I can't believe I have 2 tickets to anywhere in the world! Such a hard decision because there are so many wonderful places to see. Where will I go? I have decided on visiting the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Why am I going here? Most of my ancestry is Irish and I would love to visit that beautiful country. With whom will I travel? Sadly, I have only one extra ticket, but I believe I will have to give it to my daughter, Karla. She is the only one of my children who has never traveled outside the U.S. and she loves her Irish heritage. When will we go? Since it would be difficult to travel during the school year I would book  the trip for June or July. How will we travel there? We will leave JFK International airport in New York on an Aer Lingus flight and arrive at Shannon Airport. We would certainly be tired as Ireland is five hours ahead of our time. What would be the best part of the trip? Just being in the country of Ireland would be a dream come true, but standing on the cliffs and feeling the sea air on our faces, seeing how nature has weathered the rock over many centuries, would be such a marvelous feeling. We would be sure to climb up in the O'Brien's Tower for a wide view of the surrounding landscape. Connemara is not far away, and hopefully we would have some souvenirs made from the famous Connemara marble to bring home for our family. I am really looking forward to  this trip of a lifetime!

Citation:



Cliffs of Moher 2. Retrieved 10 November 2009.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brosner/ / CC BY 2.0

If you had a Golden Ticket to visit one famous location anywhere in the world, where would it be? Use the locations listed on Hillman Wonders and choose a famous place. Oh, and you have a second ticket for one person to accompany you! Tell your readers answers to questions beginning with who, where, when, what, how, why. This will require a minimum of six complete sentences. However, only writing the bare minimum will make for a very boring blog post! Please be sure that the information you write makes sense and is factual! This will require doing a little investigating on  your part as to the location of perhaps a major city near your wonder, appropriate time to travel based on weather conditions, etc.

• Who did/ will you go with?

• Where did/ will you go?

• When did/ will you go?

• What was/ will be the best part of the holiday?

• How did/ will you get there?

• Why did/ will you go to that place?

Provide a link to the specific Hillman Wonders location to show information about your place using the name of the famous location as a hyperlink. Include a Creative Commons Flickr image of the wonder or a special feature of it.  Resize the image apporpriately and use left or right alignment. ( The Hillman images are copyrighted.) You need to use one of our approved image sources for an image that has a sharing license. Include the citation below the post that gives the image name, date retrieved, and image link. Follow the example post. The title of your post is Name of Wonder - Blog Challenge 7.  Bon voyage! ¡Buen viaje! Due date: November 24.

Here is a fun online game to challenge you in spelling. I found this game on Mr. B's blog called Fab4@Work. It is a great class blog site. They are located in New Zealand. Some words are easy and some are more difficult. Be careful! This is a British based activity so you may encounter some variations in spelling.

During the week of October 19-23 we reviewed requirements for Blog Challenge Week 5 and the insertion of images. Here is a reminder for using the Image Properties.

1. Using the insert image button on the tool bar, add the URL of your image source. Remember it usually needs to end in .jpg, but .png and .gif will work also.

2. Click in the image in the article window to select it. You will see the white "handles". Then use the same image button from the toobar to edit the image properties.

3. Keep the aspect ration locked. This will keep your image in proportion. Adjust the pixels for either height or width as necessary. The other dimension will stay in proportion. If ever you need to start over with your image, use the reset (back arrow next to the lock). You can also drag the corner handle to resize your image in the article window.

4.  No border is necessary but experiment if you want to add a border. The number value will be in pixels.

5. Allow a small amount of horizontal (hspace) or vertical (vspace) around your image. Experiment until you achieve your desired effect. The numbers do not have to be identical.

6. Choose right or left alignment to have your text flow around the image. The image will be placed wherever your cursor was when you chose to "insert". If you are not happy with the location, delete and re-insert. Placing your cursor at the very beginning of the paragrah you want to flow around the image usually is the best.

7. Be sure to include the Citation for your image. I have included the citation for this image even though I uploaded it myself to Flickr.

 Citations

Sample image properties cbm. Retrieved 25 October 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93846520@N00/

I just came across this video and I wanted to share it with you. This young girl is an inspiration to students and teachers alike. She believes strongly in the power of writing. Perhaps we bloggers can be influenced by her outlook. What can we learn from this?

One of the activities that takes up some of my time outside of school, in addition to family, and taking graduate courses, is being a part of the DEN. What is the DEN? It stands for Discovery Educator Network, and it is an organization that is part of my PLN (professional learning network). I have been a part of this group since 2006 and I have met and have the opportunity to work with teachers all over the country, and even around the globe. We plan events, such as having speakers and workshops, we have informal discussions and sharing, and we learn from each other. The Discovery Educator Network is sponsored by Discovery Education, which brings you among other things, the Discovery Channel. The motto of the DEN is "connecting teachers with their most valuable resource - each other!"  It may surprise you to know that much of my interaction with these fellow teachers takes place in virtual reality. I have an avatar and so do the other teachers, and we do much of our professional work in a virtual world.

This year the students in our school will have their own account to log into Discovery Streaming. I am excited to get started with that. I am very proud to be a STAR Discovery Educator and a member of a Leadership Council. I love sharing what I learn with  my students.

Citations

Mrs. Ruffing's avatar. Retrieved 20 October 2009.

<blog.discoveryeducation.com>

During week 6 we have been asked, "Are you a BAD writer?" What does this acronym mean? BAD stands for Blog Action Day which is being held this week on October 15. On this day bloggers of the world unite to write posts on one topic and have their voices heard. This year's topic is "climate change". You can find out more about it on their website. The Bloggers Challenge for Week 6 lists several options. Since we are working under a time crunch, I am posting the week 6 activity as an extra credit challenge. Should you choose to be a part of Blog Action Day, please complete option 1:

Write a post about climate change – how it affects you personally; what you can do about it at school, home or local community;  how it is affecting certain parts of the world etc.  Remember to show you have researched the topic by linking words to other websites where you found some great information that you mentioned in your post.

Our extra credit assignment will include the following:

-minimum 5 sentences (quality sentences not ones such as, "And that is my opinion.")

-at least one hyperlink to a website with information on the topic which helped you arrive at your opinions. The Blogger's Challenge post on week 6 offers several great sites to visit.

-a title for the post "Blog Action Day: Climate Change"

-post proofread for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

**Posts that do not link to a site with supporting information will not be published.

If you do the week 6 challenge feel free to add the badge to your right sidebar indicating you have taken part in the Blog Action Day 2009.

In week 5 students were asked to write a post about some topic of interest to them.

Perhaps you have a special hobby that you work on in your free time, a sport that you are enthusiastic about, a special place you love to visit, your plans for the future, a really great restaurant, a book that you just couldn't put down.

Create a post of 6 or more sentences in which you use your best descriptive writing skills to share your thoughts on that topic. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, please include an image from one of the online image sites recommended by the Blogging Challenge. This image should somehow tie in with the topic of your post. Include the citation at the end of the post to give credit to the source of the image. Follow the example at the end of this post. Include a hyperlink to a reliable website with more information on the topic that your readers can use for additional information. Do not use Wikipedia for this link. If you were inspired or influenced by another student's blog post, then provide a link back to that student's post as well. Due date:(Grades 6,7,8) October 26.

Citations

Last Pear. Retrieved 11 October 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepedroncelli/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

We have fallen behind in the challenge. It is difficult when we meet once a week, but also difficult when it takes more than 2 weeks for people to complete an assignment due to not following directions! Let's all forge ahead!

The week 4 challenge asks us to do several things. Not all of these things will be required of each grade. Please look for the comment as to which grade is responsible for which items



1- Add a widget to the sidebar telling something about our geographic location, such as time or weather. Choose from the widget links on the left and add one of those two.**IMPORTANT - Some students have gone way overboard with personal widgets. The rule from this week forward is ONE personal widget (such as ONE virtual pet) at least until the challenge is concluded.  Geographic widget due date: Friday, Oct. 16. Other than one announcement in class, you are on your own to add this as we should now be familiar with this procedure. DO NOT ELIMINATE PREVIOUSLY ASSIGNED WIDGETS!  For Grades 7 and 8.

2. Write a post in which you name 2 student blogs from other countries and tell why you think your classmates should visit these student blogs. Write 3 sentences (or more about the general content of the blog - topics, media added, design, etc.) and make the name of the blog a hyperlink. Leave a respectful comment on each of the blogs you are choosing as either a statement or a question. Be sure to hyperlink back to your own page so the other student can visit you. We will review including your hyperlink in class and you may use this pdf as a guide as well. Grade 7 and 8 - visit 2 blogs; Grade 6 - visit 1 blog. Due date: Wednesday, Oct. 21.

3. Add a translator widget using the link at the left to Google Translator. Grades 6,7,8.  Due date: Monday, October 19.