Snow Day Interview with My Blog

Besides enjoying the warm, cozy house and baking chrysanthemum cupcakes, Mrs. Krebs also interviewed her blogs. She has two teacher blogs and around forty student blogs (with that number growing). Her blogs are a little over one year old, with hundreds of entries, and a little disorganized. She’s hoping the Edublogs challenges will help her focus…

When did you start?
It was a cold and snowy day in December, 2009. School was out of session, and that’s always a creative time for teachers. They are a creative bunch, and this one here, she can’t sit still and relax on an unexpected day off. Many blogs begin their lives on winter snow days in the upper midwest. (In fact, she interviewed me on the first snow day of 2011.)

How did you get started?
She had to go through lots of trial and error and asking for help from Sue Waters and all those willing folks at Edublogs. Actually, the first trial and error stuff happened back in October of 2009. (I just dug a little deeper into my archival drawers.) But it was that snowy day in December that she finally spent enough time on me to figure out what she was doing.

Why did you start?
When Mrs. Krebs hears about something, she wants to try it out for herself. She had a new exploratory class that was coming in the spring—it was going to be called “Publishing.” They were going to make a literary magazine and a yearbook full of junior high shenanigans and pictures and whatnot. She had been wanting to try blogging, so she threw blogging into her class too. I was happy to see it, because this is the 21st century, for Pete’s sake.

What is your most exciting moment?
Well, there have been many, many exciting moments during the past year. Let me list a few…
• The first post I got. That was back on October 17, 2009. That one was made by Mrs. Krebs.
• The first student post, back in January of 2010. That one was by Kelly, I believe.
• Then we had comments shooting back and forth all over that English room where we were meeting. That was exciting because the children were very engaged.
• There was that first post, late last spring that came from a student who was no longer in the publishing class, but he dusted off his password and logged on by himself to make a posting.
• It was an exciting moment when we got a Cluster Map, and then we could see where in the world people were looking at me—The Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Canary Islands and then folks in all those big continents too.
• When we got our first comments from other teachers and students, that was a really nice moment.

What would you do differently if you were to start today?
• I would have insisted she use tags on her blog entries. I think tags have lots of potential.
• Another thing, I would have reminded her how important each one of those names are as she was creating blogs. She didn’t need a blog named testblogscs, but that’s what she’s got now.

What kinds of posts do you get? What are your sources of inspiration?
The students and Mrs. Krebs usually become inspired with their writings and productions—poetry, essays, fiction, speeches, videos, etc. Mrs. Krebs always posts samples of assignments the students are going to do. Another inspiration comes when they find a new web tool (Glogster, Animoto, Wordle, Blabberize, etc.). They have fun posting the products.

What hints and tips can you give other bloggers?
One thing that Mrs. Krebs wasn’t prepared for is how her blogging habits would evolve. She started the blogs as e-magazines, a place to publish writing. However, blogging has so many more possibilities—classroom assignments, personal learning networks, student collaboration. She had only a small picture of how I could be used in her teaching. She hasn’t really figured out what her place is in the blogosphere, but she’s having fun trying. My suggestion for other beginners might be to have two blogs—one for teacher use and PLNs and a second blog for classroom assignments and to manage and moderate all the student blogs.

What are the future goals you have for your Edublogs?
Helping Mrs. Krebs figure out all my cool features and what she can do next.

18 thoughts on “Snow Day Interview with My Blog

  1. I’m glad you’re doing the Teacher challenge as well. Whhat you’ve written above sums up my blogging journey, too. Well, maybe not so much the snow bit as we don’t get snow this part of Australia!

    All the best for 2011 and beyond.

  2. Thank you so much for this post. I laughed when I read your title for the blog. When I started I had no idea what I was doing but have learnt lots since. This challenge is great, as you learn so much by watching other bloggers at work.
    The first thing I did, when I got to your post was watch your animoto. This says something about the impact of multi media and its value in blogs.
    I wondered what chrysanthemum cupcakes were but now I know! It is strange to watch your movie, as we are in summer and have had 102 deg heat already. Therefore I am on summer holidays, which is great.Look forward to your next posts. The second challenge comes out tomorrow.

  3. Congratulations, you are doing a fantastic job with your blog and reading your great blog interview I saw parellels with my blogging journey. Keep up the excellent work and enjoy your Snow Days and the learning they allow. Best Wishes, Yvonne Osborn, Melbourne, Australia.

  4. OK…is that you in the orange pants. I needed some of those when I was shoveling my driveway (did I say 5 times the past 2 days).
    And I’m not sure what to think about those cupcakes. You have way too much talent…I love them.
    This challenge should be great fun and I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone. I think we’ll be running to keep up with you!!!

  5. Nice interview–and the chrysanthemum cupcakes are beautiful–what a great way to brighten a snow-white day! I look forward to exploring your blog(s) further.

  6. Those cupcakes are gorgeous, I never ever have seen anything like them. And Oh those snow days I keep reading about. So jealous. But we are in mid summer and have nothing to complain about!
    Kathryn
    New Zealand

  7. Love your creative, informative responses to the blogging challenge. I’ll be reading this with my classes. I agree about the tags. Gotta get them in. Thanks!

  8. Wow, thanks for all the encouraging comments. I feel like I have teacher friends in faraway places! I really like this blogging challenge. I’m looking forward to interacting with new friends.

  9. I loved your blog. While the technology my students have access to is limited, I want to be able to utilize digital projects like the Glogger assignment you had posted. I hope to be able to utilize my blog as you have yours.

  10. Thank you for visiting my blog. I really enjoy reading your interview. Thank you for the link for the inspiration resources.

    Best wishes,
    Mieke.

  11. Hi Deb,
    I loved the video clip of the chrysanthemum cupcakes! Such a clever idea to use the marshmallows like that! I enjoyed reading your interview. I wish that I had a few snow days here in Korea to work on some writing & blogging!I liked seeing the glogsters you put up on your other posts. I’m hoping to introduce my students to glogster soon~! 🙂 –jee young

    1. Thanks, Jee, for the nice comments. I just subscribed to your blog! You’ve inspired me. I’ll be anxious to see what your kids are up to.

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