Week 2 #STUBC16: Commenting & The Time I Taught Someone…
It’s Week 2 of the Student Blogging Challenge (#STUBC16) and this week the focus is on commenting with activities based on commenting on other blogs and determining what a good comment looks like. Easier said than done.
But #STUBC16 is about sharing and lots of helpful links were provided to past blog posts, student examples and video instructions.
What Makes a Good Comment According to STUBC16
A good comment is polite, helpful and might offer constructive criticism. The tricky part is engaging in conversation. The easiest way to do this is with a question. Read the post carefully first, find something that interests you and ask a question about that.
Saying “That was a great post” is not a good comment. A comment should add to the conversation for example “That was a great post. I was interested to read about your football game. I play football too.” Don’t forget to include a link back to your own blog. (At this point I hastily added links to my blog posts on the comments I made. I learned something!) Not too many exclamation marks. (Oops!!!)
Being a bit radical
I have to be honest and admit that if someone I knew commented on my blog with, “This post is awesome” I’d be happy with that comment. I would take it as a personal compliment. Oddly enough, if someone I didn’t know said the same thing, I would think it was an empty comment. So maybe there’s a bit of context involved in blog comments.
The Time I Taught Someone
My mentoree students are blogging on the topic The Time I Taught Someone so I decided to do that too. I’ve taught many things to people of all ages. I’ve taught friends to crochet and do tapestry. I’ve taught rooms full of adults to use various software. I’ve taught classrooms full of kids how to write a story. I decided to go with what I have the most fun teaching.
Origami. All over Australia, I’ve taught kids how to fold three favourite simple origami shapes. A samurai kabuto helmet (also makes a very handy bookmark) – easy. A ninja – super easy. A happy dog – so easy even a preschooler can do it.
