It’s one thing to set up a class blog, which by the way is quite simple. It’s a completely different thing to get traffic to your blog. (Read my post on “Starting a Class Blog” for more information on getting started.)
Subscriptions
An easy way to keep your students “posted” on important class news is to add a subscription button to your blog and require that your students subscribe. I use a free service called Feedburner. Open an account and and activate it. Click the “Publicize” tab on top, click on “Email Subscriptions” then follow the directions about cutting and pasting the box into your blog.
There are videos and additional tutorials if you click on “Blogs”. I went to “How does it work?” and watched the video about the different Feedburner features and then clicked on the link “get started.”
Subscription Options
When you get to Feedburner’s email subscription page there are two options: “subscription form code” and “subscription link code.” I did a subscription link code, which allowed me to put a button on the sidebar of my blog where people can subscribe. (See the subscription button on this blog for an example.) If you use the subscription form code, people are required to subscribe before they are allowed access to the site.
Wordpress Bloggers
For wordpress.com bloggers, once you open a Feedburner account, email button is added by clicking on “Presentation,” “Sidebar Widgets,” then drag a “Text” box from the bottom into the “Sidebar Widgets” box. Then follow the directions from Feedburner on what to type into the text box.
Email Subscription Advice
You can check your Feedburner account to see who has subscribed to your blog. Once a student subscribes they need to respond to an automatically generated response letter to confirm the subscription. Make sure you let them know that they need to activate the account. I gave them a week to subscribe to accommodate for technology problems or access issues.
Expectations Around Class Blog Posts
Every time you post a blog, your students will receive the post in their in-boxes. Set up the expectation around how to use the blog as an educational tool. I don’t require my students to read every post. I figure that since they love being on the computer and they check their email accounts regularly, that they will read some of the posts. If you need your students to regularly check the email, then state that as a requirement or expectation.
Things to Know About Comments from Blog Subscribers
Since the post is sent as an email, it doesn’t lend itself as much to students commenting. I was wondering why I kept getting emails instead of comments on the blog so I clicked on one of the blog posts and verified that there isn’t a comment button on the emails they receive.
If you want students to comment on the emailed posts, they can click on the title of the post and it’ll take them directly to the blog page where they can comment. If you want comments, let you students know how to post comments. That’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow in class. 
I also recommend that you subscribe to your own blog. It’s a good idea to see what’s being sent out and to catch if anything is buggy.
Internet Safety and Blog Comments
If your students are minors, remind them to only use their first name or their first name and the first letter of their last name. You can also have them use their first name and the period or class you teach them so it’s easier for you to keep track of who is commenting.
If you like this blog, you can subscribe. (I am going to map this blog to a different host and domain name soon- hopefully before January. So you may want to wait a week or two.)
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December 15th, 2006
We all leave footprints in the sand, the question is, will we be a big heal, or a great soul.
‘Tis the holiday season for many of us. What choices will you make when it comes to the ecological footprint you place on the planet? Why not create a healthy footprint for yours and future generations! (This is a post from my class blog and I wanted to share it with you so that you can share it with your own family and students.)
First off, you may be asking, “What is an ecological footprint?” According to Wikipedia’s definition, “an ecological footprint is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes.”
Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz to see how much resources you use. I hope you’re sitting down when you take it. It’s quite intense to hear the amount of resources we as Americans use. I also recommend you take the quiz pretending you are from another country. You’ll be flabbergasted at the difference!
Things to Consider About Sustainability and Your Footprint
1. When you buy something, it must last as long or longer than it takes to make the raw ingredients to be sustainable.
- Water bottles: A plastic water bottle, which is made of petroleum, takes millions of years to create. Yet we throw it away after an hour.
millions of years to make > 1 hour to drink NOT sustainable
- Jeans: Jeans are made from cotton, which takes less than a year to grow.
less than a year to grow < wear jeans for more than a year Sustainable
2. Packaging is a huge waste of natural resources. Buy things with a minimum amount of packaging. Also bring your own bags to the store. If it’s a small purchase, ask that they don’t put it in a bag.
Holiday Suggestions from My Family to Yours
My family used to do several things that I’d like to share with you to help you be more environmentally conscientious.
- First, we often wrapped gifts in the comic section of the paper. It was fun and colorful, and we all agreed that it was an easy step we could all take for the planet.
- We also had boxes that had tops and bottoms. The tops were wrapped in wrapping paper and we used these boxes year after year… not to mention the bows. This year I received some gifts for my 40th birthday and they were in the boxes that I remember from when a kid. What a nice childhood memory!
- Create attractive cards or gift tags that identify gifts that can be used year after year. For example, “From Mom & Dad, To Rebecca.” We had little felt gift tags that we made and we used them every year for Christmas. Think of all of the paper we saved, and it was a sweet thing to see those little tags. We still have them 35 years later!
- Another cool thing that we did is that we didn’t have a Christmas tree. In 2002, over 20,000,000 trees were cut in the US alone by commercial farmers. And that’s just for the US! We had a Christmas branch instead. We cut some large limbs from trees that needed to be pruned and from the limbs we created a “tree.” Everyone always commented on how beautiful our trees looked. UC Berkeley School of Forestry has an annual sale of trees that have been cut from national parks that are potentially a fire hazard. If you celebrate Christmas, see if there is an alternative that suits your family’s needs and concerns when it comes to Christmas trees.
For more information on ecological footprints, check out this web quest.
This holiday think about the purchases you are making and the gifts you are requesting. What ecological footprint will you leave on the planet for your generation and future generations?
Have a lovely holiday!
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December 12th, 2006
The Millennials are the new generation of kids we’re teaching. Born between 1982-2002, they are multi-tasking, group oriented, civic minded, and of course, tech savvy. There are lots of strategies and resources to support this unique generation of kids learn how to navigate in the Information Age wisely and become more compassionate people on my Squidoo lens, Educating Millennials. I really enjoyed making the site, and I think you’ll find it a valuable site to deepen and expand your own teaching practice.
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December 10th, 2006
