogging challenge offered here: Teacher Challenge

Here are 10 things that you can do with a blog:

1. Classroom Blog: I think that blogging is a great way to get your students writing. So great, in fact, that I’m doing my graduate research on Blogging Across the Curriulum. Check out my research website and blog. Edublogs.org is a great site for educational blogging but there are others out there too. Kidblog.org is a great site that really makes blogging simple. I find it especially suitable for the elemenatary classroom.

2. Journaling: Use your blog as an online journal! You could even be anonymous if your life is so spicy that you can’t use your real name. Here’s my online journal, which I admittedly neglect:  My Real World

3. Online Scrapbook: Use your blog to make a scrapbook for yourself or your child. Here’s an example of my online scrapbook for my daughter: www.whatsdebidoing.blogspot.com. My daughter Debi is 19 and hates me for this.

4. Hobbys: Blogging is a great way to document your hobby. I like to follow blogs by illustrators. Here’s an example of one blog I follow. Or document your Second Life, if you have one: http://mysterionvichan.blogspot.com/

5. Professional Blog: This blog is an example of a professional blog. Andrea Nichols Nation. I use it soley for the purpose of communicating with other educators. There are lots of other teachers who do this and I follow many of them in my Google Reader.

6. Photo Blog: My sister-in-law has a new camera, a beautiful little boy and a great blog. She posts beautiful pictures and has “linked up” with a lot of similar moms who like to photograph. They compete in friendly challenges each day and publish the results. Check out her blog at: Live Every Moment

7. Humor: I like funny blogs. One of my favorite blogs is Wait in the Van. I follow both her blog and her twitter account. She is equally funny and audiacious, but great reading. Her blog can be found at:

8. Story: Tell your story, everyone’s got one. A blog that I love to follow began with this beautiful, now famous, blog post. I don’t want to tell you any more about it, in fear that I will ruin it for you, but it’s really worth the read. Kelle Hampton

9.  Loose Weight: Last year I lost a bunch of weight by blogging. Seriously. I used the FREE website www.sparkpeople.com. Among other things, this site offers a “sparkpage” where you can socialize with other dieters and also blog, both text blog, or video blog. Here’s a link to my spark page: Spark ME: msnichols39 And here’s a link to one of my video blogs: Squander No More

10. Run the Country: Hey even the President has a blog. www.whitehouse.gov/blog

Blogging isn’t just writing these blog posts, it’s also commenting on other’s blogposts. Here’s a comment prompt:

Have you decided to start a blog? If so, where is it? Give me a link and I’ll come visit your site and comment!

Have you already been blogging? Good for you? I’d love to visit your blog.

]]> http://msnichols39.edublogs.org/2011/01/12/6/feed/ 7