As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, it is time to ask the big questions:

What makes our school great?

Why are you happy to be in this school?

Create a post that explains to someone who is not familiar with our school the three most important reasons you are happy to be here.

Your post should include:

1. Title (same as this post)

2. Introductory sentence

3. Three specific characteristics of our school with a short explanation of each.

4. A concluding sentence

5. A check of grammar, spelling, and punctuation

To wrap up the Bloggers' Challenge for this year we will combine the week 9 and 10 activities. We are asked to visit the International Student Blog site. Look at the various topics presented by classes around the world. First paragraph: Choose one on which to leave a comment.  In your post, provide a link to the post on which you wish to comment, and insert a copy of the comment you have left on the site.

In the second paragraph of your post, explain a question you would propose for students of the world to answer if you were in control of the international blog site for a week. State the question clearly and provide background information on why you would want responses to that question.

In your third paragraph tell at least 2 things you learned by completing the bloggers' challenge activity. Be sure to complete the survey posted by Miss Wyatt for those who participated in the challenge for September 2009.

Some of the activities we worked on:

embedding images / posting on climate change / posting to invite comments / favorite blogs to visit / embedding widget code / using Creative Commons licensed images / being a good commenter / leaving a link back to your page / interacting with international students / creating an avatar / adding clustr maps, flag counters, translators / correctly citing images / inserting hyperlinks

Citation:

"Time". Retrieved 16 December 2009.http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/ / CC BY 2.0

Sean Kenney is coming to the Lehigh Valley - to the Moravian Book Store to be exact. Sadly, tickets are already sold out. What is special about Sean Kenney? He is the first of only six Lego certified specialists in the world. Can you imagine getting to build with Legos as a career? He will be back in February or March but you need to get your name on a waiting list for tickets for that visit. He wrote a book called "Cool Cars and Trucks" to inspire creative thinking with projects that kids can do. You can visit his website to see some of his creations. The images on his website are copyrighted but someone took a photo when they visited an exhibit and posted it to Flickr with a CC license.

So if you love to build with Legos, or if you  used to but now think you are "too old" for it, think again! Perhaps building with Legos will lead you to an interest in engineering or design, and your future career! If you have a special Lego creation that you are proud of, why not post it to your blog. I will be glad to help you with that.

Here are some other images I found of Lego creations:

King Tut outside Chicago Lego store. Retrieved 6 December 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/atelier_tee/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
Sean Kenney - Lego artist. Retrieved 6 December 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnyk/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Lego RMS Titanic. Retrieved 6 December 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/msh-images/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

In my travels through the blogosphere I came across Creative Readers, Writers, and Thinkers by Miss Ale from Argentina. She has shared some wonderful activites and games that you may want to try such as:

Can You See What I See? - a game from Scholastic to challenge your powers of observation (I did not do very well my first try!)

Get Ready - a great interactive typing challenge

Whack Attack - a whacky (literally) game to test your knowledge in science, math or English. This is for upper grade levels. Hint: Match the shirt color with your answer choice.

I also enjoyed the various quotes she presents to her students and asks for their responses, such as this reflection from October 19 : "There's a very positive relationship between people's ability to accomplish any task and the time they're willing to spend on it." - Joyce Brothers

There are many other great posts so have a look!

Citation:

Flag of Argentina. Retrieved 22 November 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24842486@N07/ / CC 2.0

To get us visiting other blogs, the challenge asks us to do the following activity –

Count out three.   On the September participants page, click on the blog of either a student or a class.  This is count out one.  Now go to the blogroll of that student or class and click on a link to another person. This is count out two. Finally when on that blog, click on the link of someone in that blogroll.  This is count out three. Now leave a comment on that person’s blog.  Hopefully this is not a blogger you have already commented on. Here are the requirements for the post:

1. Title (same as for this post)

2.First count out - Name a blog from the participants list and make the name a hyperlink to the blog page.

3. Second count out - Choose a  blog from the list of bloggers on that page/ blog roll and go to the new page. Make the name a hyperlink to the blog page.

4. Third count out - Choose a  blog from the list of bloggers on that page/ blog roll and go to that page. Make the name a hyperlink to the blog page.

5. Select a post on the third count out blog on which to comment. Name the specific post and make the name a hyperlink to the post.

6. Write the comment  in your post exactly as you plan to leave it for that blogger.

7. Check your spelling and grammar.

8. Leave the comment for the blogger being sure to provide a link back to your own blog page (not the Edit view).

9. Due date: Dec. 4

Sample:

Count out 1 - The first blog I visited was Mr. B's Blog called Fab4@Work. They are in Hokowhitu School in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Count out 2 - From there I went to Catch the Wave, the blog of a teacher in Whakatane, New Zealand.

Count out 3 - That blog led me to Derek's blog. Mr. Wenmoth is a director of eLearning in Christchurch, NZ. I chose to comment on his Top 100 Tools for Learning:  

Thank you so much for sharing Jane Hart’s Top 100. Although I am familiar with a majority of them, there are still several new names and I am anxious to explore them further, especially tools such as Screentoaster which provide the opportunity for screen capture. I will also be investigating Posterous and DimDim. Teachers today have a wealth of tools at their disposal to enhance the curriculum. It just keeps getting better!

Citation:

Laptop keyboard. Retrieved 14 Nov 2009.

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

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 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.