I know, I know, I am a day late with this post in recognition of BlogDay but hey, as they say , “better late than never!” I actually did start it yesterday so I’ll just look at it as finishing up today! Here goes!
I like the idea of recommending other blogs. That’s something I do a lot of anyway. So today I thought I’d recommend some of the blogs I read that I find intriguing for reasons other than my usual focus on kids in the classroom who are involved with blogging. These blogs are ones I thoroughly enjoy for a variety of reasons. You can’t go wrong adding any of them to your current reads.
blethers - The author of this blog is Christine McIntosh from Dunoon, Argyll, United Kingdom. She describes herself as a former English teacher on the loose. She is quite a writer and has a quick wit and blogs about so many interesting things that are not always on my radar. I learn a lot. In addition she is a photographer with an eye for unique shots. Her pictures have been the focus of many of my students’ creative writing ventures. They love her pictures, as I do.Here’s a great bonus for you on this recogniton of Chris as a fine blogger – she has two sons who have great blogs too. (Okay, boys thank your good mother who you know deserves a lot of credit for your good works!) Ewan McIntosh’s edu.blogs.com and Neil McIntosh’s Complete Tosh are excellent blogs.
I love the concept of this blog. Here and There Japan is written by a former English and reading teacher in the United States, Malaysia, and Japan. She spends her time taking pictures and writing about things they see, use, and do in their daily life in Japan. Her tagline says “snapshots of life in Japan, written especially for kids. It is a delightful blog and one that my elementary students and myself have spent lots of moments enjoying as we read, and view the fascinating pictures. I wish others would make similar blogs. Think how much we could learn about different countries and the journey is so much fun! So consider doing something like this for your country. She also screens her comments and welcomes them but wants to make sure they are kid-friendly so that is a great feature as you can be sure that all is “kid-safe”. Links are also provided to favorite children’s books about Japan.
goldengod iis a blog I came across when I was searching for images. The author is Andrew Ferguson who is a Vancouver photographer. His blog is chocked full of wonderful information and tips on photography. My hope one day is to have time to give to learning more about photography,I really enjoy his posts. They are inspiring. His style of writing appeals to me and I am learning a lot. He lists his top photography blog posts on his side bar. One of my all time favorites is “How to Find Great Free Photos”. I posted about that before here but I continue to find on his blog what I consider to be some of the best tips on the web about photography. Go add this blog to your reading list.
Things My Kids Say is a blog that makes me laugh and it is guaranteed to put me in a good mood for the day. It will touch your heart. This sleep-deprived mother of four from Los Angeles, CA shares pictures and moments from her family’s life. Here are a couple of my favorites, The trash truck is coming! and But I’m not tired!!!. We all have had those moments around our home where the humor and love makes it all so worthwhile. It is really neat to have a peek inside the lives of others who are sharing such good, warm family moments. Plus what a great model for other families to see. I have to disclose here that this blog is from my cousin’s family. I have never met my cousin’s wife f2f but through this blog I feel I know each family member. Now that is really cool, don’t you think? Thanks “sleep-deprived” for sharing those precious and those hysterical moments of your day! I love it!
My final blog is Word. This is the official blog of READ and WRITING magazines and it is just so appealing. It is a literary blog that has lots of writing tips, book reviews, and other tidbits of information. They just celebrated their second birthday. Word also has a My Space page. There are so many good posts on this blog and they lead to lively discussions in our classrooms. The blog features many different authors. I like the clever titles and the variety of subjects. They feature student writing- fiction, non-fiction, and poetry! It includes a spot to submit student writing. I think this is one of the few, if not the only, commercial blogs I have in my aggregator. It’s well worth taking a look.
Thanks for the kind words, Anne! Happy to hear you’re using WORD in the classroom!
You people are making my aggregator too full! I just had to add the “Funny Things Kids Say!” Im in the middle of a huge book weeding process at my school library, and now I realize I need to weed my aggregator too! I also liked the way you gave us screen shots of your picks. I had not seen anyone do that yet, and I honestly thought of doing it too, but didn’t. Thanks for sharing.
Mum always did try to make me read more – and failed. It was the blogosphere that got me reading more and writing more than I ever have done before. Nothing like the encouragement of a mother to keep you on your toes with correct grammar and spelling in posts, though
I have mixed thoughts about this. First, we of course know that not all information on a blog can be deemed reliable. Second, how on earth do you pick the “one†or even “twenty†to recommend? This seems like it would be such a time-consuming task with hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, and not all will have a particular topic for which you are searching – or, it may, but may be in a post 20 pages in. Just a thought. I’m hoping to better understand the whole “blog world†and the bigger blog picture by the end of this semester.
Thanks, Anne – I see Ewan got in ahead of me! I’ll be really cheeky and say that blogging has improved his writing no end…
Hope you might find a use for some of my pics from my Austrian holiday – even if it did turn to winter halfway!
Oh, it’s lovely to see Here and There Japan recognized. I don’t remember how I stumbled across it, but I’m glad I did.
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