Eighth grade students participate in Global Student Blogging Challenge ...

Over the past nine weeks, Waukon Middle School students in Ms. Milewsky’s eighth grade Language Arts class have been participating in a global blogging challenge organized by Edublogs. Each week students are given a challenge to complete and share with challenge participants and commentators to receive feedback. The challenges (some of which are pictured in the photos above) have included discussing digital citizenship with proper commenting guidelines, writing stories using emojis, A-Z science poems, surveying others’ interests and creating “all about me” pages, all while being engaged in writing for an authentic audience.

Students have learned a great deal about digital citizenship and safety, other cultures and writing strategies. One student commented, “I have had a wonderful experience with blogging. I have gotten responses from students from India, Australia, and all over the United States. For week three’s task, I wrote a poem talking about corn fields and a student from India commented saying that she had never seen a corn field. That is just beyond bizarre! I have really enjoyed blogging because I have gotten to check out other people’s blogs from all over the world and in my school. I have gotten to know some of my classmates better. I am very thankful for this opportunity.”

Another student stated, “The student blogging challenge has been an amazing experience. I couldn’t believe it when our teacher said we were blogging! I have learned so many things from the blogging challenge, like interacting with an online audience, making your blog better (with pictures, especially), and so much more. I have also gotten to interact with a few students and a teacher even! It has been amazing to do all of the challenges, especially the challenge where we made surveys using Google Forms! It was cool to see the different thoughts and opinions from what your reader chose. Also, with a map tracking widget, it is fun to see how people from all over the world are viewing your blog without you even knowing it. Even though they might not leave a comment, they still visited, which means they saw your blog! And that is so encouraging to know that people are seeing your blog! It has been an amazing experience!” Submitted images.