Think+7

Register your blog for our class and Adopt Two Classmates ' toc 

Discovery Exercise
Read two or more of the blog posts below paying attention to the type of writing and what the blogger did to make the article more enjoyable to read.

1.  **dy/dan (Mr. Meyer): ** [|Why I Don’t Assign Homework]  There are 86 comments on this post as of January 31, 2008. You don't have to read them all - says something about the provocativeness of the post, though! 2.  **Mrs. Edmison's Class: ** [|Questions for One of Our Favorite Authors: Grace Lin>>] Third grade students receive a special blog comment from a beloved author answering their questions about writing. 3.  **Mark’s Edtech Blog: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Is this SSR 2.0?] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A third grade teacher describes a "new" kind of Sustained Silent Reading. 4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">SP-817 Math Blog: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Boeun's Scribe for December 4th] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> This is an example of a " <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Scribe Post] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">," as "invented" by calculus teacher Darren Kuropatwa, in which a student (8th grader in this case) reviews the classroom learning for the day or week. The teacher sets guidelines for the quality of work and students who exceed the requirements have an opportunity to be nominated into the " <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Scribe Hall of Fame] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">." 5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">CoolCatTeacher (Vicki Davis): **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Spies Like Us] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Vicki Davis talks about the realities of teaching in a society where every cell phone is a recording device. Vicki Davis is someone you want to know about! 6. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Extreme Biology: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Imagine Turning On the Faucet and Nothing Coming Out] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Classroom blog of a high school biology teacher in an Atlanta-area private school. Students post about different topics related to the study of biology. This is the most-read post on the blog. Check out the comments in response to the student's question at the end of her post. 7. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">EduBlog Insights (Anne Davis): **<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|A Rationale for Educational Blogging] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Anne Davis, an edublogging pioneer from Georgia State University, has been blogging with elementary school students since 2002. In this post, she enumerates her reasons for blogging with students. 8. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Discourse About Discourse: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|The Ripe Environment] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A proposal for getting beyond the tools to the teaching and learning. 9. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Students 2.0: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Teaching Brevity] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The author of this post is a fourteen-year-old. The <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Students2oh] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> blog is collaboratively written by a group of high schoolers from across the U.S. and beyond. These outspoken, articulate students have garnered a huge following in just a few weeks of publishing. 10. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">NeverEnding Search: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|PowerPoint Reform - A First Chapter] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> High school librarian Joyce Valenza shares highlights from her presentation for senior English classes on how to stop making miserable PowerPoint presentations.Good points and good resources. 11. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Patrick's Update **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">: <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|5th Grade] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> This post was written by an at-risk fifth grader who struggled with writing and school success in general. Anne Davis shares it as an example of the importance of comments in blogging. 12. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Weblogg-ed (Will Richardson): **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Why Can't We Do This?] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Ed tech visionary Will Richardson takes a break from "blog-vangelizing" to ask a question about plastic grocery bags. 13. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Andy Carvin / Learning NOW **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">: <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|An Open Letter About Cyberbullying] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Andy Carvin responds to a nerve-striking "humor" article in Wired Magazine. 14. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wandering Ink: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|How To Prevent Another Leonardo Da Vinci] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> An argument about the ways in which the current education system and adolescent culture discourage creative thought. (If this interests you, you may want to view Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk: <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Do Schools Kill Creativity?] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">). 15. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Duck with a Blog: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Second graders Write About Our Missing Duck] <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Award-winning elementary blog about an unexpected guest. Be sure to click the duck to read the students' stories.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Sample Blog Posts **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> (Select two or more)

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:thinking.jpg]]Task
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**"Register"** your blog. Return to the Google tracking spreadsheet from Think "0" <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">(you have a link to it in your Gmail account) and **add your blog address to your spreadsheet listing**. Once I have received your blog address, I will add it to the summer 2009 participants<span class="wiki_link"> page. That's how you can find other participants to cheer on and connect with! <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Subscribe to the blogs of (at least) two classmates. Use our Google "tracking" spreadsheet to find your adoptees - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">PLEASE make their blog addresses BOLD to indicate that they have been adopted **. Ideally, everyone will be adopted by at least one other participant plus their coaches -- please try to pick people who don't have a BOLD blog address before picking those who do! <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Adopt __two__ classmates to place in your Google Reader ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">

**<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[[image:stretch.jpg]]Stretch Task **
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * (P. S. I hope __everyone__ does this one!)** Blogging is meant to be a conversation and we are a community of learners. Check the <span class="wiki_link">summer 2009 participants page and visit the blogs of **two** (or more) **colleagues**. Read their Think 1 or Think 2 post and leave a comment in response! Type or paste the URL of your own blog in the "website" field so that they know where to find you. Early finishers may have to check back later to find blogs to comment on.

Be sure to mark the Blogging Module as completed with an **X** in the google spreadsheet! include component="pageList" tag="blogging" Next module: Creative Commons Module