Assignment #10: Buddy Videos

Good Moring, Bloggers!
I hope everyone is off to a wonderful start with the Grade 8 Literature circles. I know that many of our Hillsdale Grade 8s are well on their way to being finished the first reading section, if they aren't finished already. Some are even starting to bug their wonderful teacher about when they are allowed to start reading Section 2 (*cough* MAX *cough*).

The purpose of THIS assignment, however, has nothing to do with the Literature Circles. Our Grade 8 buddies in Ottawa have been working very hard on creating interesting and creative presentations. They presented the finished product last week, and video taped everything! Now, they've uploaded the videos and posted them on their own blogs for us to view.

So, your assignment this time is simply to head on over to your Ottawa partner's blog and view their wonderful video, and then leave a comment once you've finished. They covered some really interesting topics such as Plagarism, Facebook Privacy, Digital Footprints, Cyber Bullying, and more! Once you've viewed the video and left your comment, be sure to come back here and comment on THIS post to let me know you've completed your task.

Here's the catch: The videos often don't work on our school computers becuase of the DDSB web filtering programs. If you can't watch from school, please watch from home.

P.S. Feel free to view and comment on more than one video! Watch and comment on as many as you wish!

Blogging Buddies

Hello Hillsdale and Fielding students!

Miss Pollock and I have worked diligently to get some exciting activities planned and to arrange official class buddies. Below, I've included a list of each Fielding student, and their Hillsdale blog buddies. Please take a look at the list and then take a minute to head on over to your buddie's blog to introduce yourself if you haven't don't so already!

Aaisha - Karran

Amy - Michelle, Caitlin

Charlotte - Amanda, Ryley

Clarie - Kelly, Casey

Connor - Stephanie

Haneen - Arianna, Brandon W

Hannah - Andrianna, Alicia

Ishka - Jenna

Jatinder - Brandon R

Jeffrey - Aaron, Tyler

Jumanh - Jessica, Josh

Mateen - Sam, Hayley

Melissa - Breah, Courtney

Noah - Karran, Rob
 
Qavi - Kaitlin, Michael

Reshad - Holly

Sara - Max, Elizabeth

Shahad - Matt, Nic

Tara - Hannah, Dayna

Tyler - Brandon M

Walid - Kyle

Will - Dawson

Zak - Skylar, Daniel

Zuhair - Tanisha, Zack

Assignment #1

Your first assignment will be a two-part assignment. 

Part ONE

Your first posting will be a Welcome post. You will welcome new readers to your blog, introduce yourself and try to grasp the reader's attention, attracting them to come back to your blog often.

Once you are logged in, click on "New Post" in the upper right hand side of your page. You can then compose a message (don't bother with the Edit Html tab). The message composition works much the same way as a word processor like Microsoft Word does.
In your welcome message, I would like you to:
1. introduce yourself (first name ONLY)
2. tell your readers you're happy they're here
3. tell your reader a little bit about yourself. You will include 3-5 juicy sentences describing yourself with evidence (for example: "I am a little shy at school but I love watching "Glee" because I can imagine how amazing it would be to be able to be brave and sing in front of others.")
4. encourage your readers to leave comments or questions
5. thank your reader and encourage him or her to come back and visit often

Before you "Publish post", make sure to SPEAL CHEECK your work. (There's a little ABC checkmark icon in your menu bar, spellchecker will highlight the words it does not recognize).

Once you have written your welcome post. please leave a comment on this post on my blog. I will then link to your blog (you will see the links beginning to appear on the right hand side of my blog).

Part TWO

We will have a buddy class who are located in Ottawa, Ontario (our nation's capital)! They have already begun working on their blogs and are a couple of assignments ahead of us, but I know they will be patient as we get caught up. They are very lucky students to have a teacher named Miss Pollock who is a blogging expert, and we all (students and teacher alike) will have an oportunity to learn from each other. 

For the second part of your assignment, you will

1. Venture over to Miss Pollock's Blog and explore.
2. Once you get there, you will need to take a look at some of the student blogs that have already been created. They are located under the heading R8A Blogs which is on the right hand side of the page.
3. Choose one of these blogs to comment and question. What this means is that you must both comment on something the student has mentioned and leave a question for them to respond to. For example: If they said they love scary movies, you might ask if they are excited to see the 4th "Scream" movie that is coming out next year. Some students only have one posting while others have two or three. You can comment on any of their postings, provided that you are making sure to give positive feedback!
4. Once you have posted, just come back here and leave a comment on this post letting me know who and what you commented on (Example: You might say, "Hi Ms. C, I commented on Noah's Welcome post").

Happy blogging!