The Butler Elementary Blog Page

The Butler Elementary Blog Page will be closing for the 2008/09 school year as of today.

I would like to congratulate all students on their success. This blog began as an advanced “experiment” in how we could utilize blogs within the classroom and through your efforts and creativity you have made it an overwhelming success.

How successful, lets look at the data on your admin page:

1. From September to the the middle of January a total of 113 published postings were created. At 100 words a posting, this equates to a more then 11,000 words of material, with more then 130 pictures in 20 different subject categories.
2. In the comments department, a total of 1759 comments were created. At 30 words per comment, this amounts to more then 53,000 words. Wow!
3. The Middle School students have their own blog. Butler Elementary posted less published postings (113 versus 134 in the Middle School) but Butler Elementary students did create more comments (1759 versus 1708 in the Middle School).
4. Finally, I was pleased to see that all students acted in a manner that was caring and supportive of each other. I saw students complimenting each other, supportive of each other and when opinions differed on topics students were respectful of each other. Great job!

I would like to give you another piece of feedback. Based on the products you created in this blog (postings and comments) we will be rolling out new programs similar to the blog. Grade 5 students will very soon get their first look at Wikipearse. Wikipearse is still in the testing/trialling stages of development. The Grade 5 students job is to create Wiki pages of advanced quality so we can test to see how good the Wiki really is. I am very excited for this group. All of this because of the great work you have produced and the excellent behavior you have exhibited individually and as a student body.

The Butler Elementary Blog Page will be reopening at the beginning of the next school year.

Two grades you will be receiving in computers involve the blog:

Blog Posting Grade

You are expected to have one posting completed by the new year. A blog posting must include the following:

1. Catchy title.
2. 100 words minimum.
3. Large high quality picture.
4. NO Citation Machine reference will be needed this year due to problems with the Citation Machine.
5. Category.

We have 99 postings published as of today. At a minimum of 100 words per posting, that’s almost 10,000 words of student work. Great job everybody! If your posting is already published, then your grade is 100%. Students who have not completed their posting will receive a 50% grade. You have to have your posting published by the new year, otherwise your grade will be locked in as a 50% grade.

Participation Grade

Each student will receive a participation grade. The more you participate in the blog, the higher your grade. You will know how well you are participating in the blog by looking at the ranking on the side of the blog. The more comments you make, the higher your name rises in the ranking. The student at the top receives and A+ or 100%. The student at the bottom will receive a C- or 70%. Depending apon how high you are in the ranking will correlate with the grade you will receive. I think you are guys are fantastic. Such a great job from all. As of today, a total of 1474 comments have been created. This equates to a minimum of 44,000 words of comments by Butler students. Currently, you have 4,000 more words of comments then the Avon Middle School students. Wow, very impressive!

The butler chess club.The Butler Chess Club sign-ups are on December 15. The club is six weeks long. You will have the opportunity to learn how to play chess or just play chess. The Butler Chess Club is for Fourth and Fifth graders. And I Tyler N. will be teaching it. There will be chess puzzles and fun stuff like that! It’s only $25.00 to join. Don’t worry its worth it, six weeks of chess. The club will meet up after school at three and ends at four. Well teach the people who don’t know how to play first, then well give you a partner, and then you’ll play with your partner, and then finally for the last half hour, well try to figure-out the puzzles together. It will be a lot of fun! Chess is awsome!

Comments need to be:

• Minimum of thirty words.
• Include no spelling errors.
• Include no grammatical errors.
• Be either in support or against the post topic.
• High level students will support their comment with a fact from either Wikipedia or Mr. Pearse’s Google.

I see Butler Elementary students exhibiting fantastic technology skills. Please only create a maximum of two comments per posting. Overall, a great job so far!