Guest Bloggers on OpenPD « Connecting Through Conversations

Our OpenPD session this afternoon was designed to introduce blogging, my hope was the conversation would be beneficial for those in the class who are new to the concept and thinking about starting a blog of their own. Well once again my expectations were exceeded, and I am so grateful to all of those who participated today. Sue Waters was asked to join us and speak to those participating in class why she blogs, how she got started and if she would share any thoughts, and tip, for writing good posts. Well, Sue wrote a post about our OpenPD session, the topic for class, asking others contribute a comment on the impact their own blogging has had on them, their learning. It is full of interesting stories and suggestions, please take some time to read it. Sue also invited some other bloggers to join in the conversation as well; we were fortunate to have with us the following people:

Jenny Luca recently wrote a post on PLN’s and balance great, worth reading
Sue Wyatt as known as tasteach her blog on Smartboards and a classroom blog
Joe Dale Integrating ICT into MFL classroom
Kevin Honeycutt – Driving Questions as well as his blog The “Rest Area”
Sarah Stewart Sarah’s Musings
Mr. Plough The Next Step
Carolynn Bruton Carbru’s
Mrs.Durff Writing a Blog Post and Classroom blog
Kimberly McClain Terrible Teacher

Thank you all for making another session of OpenPD so worthwhile, I learned a great deal once again. I am grateful for the true sense of collaboration, and sharing everyone brings with them to class, what we are able to learn from one another is phenomenal. This is a wonderful experience for me. Sue thank you for all of your wonderful contributions to this class as well as your work in the edublogger world. On the wiki we do have an assignment for this coming week, look at and respond to 4 other blogs we have some listed on the participants page as well. Also to set up a blog at Edublogs so you are ready to start. Hope to see you all again next week.

Sue Waters Says:

April 10, 2008 at 08:36 am

Hi Robin thanks for inviting us to share our experience on blogging with Open PD — I think some of the extra people that joined us didn’t add the link to their blog. I know of several that were multitasking while joining us. I hope the teachers gained from the session and didn’t find it too overwhelming. So sad I can’t join you next week but hopefully some of the group from this week will drop past again next week.

Please let your participants know that I’m happy to help them with their Edublogs blog and they should check out the how-to section on The Edublogger as there are some great manuals they can download for guidance plus videos.

Hope to join the session in 2 weeks time .

Sarah Stewart Says:

April 10, 2008 at 08:08 am

I really enjoyed myself, so thank you very much for making me welcome. Also happy to help with blogging although I am no where near as expert as Sue.

Grace Kat Says:

April 10, 2008 at 08:11 am

I’m so glad i was able to look into the open PD session this morning. My class have a blog and there were many great tips about blogging. hope to make the next one. Grace

jennylu Says:

April 10, 2008 at 08:31 am

Thanks Robin for giving me the opportunity to join your class. Hopefully it helped your students – I know it reaffirmed for me the power of these network connections and the possibilities for learning that exist now that the walls are down and we can connect easily. Happy to help you out again if you need it.
Jenny Luca.

April 11, 2008 at 08:09 am

@Sarah I wouldn’t call myself an expert just someone who tried hard to help others; and I’ve loved working with you.

@Grace I’m so glad you were able to join us at Open PD and good that the different tips on blogging were of benefit to you. Unfortunately I’m away for the next one — but please attend I always learn from their sessions.

@Jenny Would be grateful if you could attend again with me being away it would be good for them to feel I’m still there (us Aussie must sound all the same – right?)

rellis Says:

April 11, 2008 at 08:40 pm

Sue you are a champion when it comes to blogging and always have great tips and experiences to share. The blogging portion of OpenPD would not have the same impact without your participation. I will be happy to pass along your willingness to help those in the class with their blogs, actually, I was hoping you would be willing to help me! Thanks again, have a great holiday.

@Sarah, you were a wonderful contributor to class as well. Your comments and the links you supplied in the chat were very helpful, thank you for being part of the experience of OpenPD.

@Jenny, our thanks goes to you for giving of your time to join us. I agree with you, the connections we make throughout these networks and the learning available to all of us through them is astounding to me. I am so thankful to Darren for giving me the opportunity to participate as a co teacher with him through this, I have learned so much, this has been invaluable for me.

@Grace we were happy to have you and glad to hear you were able to learn a few new ideas from the experts who joined us. Thanks again to all of you for making the class a success.