United Classrooms - Connect Your Classroom With the World

United Classrooms is a service connecting classrooms across the world. The service allows teachers to create classroom profile pages. On their classroom profile pages teachers can post assignments, projects, messages for students, and announcements for parents and students. Teachers can monitor and manage all of the communications between students on the classroom profile page.

United Classrooms allows teachers to share their classroom profile pages with the world. Teachers can search for other classrooms and connect with them. When classrooms are connected students can post messages for each other on the classroom profile pages.

Applications for Education
Using United Classrooms could be a good way for teachers to connect their classrooms to work on collaborative projects. On a smaller scale you could just connect your classrooms to create virtual penpal relationships. And if you don't connect your classroom to another you could use United Classrooms just as a way to share classroom news with the parents of your students.


United Classrooms from United Classrooms on Vimeo.

Best of the Web 2011 - Class Blog

Now that my school year is over I'm taking a short fly fishing vacation. The posts for the rest of the week highlight my favorite resources of 2011 so far.


There is no shortage of blogging services available for free to teachers and school administrators. Some free services offer more features than others. One newer blogging service that is offering a lot to teachers at no cost is Class Blogs.

Class Blogs is a blogging service based on the WordPress Multi User platform. The service isn't open to everyone yet, you have to register for an invitation, but for your consideration here is a run-down of what they offer. Users can create as many free, ad-free blogs as they like. This means that for someone like myself who teaches multiple sections of a course, each section could have its own blog. If you plan to have students blogging, you can batch register students to expedite the process of joining your blog. Class Blogs also aims to be a LMS by offering you the option to create, distribute, and grade student assignments online. Finally, Class Blogs has an option for giving live online presentations.

Applications for Education
If Class Blogs delivers on all that it promises in its features list, it could become a central location for all of the online materials you use in your classes. Not only will you be able to do all of the things that blogs are great for, like keeping a record of your lessons, students sharing insights, but you will also be able to give presentations online and keep track of grades. Those last two items are not something you can do within most blogging platforms.

Class Blogs - Blogs for Classrooms

There is no shortage of blogging services available for free to teachers and school administrators. Some free services offer more features than others. One newer blogging service that is offering a lot to teachers at no cost is Class Blogs.

Class Blogs is a blogging service based on the WordPress Multi User platform. The service isn't open to everyone yet, you have to register for an invitation, but for your consideration here is a run-down of what they offer. Users can create as many free, ad-free blogs as they like. This means that for someone like myself who teaches multiple sections of a course, each section could have its own blog. If you plan to have students blogging, you can batch register students to expedite the process of joining your blog. Class Blogs also aims to be a LMS by offering you the option to create, distribute, and grade student assignments online. Finally, Class Blogs has an option for giving live online presentations.

Applications for Education
If Class Blogs delivers on all that it promises in its features list, it could become a central location for all of the online materials you use in your classes. Not only will you be able to do all of the things that blogs are great for, like keeping a record of your lessons, students sharing insights, but you will also be able to give presentations online and keep track of grades. Those last two items are not something you can do within most blogging platforms.

If you're wondering why you should have a blog for your classroom, check out what the kids in the video below have to say.

Interesting Ideas for Classroom Blog Posts

Earlier today I was trying to compile a list of eleven things for students to blog about. I was sputtering out around number seven when it hit me, "I bet Tom Barrett already has a list going." So I went to the Interesting Ways page on Tom's blog and sure enough there I found 37 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts. I added one of my ideas to the Google Presentation and I encourage you to add your ideas.

Applications for Education
If you're looking for new things for your students to blog about or new ways to use your classroom blog, 37 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts is a good bet for a place to find a new idea.

Blog, Wiki, or Doc? Which Is Right for You?

Earlier today someone (sorry, I forgot to note who) posted a link on Twitter to this chart made in Google Documents. I did a little digging and traced it back to Dr. Mark Wagner. Blogs, Wikis, or Docs: Which is right for your lesson? is a great chart outlining the features of each platform, each platform's drawbacks, and examples of each platform in use.

As always, if you were the person who posted the chart on Twitter, please let me know so that I can give you proper attribution.

Applications for Education
I'm often asked by teachers for my opinion as to whether they should use a blog or wiki for a particular class or project. If you find yourself also answering that type of question, Mark Wagner's Blogs, Wikis, or Docs chart could help you help others.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year
How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers

Let Your Students Blog!

Let Your Students Blog!

by Deborah C. White

Yesterday's Guest Blogger, Patrick Larkin - Principal Burlington High School (MA) , wrote about the need for administrators to blog regularly and often in order to draw attention to the positive activities of the school, to communicate within and beyond the school community, and to foster dialogue among the stakeholders about the applications of best practices in learning. I am also going to talk about online writing but with two differences:

1) Using student blogs to teach and practice literacy skills,
2) Using those applications with elementary school students - specifically second graders.

Blogs provide students with authentic writing experiences and teachers with powerful tools to help students improve writing skills. Elementary school students can effectively use blogs to improve their literacy skills. These tools facilitate the learning of:

writing concisely,
editing,
revising,
writing for an authentic purpose,
writing for an authentic audience.
reading,
responding to the written word,
and how to provide effective feedback.

Yes, these skills can be taught without using blogs but learning how to use blogs and other online writing applications is equally important for today's students. Providing multiple opportunities for learning and practicing literacy skills in multiple formats allows students to generalize those skills across settings. And the gravy, the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, is that using online applications motivates and engages students. Motivated and engaged students will learn.

There are many blogging tools available for teachers to use with their students. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. My current favorite is Kidblog.org. I learned about Kidblog via my personal/professional Twitter account. It is an extraordinarily easy and free tool to use. I set up the class account and the sub-accounts for each member of my class during snack time. The privacy settings are optional and complete. The support via email is timely, explicit, and patient.

In the 'olden days', I would not have published any student work on a blog (or any other way) unless it was edited to perfection. I would have insisted that my students correct what they could, copy what they didn't know yet, and produce 'final products'. On a blog or other application, that meant that I spent a lot of time typing. Eventually I asked myself, "How does this improve student learning?" The answer is obvious - it doesn't. Now, I only edit the student blog entry if it is especially difficult to read. In those cases, I don't touch the student's work, I merely rewrite the entry in conventional form underneath the student passage and publish my part in italics. When students are working within Kidblog, the infamous squiggly red line shows up under perceived misspelled words. That reminds my students that they need to take another close look at what they typed. Is it a misspelling or is it a word the program doesn't recognize like the name of our town - Orono? That little squiggly red line reminds students to stop and think and it's much more powerful than my reminders because it is unfailingly consistent. Student blog entries encourage revision as readers comment and ask questions about each piece. Class discussions revolve around readers' responses. Students comment on each others work. Entries become more detailed as students respond to comments. Since the entries are dated, students, teachers, and parents can look at writing development over time. The student blog becomes an assessment tool to measure written communication skills, comprehension across the curriculum, and appropriate online social skills.

Using online applications to practice literacy skills is an effective technology integration method. Kidblog is easy enough that even digital immigrants (aka teachers) have no excuse not to try it with their students. Let your students blog! Let yourself blog, too!

Deborah C. White is amazed at her good fortune to have been chosen to be a guest blogger for this great resource.. She is currently a 2nd grade classroom teacher at the Asa C. Adams School in Orono, Maine. She is also the 2009 ACTEM Educator of the Year, K-5 Tech Lead, and Student Council Advisor. Formerly, she was a 1st and 2nd grade looping teacher, multiage teacher, and Museum Educator. She is an advocate for the use of Open Source tools and wants folks to think about attending FOSSed 2010. Her Twitter name is: debwhite and she can be found online at:
http://kidblog.org/room8isgreat/student-blogs/
http://sites.google.com/site/makingtheenvelopebigger/home http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=223065&blog_id=&listclass=26752
http://www.asa-adams.u87.k12.me.us/
http://learningwithlinux.blogspot.com/

200+ Free Games for Your Class Blog or Website

Novel Games offers more than 200 games that you can embed into your blog, wiki, or website for free. Most of the games are simple logic games, basic mathematics games, and spelling games like hangman. Novel Games also offers Sudoku and Mahjongg games. Math and Reading Help for Kids has ten examples of Novel Games embedded into a third party's website.

Applications for Education
Novel Games is a great place to find games for your class blog, wiki, or website. A few fun mathematics games or spelling games can keep students and parents coming back to practice and develop those respective skills. There are enough games on Novel Games that you can rotate games in and out of your class blog to give students variety or to match the topic you're currently teaching.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Study Tag - Win Trophies for Studying Online
Play the Cash Cab Quizzes
Five Free Crossword Puzzle Builders
Five Resources for Fun Spelling Games

Free Summer Bowling for Kids

Here's something to pass along to students and parents who are looking for something to do when school ends this spring, free bowling. Kids Bowl Free is a program being run in bowling alleys across the United States. Use the map on the Kids Bowl Free homepage to find a participating bowling alley near you.

Thanks to Fred Delventhal's blog for the link.

Applications for Education
Kids Bowl Free is the type of non-academic information that I like to pass along to parents at parent-teacher conferences. It's also worth linking to your class blog or class website.

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Create a Homepage With Scholastic Homepage Builder

Every time that I explore the Scholastic website I find something that I hadn't noticed on my previous visit. On my most recent visit to the Scholastic website I discovered that they offer a free website builder for teachers. The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder has a simple and intuitive user interface with very clear step-by-step set up directions. While you can embed videos and some other media, the Class Homepage Builder is really designed for teachers making their first attempts at creating an online resource for their classrooms. The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder allows teachers to include Scholastic News headlines, assignments, post announcements, and pre-made online activities for students.

Applications for Education
The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder provides teachers who have never made a blog or website with an easy-to-use tool to get started creating an online presence for students and parents to visit. The themes, layouts, and pre-made activities that can be included in the homepage are designed for students in grades K-8.

Here are some other free resources for creating a class homepage:
Free Webs
Sauropol
Synthasite
On Sugar