Day 30 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42’s last challenge is “So how to wrap up a project like this? I think the only proper way is to turn it over to the participants. So today’s challenge, final one in the series, is for you to choose your own adventure.”

First of all, I want to thank Teach42 for doing this wonderful adventure. I have learned so much by doing this and at first was hesitant to give it a try. I didn’t want to commit myself to doing this because once I start something, I don’t want to miss a day or give it up so I’m proud of myself for finishing this. I have also learned so much by reading other people’s blogs who have participated in this challenge because I have learned so many new things that makes my blog better. I share the responsibility of doing daily blog prompts for digital scrapbooking friends with 2 other people and we take turns every 3 months. I know how much time it takes to do this and how pressured you feel to get it posted on time so again, thank you!

My last adventure is to do this: I am going to comment on blog posts where I disagree with the author. I will do it in a nice respectful way and share my opinion. I have always believed the idea that “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” so if I disagree with the person, I tend to not say anything. The more I think about it, the more I realize that not agreeing with someone doesn’t mean that I’m being mean or hateful. That is part of the conversation that should go on. Sometimes I feel intimidated because someone will tell me that I may have missed the point that the author was trying to make. Yet, isn’t that what having a conversation is all about? Maybe the other person missed the point and not me. I reflected on my own posts and realized that I don’t mind if someone disagrees with me because they might convince me to change my position on something. If they can convince me, then maybe I need to change. In fact, I should have an open mind and be willing to change if it means something is better. When someone disagrees with me and then there is a debate, it really makes my post more interesting because I have stirred up a conversation. That also helps other people when they read my post which is why I started this blog in the first place. So, I plan to add more to conversations on blog posts that I read, not just the ones I agree with, but the ones I don’t agree with also.

Thank you to all of my readers who read this blog! You have helped me to continually grow and I hope that I have contributed to your life in some way also!

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 29 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to think like a rock star.

“So today’s challenge is to give yourself the rock star treatment. The details are entirely up to you. Maybe you’ll direct message a few people on Twitter and ask them to take a look at a recent blog post of yours. Maybe you’ll add your blog to your email signature. Maybe you’ll give some friends a call and ask them to check out your blog. Maybe it’ll just be leaving a comment here and asking people to come visit it and leave a comment. Only you can know what kind of Rock Star you are, so do what feels right for you. Then take the time to share what being a Rock Star means to you.”

I have to admit that when I first started to blog I was a little embarrassed about self promotion. I guess I followed examples set by my Twitter and Plurk friends and saw that I enjoyed their self promotion. It helped me find lots of quality blogs to read which in turn led me to excellent resources. If my purpose of blogging is to share my knowledge and expertise, how else can I do this if I don’t self promote? So, I added my blogs to my email signature and I also printed up my own business cards with my blog address on it. I also mention it to other teachers I meet and invite them to stop by and read it. Now that I have been doing this, I feel more comfortable and I haven’t met anyone yet who minded when I did this (or at least no one has ever told me to my face!). I have received lots of emails and comments from others thanking me for informing them about my blog which makes me feel great. In this way, I feel as if I’m fulfilling my purpose which motivates me to keep blogging.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 28 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to think about hyperlinking.

“If you think of blogging as a conversation, it is hyperlinks that allow us to connect the voices together. It is a means for citing information, recognizing original ideas, and giving credit where it’s due. It also allows us to make subtle recommendations for further reading and directs traffic between like minded individuals. Additionally, it provides a reference for the people being linked to, in order to see who has taken their material and spun off of it. There are thousands of plugins, widgets, and snippets of code that are designed to take embedded hyperlinks and add functionality. Some provide previews of the page being linked to, others recognize if it’s media and provide a means for consuming it, while others simple tally the links and aggregate them together.”

I realized how important this was when I started to read other people’s blogs. Usually people refer to an article that they had read and refer to it in their post. A lot of times, I want to look at the original article that they are commenting about but if there isn’t a hyperlink, I can’t find the article and I find it somewhat frustrating. I also want people to think some of the ideas are my own because then it would be like stealing. I try to be very conscientious about putting quotation marks around the words that I copy and use in my post. Many times I see this in other blogs but I want to know more than just the quote. I might want to know the background or the context in which they are using this so I need to see the original post. I also don’t want to copy the whole original article in my own post so by hyperlinking to the article, it helps readers decide what they want to see.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 27 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to collaborate with others.

“Collaborate with somebody or several people on a blog post or meme. Invite other people to share their thoughts on a topic of your choosing, create a meme for other people to participate in, or send a request for people to address a specific question on their blog. Details are up to you, the important part is that it’s collaborative in nature! And of course, be sure to share what you do in comments here.”

I really like this idea and will give it a try when we get home from our cruises. Now I’m trying to think of the question that I want to ask. I have participated in blog memes before but I tend to find them intimidating because I always worry that mine is not as good as someone else’s (I know I shouldn’t think that way but I can’t help it). So, I am going to send a request and write their responses in a blog post.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 26 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach 42 challenges us to think about tagging.
“At it’s most basic level, a tag is a keyword that you create that serves as an identifier or link for the purposes of searching and/or filtering. By strategically tagging your posts, you provide visitors yet another way to filter through your entries without creating 100’s of categories. For example, while you may put a blog post in the Web 2.0 category, you might tag it with each individual tool and technology mentioned or referred to. Categories are generally higher level and more strategic, tags are typically used in a ‘the more the merrier’ type of approach. You’d never get criticized for using too many tags, unless you’re applying tags that have nothing to do with your post.”

When I first started blogging, I didn’t tag my posts. Then I started looking at other people’s blogs and realized that tagging helped me find their posts that I wanted to look at easier. So, I started to tag my posts with one or two words. Now thanks to Teach42, I realize that I need to use more tags than I have been. I also realize this when I want to find a specific post that I wrote about and if the tag is too general, I have to read through a lot of them just to find the one that I want. I will need to go back through some posts and edit their tags.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 25 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to think about images in our posts. “Do you generally use images in your blog posts? Or do you know of someone who you think does this pretty well on a regular basis? If so, share a link!”

I learned to use images in my blog posts when I realized that I liked to read posts that had pictures attached to them. If it was just all text, I found them boring. I also like to find pictures that help emphasize a point that I’m making. When I first started though, I just plopped a picture on my post. Then after reading about copyright laws I was horrified that I had been “stealing” pictures. Now I always use the creative commons pictures or my own pictures and I always add the credits to the picture. I think it really makes a difference or at least I find my own posts more interesting.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Days 22 to 24 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Day 22

Teach42 challenges us to answer the question, “Why do you blog?”

I decided when I retired that I would share my knowledge and expertise with new and struggling teachers. Since I felt I had a successful career, I thought others might like to know what I thought and strategies I had used that worked in the classroom. At first I felt like this was egotistical of me and I was kind of embarrassed about it. Then as I blogged, I read some comments and received some emails that encouraged me to continue to blog. I hope that I make it clear that what I share worked for me and doesn’t mean that it will necessarily work for every teacher out there. Because we have different teaching styles and personalities, everything I write about needs to be adapted to individual teachers in ways that work best for them. I have had some comments that what I did would not work and again, I have to tell people that teaching is not a “one size fits all” activity and what I did may not work for everyone. I have also gotten some emails from new teachers that had tried something I suggested and they were so thrilled about what a difference it had made in their classroom. When I get these messages, I feel like that I am contributing to my professional learning network as a way of giving back to all of the people who had helped me along the way.

Day 23

Teach42 challenges us to plan our blog. I am not a spur of the moment kind of person and tend to plan. I made it a goal to blog at least Monday through Friday. Since Blogger now has a scheduler, this makes it much easier especially since my husband and I like to travel. Even now as we are cruising, I am able to schedule a blog post for a later date in case I can’t get access to the internet or I don’t have time. I think having a regular schedule really makes it easier for my readers to know they can count on a post from me almost every weekday. Every Friday I like to share links to sites that I have found and liked. I also follow other bloggers who schedule a certain day for a certain kind of post.

Day 24

Teach42 challenges us to disclose ourselves.
“Do you have a Disclosure Statement on your blog already? If so, what does it include? Do you know of any other good examples amongst educators? Or non-educators for that matter! If you are creating one as part of this challenge, share a link to it in the comments below so we can learn from it as well.”

Since I am retired, I do not have to worry about anyone thinking my views are my employers so I’m lucky in that respect. But I do believe that people should disclose that they are getting paid to advertise or recommend something. I recommend sites that I like on Fridays but I do not get paid to recommend them and usually I email them after the fact to let them know that I linked to them in my post.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Days 19 to 21 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Day 19

Teach42 challenges us to look at other blogs and analyze what you see there.
“Today’s challenge is a relatively simple one, and likely one that you probably do on a regular basis subconsciously. Today we’re just going to do it consciously. Basically, the idea is to spend some time visiting other educator’s blogs that fall into the same niche as yours, and analyze what you see there. This is one of the challenges that I really liked out of ProBlogger’s 31 day challenge. And I think he has an excellent list of questions to ask yourself while you visit other people’s blogs.”

I love to visit other educator blogs because I like to hear what other educators are talking about, how they feel on certain issues, and then think about how I feel about that issue. I like to read blog posts that aren’t too long and aren’t too technical. I also love the ones that have a little humor in it or are interesting to read. If the font is too small or the topic is too technical, I tend to skip over them. I also like posts that tell about different tools and how they use it with students or the successes they had with the students. I also like to look at their sidebars and see what interesting links or widgets they have that might make my blog look better.

Day 20

Teach42 challenges us to go on a Dead Link Hunt.
“There are two sites and one PC based tool that I’ve had recommended to me. The tool is Xenu, and the two sites are Dead-Links.com and the W3C link validator. All of them do the same basic task, which is to crawl through your site and test each individual link. If it thinks the link is invalid, it flags it for you. Based on the specific way each tool/site does this, it may come up with different results than the others. That’s why you will probably want to do at least 2 of the 3 tests. I’d suggest running one test, checking the results and making changes as needed, and then running a second test.”

Since I am on a cruise and limiting myself to 30 minutes a day on the internet, this will have to wait until I get home but I never thought about doing this. I also never knew there were tools that checked this. I’m excited about testing my site and I hope I don’t have too many dead links.
Day 21

Teach42 challenges us to make a blog post about a comment we made or a comment left for us.
“For today’s challenge, we’re going back to commenting with a slightly different spin. Your challenge for today is to integrate a comment into a new blog post of yours. This can be a comment that somebody left for you on your own blog (like I’ve done in this post), or a comment that somebody left on somebody else’s blog. This may require a little digging, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Honestly, there are times where the comments left on a blog post are perhaps more significant than the blog post itself.”

I like to do this a lot of times if my comment is too long or wordy. Sometimes it gives me room to express my thoughts more clearly without worrying that someone will think I’m spamming their blog post. If my post is referring to someone else’s post, then I link to that original post and leave a comment with a link to my post telling them that I wrote a post about theirs instead of leaving a long comment.

Day 18 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to join and read the Education Carnivals. He quotes BlogCarnival.com by saying:

"A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There are many kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics. Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.
There is so much stuff in the blog-o-sphere, just finding interesting stuff is hard. If there is a carnival for a topic you are interested in, following that carnival is a great way to learn what bloggers are saying about that topic. If you are blogging on that topic, the carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers."

This is a wonderful idea because I have been doing this for a long time. I have read so many things that keep me current with educational issues. I have enjoyed joining the debate on some of the articles and I feel this helps me sharpen my own ideas and beliefs. I have connected with many other educators and learned about new resources that are constantly being developed to make my teaching more successful. I make reading the Carnival part of my weekly routine so it has become a habit.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 17 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

On Day 17, Teach42 challenges us to make our blog more mobile. I think this is a great idea even though I do not have an iphone or those other great geeky toys…yet. I do not want to discourage people from reading my blog just because I can’t stay current with the new toys.

You can access it by using this google link:http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http:/feeds.feedburner.com/SuccessfulTeaching

I am also trying Mofuse.com that he has recommended. I have added the widget to my sidebar. Here is the link to this: http://successfulteaching.mofuse.mobi/

Hope you enjoy checking this out.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Days 14 -16 of 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger

Day 14: Contact me – I have my email address and my Connect with Me widget that I found on Christine Southard’s Blogspot. I really like how it gives my usernames for all the different social networking platforms that I use.

Day 15: Search for myself on Google and Technorati – I haven’t done this before so I will be checking this out. It will be interesting to see what links I find. I might have missed some that I didn’t know about so I will be doing this on a monthly basis also.

Day 16: My Greatest Hits – I have my favorite articles on the side and I want to update them with more but I’m afraid that it is too much for the side bar. Does anyone have any suggestions? I think I might change it to “The Greatest Hits of 2008” and then change them each year since I am now working on my second year of blogging.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 13 of 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger

Teach42’s challenge today is to keep decluttering the sidebar on the blog. I added the “Show Yourself” Widget so it would be easier for people to connect with me. I do like having the number of visitors and the clustrmap on the sidebar. After reading Teach42’s challenge, I was glad to see that I could change my Blog Archive into a drop down menu. That really cleaned up my side bar a lot. I love learning something new every day of this challenge.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 12 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42’s challenge for Day 12 is to Declutter Your Sidebar Part I - Blogroll Audit.

I have to admit that I’ve gotten lazy with my blog roll. Today I plan to go through the list and get rid of the stale blogs and add some of the new ones that I’ve found and enjoyed. I just wonder how many people really look at my blog roll and if they even care who I follow. Then I think about the times that I’ve looked at other people’s blog roll and realize that I need to clean mine up. This challenge is definitely motivating me to do some of the things that I’ve put off so I will be busy today. If you come by tomorrow, I hope my blog roll will be in better shape. I also plan to make it a goal to check my blog roll at least every other month. (If I write it down, I am more likely to follow it). Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 11 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42’s challenge today was to introduce ourselves to another blogger. “To be honest, this one doesn’t really NEED to be a blogger, it could be a Twitterer or a Plurker too. Pick somebody that you may have followed, read, or listened to from afar but never made contact with before. Then introduce yourself. Let them know who you are, and why you read their work. Perhaps you want to reach out to someone you saw at a conference recently, a keynote speaker who you thought had an interesting point of view, or an author in an educational magazine that wrote an article you enjoyed.”

I have read this blog before but never really made contact with Christine of Ramblings of a Technology Coordinator. So, I sent her an email telling her how much I enjoyed the links she puts in her blog. I feel a lot of the tools can be adapted to a special ed student’s needs so I hope to pass these on to teachers who are in my university classes.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 10 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to look at our blogs from different browsers. I never thought of that before. I use IE7 but I did download Firefox because sometimes I can’t read the blogs I subscribe to without it. For me, the links in Twitter will open when I click on it since I have Firefox. Before I had Firefox, I couldn’t open the links unless I copied and pasted them into IE. I subscribe to my own blog in Google Reader so I can see what it looks like there and I sometimes post it ahead of time. This lets me know that Blogger posted it when I wanted it posted. I was glad to see that my blog looked the same in IE and Firefox. I have the same issues with the widgets in my side bar when I look at them in both. I am still trying to fix them but haven’t had any luck so far. If you happen to use another browser besides them, please let me know if you have any problems seeing my blog.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 9 of 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger

I’m know I’m a day late but better late than never. Today Teach42 talks about RSS and using Feedburner. He gives a great explanation about RSS which I never know how to explain. Isn’t it funny that just this morning my husband was asking me what RSS is and what did it do? He also suggests using Feedburner which is a free RSS service. I’m so thrilled that I already have it on my blog. This tells me that I’m doing something right at least. I also added the “Subscribe by Email” because I read another blogger complaining that many blogs didn’t have this so I quickly added it to mine. I know that I subscribe to many blogs and read them in Google Reader which makes it very easy to keep track of when blogs are updated. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 8 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 says, “For today’s challenge, find two blogs to leave a comment on. One can be a favorite that you’ve commented on before, but the other should be a blog you’ve never left a response on until now. Bonus points for going beyond the ‘required’ two!”

I have to admit that I really like seeing comments on my blog. I really got excited the first time I got a comment and I still feel amazed when I see that people took time to comment on what I write. I have seen other people say how much they hate to leave comments because it takes time or they don’t know what to say. Even my own husband complains about leaving comments because he worries about spelling and grammar. I keep trying to tell him that his thoughts count more than spelling or grammar. Sometimes when I am excited about what I’m saying, I accidentally leave off a letter or two and I don’t proof what I’ve written. After I’ve sent it, I read it again and realize my mistakes but I don’t let myself agonize over that. I don’t feel like the person getting the comment is going to be offended if I make a spelling error or if my grammar isn’t perfect. And even if they are offended, I feel better that I shared my thoughts.

I have to admit that I like the conversation that occurs in blogs and I tend to leave so many comments that I worry people may think I’m some kind of weird stalker. Of course I know how much I like to get comments and since I truly believe what goes around, comes around, I try to leave as many comments as I can. Whenever a teacher lets me know that his/her class is blogging and asks that we leave comments, I rush over to see what they have written. I love the innocence that a student has when they write. It seems so important that they share their thoughts and you can feel their hopes that there is someone out there listening. If I don’t leave a comment, I feel negligent as a teacher and as a person in not encouraging them to continue. I hope that I can motivate others by leaving comments when they need them.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 7 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 challenges us to use guest bloggers on our blog. The reason he recommends this is because:

· “You admire them and want to share their opinions.
· Ask an expert to address a specific topic…
· A guest blogger can increase your traffic.
· To fill a gap.
· To show you feel other voices are valuable too.”

I agree with these reasons and that is why I’ve had two guest bloggers this past year. I have had South Carolina State Senator David Thomas wrote about his views on education and Heather Johnson wrote about Google Earth. I hope that I have a few more in the future. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

Day 6 of 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger

Teach42 gave this challenge for Day 6:

“Your challenge for today is to share your blog with someone who has never seen it before. Choose a friend, colleague, family member or total stranger and ask them to sit down at your blog and explore it. If possible do it in person so you can see them actually doing it. Don’t give them any prep per se, just ask them to check it out and explore. Then see what they do. You can learn an incredible amount of information from just watching their explorations. Even if you can’t watch them do it yourself, ask them questions afterwards to see what their experience was like.

• Where do they click?
• What do they find?
• What do they miss?
• Are there parts of it that are unintuitive?
• Are there features that you’ve built in that aren’t quite as ‘obvious’ as you thought they were?
• Is it easy to navigate around or do they have trouble making their way from one section to another?
• Is there any information that they wish you had provided that isn’t there?
• Are there any parts that they didn’t understand the purpose of?
• Any general suggestions that they have for improvement?
• What parts of your blog were most memorable to them, 10-20 minutes after they explored it?”

Since I am not around many new people, I was unable to do this day’s challenge but I feel the results would be really important to know. If you have never read my blog before today, maybe you can help me answer these questions for me. I will keep this here and when I find someone new, I might get them to look at my blog so I can answer these. I love the questions and would really learn a lot from the constructive criticism.

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht

Day 5 of 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Teach42 talks about using Clustrmaps and Google Translate on blogs. I have used Clustrmaps for a long time and I like seeing where people come from when they read my blog but I never thought about using Google Translate. This will enable people from other countries to translate my blog into their language. That is such a cool thing! Maybe if it can be translated, what I have to say can reach more teachers around the world. After learning about this, I have put the Google Translate on my the sidebar of this blog. If you want to play with it, have fun!

photo credit: Original image: 'Rosie the Blogger' http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2493066577by: Mike Licht