Click on the link below to take you to this weeks google form. Remember to complete each task as a new post on your blog and copy the blog post URL address onto the form below.

Google Week 5: School Around The World This form is only for week five tasks about school.

Week Five Tasks

This week you can choose from a list of 8 ideas to create a post about school. Or you can come up with your own idea!

Thanks to Sue Wyatt who came up with many of these ideas for previous challenges.

8 Prompts For Your Post About School

Safety First!

Remember it’s important to think carefully about what information we publish online.

• Students should check with their teacher about whether it’s okay to mention their school name. If not, you might just like to tell people your state/country.
• Another thing to consider is writing about your plans (e.g. instead of saying “I have karate lessons at the town hall at 4pm on Thursdays” try “I enjoy weekly karate lessons”).

Now onto the ideas…

1) Survey your readers about school

Create a poll to survey your readers (Google Forms is a good way to do this or you could use a tool like Crowd Signal).

Alternatively, you could write some questions that you’d like readers to answer in a comment.

Your questions could be about:

• How people get to school (or work)
• School starting/finishing time
• School holidays
• School uniforms
• School subjects
• Anything else that interests you

Idea: when your survey is completed, you could share a summary of your findings. I love a tool called Beam for making simple charts.

Example: Emma made a survey using Google Forms.

2) Share your school day

Write about your school day or make a slideshow or video to explain it.

You might include things like:

• How do you get to school?
• What is your timetable like? Do you have set subjects at certain times?
• Do you have one teacher or many?
• What time do you begin and end school?
• Do you get to choose what you learn?
• What technology do you have at school?

Remember to explain abbreviations you might use e.g. LOTE, STEM, or ELA

Example: Kayden wrote about her favourite school subjects

3) Do some research

Do a little bit of research for a new post.

Here are some ideas:

• Research the history of your school and create an “About my school” page.
• Research a famous person who attended your school.
• How has schooling changed over the years? Interview parents or grandparents and ask questions about schooling. You could make a written interview, make a video, or make an audio recording (Anchor is a great tool for making audio recordings).
• Find out more about someone at your school who you don’t talk to very much. Maybe you could interview a student who is older/younger than you. Or you might interview your cleaner, crossing supervisor, canteen worker etc.

Example: Farrah asked her parents about how school has changed.

4) What happens at break times?

Tell us what you do at break time or what’s popular at your school.

You might write about:

• The food you eat at school. Do you take your own lunchbox or do you buy lunch? Include some photos if you can!
• What do you do at break time? Are there any popular games, sports, or activities at your school?
• What precautions do you have to take from the weather at break times? Hats? Sunscreen? Snowsuits? Is school ever cancelled or do you ever have to stay inside?

Example: Van Anh explained how to play a traditional Vietnamese game.

5) Describe your school grounds

Tell us a bit about your school grounds. You could even draw a map, or make a slideshow or video that gives readers a tour of your school.

• Is your school big or small?
• What sort of play areas do you have? Playgrounds? Fields? Courts?
• What special buildings do you have? A gym? A library?

Example: Mrs. Yollis class made this great school tour video when I worked on a projectwith her for International Dot Day.

6) Tell us about your special events

Does your school hold any special events? Maybe a fair or fete, a dress up day, a fundraiser, camps or school trips?

Share the details in a post!

Example: Jueun wrote about a sports event held in his district.

7) Compare your school with another

Find a video, photo, or article to shows what school is like in a different part of the world.

Feel free to use the resources I added above.

Write about the similarities and differences as well as the questions you’re pondering.

Alternatively, if you’ve been to more than one more school you might be able to compare them in a post.

Example: Yuyang compared his school experiences in China and Senegal.

8) Share your opinions about school

No doubt you have some opinions about school and we’d like to hear them:

• What’s your ideal school? You could even include a map of what it would look like.
• Share your opinion on uniforms, school starting times, homework, recess, or another controversial issue.
• What do you dream of doing once you finish school?
• If you were principal for a week, what would you do?

If you have any other ideas, that’s great! Write about anything that relates to schooling around the world.

Examples: Fran wrote about his plans for when he finishes school while Van Anh shared her opinions on school uniforms.

When You’ve Published A Post, It’s Time To Visit

An important part of this topic is to find out about some other schools. You never know what you might learn or who you could connect with!

When you’ve finished your post, choose a couple of blogs to visit and leave a quality comment.

Remember to ask a question and check back to see if they replied to you (most platforms have a box to tick so you can get an email when there is a follow-up comment).

You will find the link to the week 5 participants’ posts on the sidebar of this blog on Tuesday.

Submit Your Post URL 

If you’d like a commenter and others to visit your post about school, fill in the form below.

This video shows you how to find your URL…

Note, this isn’t a real class blog. Just one I used for testing 

 

This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress

The Google Form

Edit: Enter your details in the Google Form click here to open it in a new tab.

Teachers, feel free to put the Form URL on your class blog if it’s easier for your students to access.

https://forms.gle/mmEmLqDeMJfDvEmH7

Week Four Tasks

This week’s tasks are simple but I’ve offered a little elaboration below the summary graphic.

Task 1: Catch Up

You might not have had the chance to complete a task for week 1-3. Or you might like to complete an additional task from the choices on offer. Go for it.

Here are the links (you’ll also find them on the sidebar of the challenge blog).

• Week 1: Let’s Get To Know Each Other
• Week 2: Connect Through Commenting
• Week 3: Fun With Photos

Note about Google Forms:

• The Google Form for week one tasks is closed.
• If you’re catching up on a week one task, you can add it to the Google Form at the bottom of this week four post.
• If you complete a week two or three task, please go to the correct Google Form as these are still open.

Task 2: Free Choice

What’s something that interests you? Write about it!

Stuck for ideas?

• Check out these 100 blogging prompts for students. 
• Here are 50 more blogging prompts for students. 
• Saturday 30th March is Earth Hour. Read about this important event and write a post about it.
• This week’s post on The Edublogger has 15 ideas for fun poetry activity.
• One of our great commenters, Sheri Edwards, created a tutorial showing how to make a character out of Google Drawings. Why not make a character and blog about it?
• Sheri has another great post about Sharing Hobbies as well. It might give you even more ideas about sharing and connecting.

If you write a free choice post this week, submit it in the Google Form at the bottom of this post.

Task 3: Visit

You might have a bit of extra time this week so it could be a good opportunity to visit at least one other blog and leave a quality comment.

Remember to ask a question and check back to see if they replied to you (most platforms have a box to tick so you can get an email when there is a follow-up comment).

>> Click here to take a look at the posts our participants are writing for week 4.

Task 4: Kahoot!

Have you ever played Kahoot? Get some friends together and test your blogging knowledge with our 15 question quiz!

How Kahoot! works:

• The multiple-choice questions appear on the screen in the classroom and students submit their responses in real time using their computer, tablet, or mobile device.
• Students can work in teams and can work for points (most correct answers and quickest responses).

Our Introduction To Blogging Kahoot goes over some of the key terms, vocabulary, and uses of blogs.

How To Play Our Blogging Kahoot!

• To access the Kahoot, click on this link.
• You don’t need an account to play, however; you will need to log in if you want to edit the quiz (teachers can adapt it for your own students if necessary).
• You also need to be signed in to save results.
• You’ll have the option for your students to play against each other individually (classic mode) or in teams.

You’ll also have a variety of game options you can play around with (see below).

Once you finalize your selections, a game pin number will show up. Students will go to the Kahoot app on their device, or to https://kahoot.it/ and enter the pin number to begin!

Feel free to leave a comment on this post and tell us if you tried the Kahoot!

Submit Your Post URL 

If you write a free choice post and would like a commenter and others to visit, fill in the form below.

Do you have a post on your class blog and student blogs? Awesome! Feel free to submit the class blog post and student blog posts.

You need to submit the URL of your post. You can submit the URL of a page if this is what you’re working on but make sure comments are enabled. 

This video shows you how to find your URL…

Note, this isn’t a real class blog. Just one I used for testing 

Remember:

• Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.
• This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress

The Google Form

Edit: Enter your details in the form below or click here to open it in a new tab.

Teachers, feel free to put the form URL on your class blog if it’s easier for your students to access.

https://goo.gl/forms/gdOIFHmKm3xQv46i1

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Next week’s topic: School Around The World!

« Reminder: Using Google Docs And Slides

Yesterday the students from Room 10 went to Lab in a Box in the hall to learn about brain development and kidney function.

 

Vision Googles – changing brain signals 

The students learnt about the Ph sampling using imitation urine samples, how the brain works, brain signals, and acid and alkaline levels in different substances.

The workshop was run by the University of Otago and provided a hands-on approach to science. Please see the student blogs for their recount/reflection about visiting Lab in a Box.

Week 3: Fun With Photos

Task 1: Avatars

Do you know what an avatar is? It’s simply an image that you use to represent yourself on the internet. It’s like a character that represents your online identity.

A lot of adults have a real photo as their avatar, like this:

It can be a better idea for children to use a cartoon representation of themselves (check with your teachers/parents if you’re not sure).

Here are four avatar activities to choose from. 

For students: Create your own avatar 

Students can create an avatar to use on their blog.

 There are many different avatar creation sites on the web:

• Some tools allow you to save the avatar to your computer to then upload into your blog.
• Others tools require you to take a screenshot of your avatar and save it as an image. Tip: This article shows how to take a screenshot on any device.
• The Symbaloo below was compiled by Miss W (Sue Wyatt) to share links to sites where you can make an avatar. If you want to embed the Symbaloo on your own blog, click on the share icon at the bottom and copy the embed code.
• Some of the tools listed require Flash to work. This means they won’t work on mobile devices and you might have to manually allow Flash if you’re using Chrome (instructions here).
• Know any other avatar creation tools that aren’t on the Symbaloo? Leave a comment on this post.

Once you’ve made your avatar, you need to add it to your blog so it shows up when you comment.

• If you’re using Edublogs or CampusPress, check here for instructions.
• If you’re using Blogger, check here for instructions.
• If you’re using Kidblog, these are the instructions you’ll need.

To complete this task, it’s time to write a post

Now write a post about your avatar

Tell us how your avatar represents you. Include a link to the website where you created the avatar. Remember to include your avatar as an image in your post.

Alternatively, you might want to create a custom avatar for each of your family members. Include the avatars in a post and tell us a bit about each family member (remembering not to give away too many personal details).

Tip: when writing a post about your avatar, choose an interesting title not just ‘avatar’as this could cause an error on your blog.

 Examples:

• Here is an example of a great post from Naho in Hawaii.
• Braeden made a Lego avatar and wrote about it here.
• Josh used a range of tools to make avatars for the members of his family.
• Amelie-Rose made avatars for her family members.

Please click on the link below to find out what you need to do to set up your blog for the weekly blogging challenge:

https://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/march-2019-students/