At my school, the first week back is called “WinTerm”.  It is a week where all of the students get to take different classes.  We have all day and half day classes, and some students even go on trips for the week.

I decided to teach a half day class on blogging.  I created a blog for my students on how to blog with daily instructions.  It has been such a fun week!  My students have done an excellent job – and even ran through everything I wanted to teach them by Wednesday!  So Thursday I had them read and comment on each other’s blogs.  Today I am going to teach them how to REALLY use Twitter.  Teenagers seem to use hashtags pretty randomly or mainly for sarcasm.  I also introduced them to Code.org so they could understand the coding behind the blogs.

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About mid-week we decided to do a group blog called “Study Songs” where songs and mnemonics are posted to help them study for school topics.  We put a form on there so anyone reading the blog could submit their favorite mnemonic.  Share it with your students so they can contribute too!

You could do blogging with a middle school class as well, probably beginning in 7th grade.  I taught one of my 7th grade students how to blog last year because she had a great idea that needed to be shared!  I have included her blog as well.

I was pleasantly surprised at how fast they went through the material I wanted to teach them this week.  And I really love reading their blogs!  I am learning about fitness, fashion, books I need to read, movies I need to watch, and food!  I have included their blogs below so you can also see what students are capable of!

Check out our blogs!

• Sara, Bloglet of Fire, My blog is about books, films, and various parts of nerd culture, and my opinions on everything.
• Emily, Culture Shock, Going from being a senior in Charlotte to a freshman in Chicago and all of the advice gleaned and mistakes made along the way
• Claudia, in a nutshell, My blog is about food allergies
• Kate, The Crunch Chronicles, My blog is about my experiences making healthy recipes, or just recipes I like in general
• Andrea, PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE, equality of races and transgenders
• Ellen , Elle Tells All, My blog is about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle.
• Rose, Everything Is Coming Up Roses, Fashion & Lifestyle.
• Mackenzie, Top Trendz, trending lifestyle blog
• Philip, Life Of A Boy Wonder, Funny short stories about my life and past, life advice. Movie/ Game review.
• Terry, supernchester, Supernatural
• Alex, Basketball All Around, Whats going on throughout the basketball world.
• Hailey, Health and Fitness, celebrity lives but i think it may change
• Myranda, Queen City Style, Lifestyle
• Group, Study Songs, Songs and Mnemonics for school topics.

7th Grade Blog (8th now)

• Leila, Only at Woodlawn, This blog is written by the class of 2019 about all of the wonderful things that ONLY happen at Woodlawn!