Week 7: Inventory & Goals

Image by Kevin Steele via Flickr

We have about one month left in our homeschool co-op semester, so now is a good time to look back at what we’ve accomplished and to look ahead at what we want to work on for these last few weeks. But first, let’s warm up our brains with some editing practice…

Editing Practice

When you write a blog post or respond to comments, attitude matters! You don’t want to offend people, so you need to consider how your words will be “heard” by your readers. When you talk to someone in person, you can change your facial expression and tone of voice, but online, your words stand by themselves.

Image via Wikipedia

Orally in Class: pages 38-40.

On Your Own: Can you think of a funny response to the story prompt on page 39? What did Herbert do, and what happened afterward? Choose one of the letters and make it into a blog post.

Extra Tip: Be careful when responding to comments. If someone seems to be angry, it may be that they don’t realize how their words sound. Give your readers the benefit of the doubt, and respond gently to each commenter.

Looking Behind, Looking Ahead

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Look over our “Grading” Rubric for the blogging class. I don’t give grades, so you will have to judge for yourself how well you have done.

Think about these questions:

• Are you making progress on the tasks?
• What do you still need to work on?
• Do you have any questions about blogging? Is there anything you want to do, but you can’t figure out how to make it work?
• Of all your posts, which one is your favorite? What do you like about it?

List 4 things (one for each week left in the class) that you would like to accomplish on your blog this semester.

Computer time: Work on one of your goals.

Homework

Write. Read. Comment on classmate’s blogs.

“Extra Credit”: Challenge Yourself to Blog

The Student Blogging Challenge is taking a break this week, but feel free to go back and catch up on one of the earlier challenges:

• Challenge 1
  Write your About page, introductory post, and get a blogging challenge badge for your sidebar.
• Challenge 2
  Create an avatar, write about your school (or about homeschooling!), or create a Voki.
• Challenge 3
  Get a new widget (I like the flag counter), write about your state or country, create a quiz, or post photos.
• Challenge 4
  Leave lots of comments, add to your blogroll, write some blogging tips, or tell us about three of your favorite (non-classmate) blogs.

Remember, if you do one of these challenges, be sure to put a link back to the challenge post. Your post may get a return link from the Challenge Yourself to Blog website!