Category Archives: blogging
November byte counting – blog stats
November has been a busy month for me. With the end of the year fast upon my I had reports, OTJs and just to add to the madness I also made my sister’s wedding cake which would be difficult at the best of times but she lives in on a different island than me. Thus blogging has been extremely light this month with not much time for posting and thus less people reading.
I was surprised to see a sudden spike for a post I wrote back in May, however given the topic was on the dire shortage of teaching jobs and this being hiring season I suppose the two go together.
Right on to the stats.
Posts: 7 (doh!)
Comments: 25
Page Loads: 5350 (178 hits a day)
Biggest day: October 14 (178 hits)
Most commented on post: Has twitter killed the art of blog commenting?
Top five posts:
- Too many teachers, not enough jobs547
- Should students call teachers by their first names?351
- Are teachers born or made?161
- New Zealand Registered Teacher Criteria – E portfolio130
- Weekly Reflection: What is 21st century assessment?119
Top five referrers
- Search engines
- Reflective Teacher
- Gathering the evidence
Coming up in December
Holidays!
Edutourism
Previous byte counting:
October
September
August
July
June
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
Has twitter killed the art of blog commenting?
Image used under creative commons licence.
As a blogger there’s nothing I love blog comments. Short comments saying ‘right on,’ long rambly comments tearing apart my arguments, thoughtful comments, comments with links, comments from friends, comments from people I’ve never met.
The comments section is what makes blogging so addictive.
Through commenting I’ve struck up friendships and often use the comment section on other people’s blogs for inspirations for my own posts. Commenting takes your thoughts and ideas to whole new level.
Yet these days, my posts don’t seem to gather as many comments. To be fair my writing is a bit flat these days, yet I’ll often have people retweet or respond to a post on twitter which leads me to wonder.
Has twitter killed the art of blog commenting?
Could social media channels like twitter and facebook be killing blogging?
Certainly there’s a lot more outlets competing for my online attention since I first took up blogging in 2003.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who can spend hours clicking through wikipedia entries, I literally wake up in the morning and check my Twitter feed. Facebook, although not as addictive as it was in the early days, has its uses and I’m getting mildly obsessed with pinterest. All these social media channels for content leaves less time to respond thoughtfully to content.
A lazy retweet here, a like, a repin.
While content may be the catalyst, it’s the conversations by the community that often make the content. Maybe it’s just me, but Twitter seems to be taking more of the conversations from the initial blog and making them 140-character bites.
I’ve seen some amazing posts be tweeted, and the conversation remain on Twitter. Points and questions raised in the post start the conversation rolling, but instead of via the comments section on a blog, they take place in the little blue bird’s nest.
There’s nothing wrong with this. After all, Twitter is the king of instant feedback and interaction.
Nevertheless I can’t help but wonder if the limitations of 140-characters are leading to less thoughtful reactions to blogging. Imagine how opposing views could be better fleshed out without the word limit. Comments serve as inspiration for other posts, a way to build community which make blogging so engaging.
Of course, you could say that it’s down to the blogger to make the content as open as possible, to encourage discussion – and this is true. Yet at the same time, maybe we as reader need to take part more as well? Maybe we need to encourage bloggers by being part of their community, as opposed to lazily sharing content on our social media channels.
There are a myriad of ways for conversations to take place. Sometimes little snapshots like Twitter and Pintrest are ideal, if you’re pressed for time.
But isn’t it nice to give proper feedback beyond a pin, a like, a retweet?
October Byte counting – blog stats
Huge month for traffic on the blog this month – the biggest ever. I wrote a bit more this month but am still struggling to find time to write content. Hopefully this will get better in the future (yes I know I’ve said that a lot this year). Interestingly I’m starting to get a lot of traffic from people looking for requirements for being a registered teacher in New Zealand which I think is very interesting given the recent debates in the public media.
Anyway.
On to the stats.
Posts: 9
Comments: 25
Page Loads: 6,180 (199 hits a day)
Biggest day: October 14 (374 hits)
Most commented on post: Proud to be a part of Teachers & Social Media
Top five posts
- New Zealand Registered Teacher Criteria E-portfolio (570 hits)
- Should students call teachers by their first names? (368 hits)
- Too many teachers, not enough jobs (365 hits)
- Keeping the MAGIC of #ulearn12 going – 5 tips for newbies to twitter (202 hits)
- How ditching the desks turned my classroom into a 21st century learning space (163 hits)
Top Referrers
- Search Engines
- Reflective Teacher
- WordPress
- Google Reader
Coming up in November
Another round of OTJs
Reports
Winding down for the year
Previous byte counting:
August
July
June
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
How do I get people to visit to my blog? – SEO strategy for newbies
Top 5 Referrers to Teaching the Teacher
Starting a blog can be exciting. You’re brimming with all these fantastic ideas for posts, you are publishing regularly and then you look down out your visitor counter and realize that nobody is reading your work.
Ouch.
It seems like all those hours you’ve spent writing your posts and designing your site has gone to waste. After all what’s the point of publishing to the world if the world isn’t interested in what you’ve got to say?
Before you give up on blogging, there are some things you can do to increase your readership. The first is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Most of my traffic comes from search engines directing people to my blog. If you want to know about say requirements for being a Professional Teacher in New Zealand I’m the top result after New Zealand Teachers Council (which is both terrifying and awesome at the same time). Teachers going by first name there I am again popping up in the first few hits.
There’s an entire industry that’s built up around SEO marketing and consulting that sell products which they say will get you to the top of the search engine. 90% of it is utter rubbish.
Google’s algorithms are smart, and they reward sites that consistently produce original content.
There are a couple of other small things you can do to increase your blogs attractiveness to search engine.
- Use WordPress
- Write your title thinking about what people might type into search engine to find it e.g tips for twitter newbies
- Give descriptions for any picture posts/video linkages
But really attracting visitors from search engines is simple. Produce original content people can’t find elsewhere.
Proud to be a part of Teachers & Social Media
Image used under creative commons licence
It’s been a long time in the making but Teachers & Social Media has finally been launched. As I alluded to back in February, I was asked by Teachers Council to sit on the reference group for the project. It’s been really interesting to be involved in the development of this resource but what’s been the hardest has been not blogging and tweeting about the project.
Bloggers love to share and keeping this experience quiet has taken a fair bit of willpower.
But now that the site has been launched, I am relatively free to write on the topic.
To say I was surprised to get an email asking me if I was interested in contributing to the project was a bit of an understatement. After all being a first year teacher what could I have to offer? However, I have rambled and ranted about social media use a lot on this blog. So what I lack in teaching experience, I more than make up in opinions on the subject teachers’ use of Social Media. It felt really satisfying to know that my work my actually influence people’s thinking on this topic.
Although the experience was great to be part of there were multiple times where I wondered why on earth I add extra workload into my first year of teaching. And yes there were some emails that sat in my inbox for waaaay too long while projects in the classroom took my attention. Nevertheless, I’m proud of what the awesome people at Teachers Council have produced and happy to be associated with the final outcome.
My participation in the project got me thinking.
Does being connected help get you recognized?
This is a difficult subject to writing about without being labelled as being smug, arrogant, conceited , or even all three but here goes.
Because the more I think about it, I simply wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be part of this project if I didn’t have a social media presence. I’m sure the cynics out there would go ‘well duh it’s a social media reference group of course they need a few social media junkies.’
But when I look back on my experience of finding a teaching job, something that is really tough in today’s market, my social media presence meant I secured a permanent position relatively quickly.
When I look at so many of the ideas that I’ve implemented in the classroom, they’ve come through social media.
When I look at the submission project in particular so much of what made the project effective, simply wouldn’t have happened without me being out there participating in social media.
I see such an immense value in being connected to not only other members of the global profession but also to wider society. And these connections have opened up opportunities not just for me but more importantly for my students.
Popular media stories of teachers using social media are almost always all bad. Career-ending tweets and the ever-present concerns about cyber-bullying. I’m not saying that these issues aren’t serious and shouldn’t be worthy of consideration. However this fear is also holding back innovation. Because being connected is an opportunity for me as a teacher to learn and maintain relevance with the ever-changing world.
Perhaps the Teachers & Social resource might actually change the course of our conversations in social media in education away from the risk of being connected towards more the risks in not being connected.
On the way home of my student submitters remarked, that the experience is something that the wanted to mention when they apply for a job.
To me this was a bit of a eureka moment.
Could social media have the potential to bridge that often-maligned gap between ‘school learning’ and the “real world?’ Could the networks and knowledge that students develop when completing projects become the launching pad for a great career?
I’m not sure of the answer to that question but in the mean time being involved with this particular project has formed a great entry to show how I am meeting the Registered Teacher Criteria.
Byte counting – August Blog stats
Huge month for traffic on the blog this month – the biggest ever. I wrote a bit more this month but am still struggling to find time to write content. Hopefully this will get better in the future (yes I know I’ve said that a lot). Interestingly I’m starting to get a lot of traffic from people looking for requirements for being a registered teacher in New Zealand which I think is very interesting given the recent debates in the public media.
Anyway.
On to the stats.
Posts: 10 (whoop)
Comments: 31
Page Loads: 5,558 (185 hits)
Biggest day:September 23 (391 hits)
Most commented on post: Media school league tables neither National nor Standard
Top five posts
- Should students call teachers by their first names? (411 hits)
- Media school league tables neither National nor Standard (308 hits)
- Too many teachers, not enough jobs (307 hits)
- New Zealand Registered Teacher Criteria (202 hits)
- About (18
Top Referrers
- Search Engines
- Reflective Teacher
- StumbleUpon
Coming up in September
Actual school camp
Previous byte counting:
August
July
June
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
August blog stats
After a few months of promising more blog posts, I finally upped my output and ended up with one of the biggest months readership wise on the blog. Though it all came down to throwing out desks.
Posts: 9
Comments: 31
Page Loads: 5,380 (174 hits)
Biggest day: August 23 (403 hits)
Most commented on post: How ditching the desks turned my classroom into a modern learning space
Top five posts
- How ditching the desks turned my classroom into a 21st century learning space (785 hits)
- Should students call teachers by their first names? (271 hits)
- Why #wordpress is better than blogspot (256 hits)
- Too many teachers, not enough jobs (178 hits)
- My verbal submission to the inquiry on 21st century learning (150 hits)
Top Referrers
- Search Engines
- Reflective Teacher
- WordPress.com
Coming up in September
Barcamps and Padcamps
Previous byte counting:
July
June
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
July blog stats – 60,000 hits
Yep still a bad blogger. It’s not that I haven’t had things to blog about and I have an increasing number of posts hanging around in draft form. At some point I will stop moaning about workload.
I hope.
Well onto blogging stats.
Posts: 6 (slightly better)
Comments: 24
Page Loads: 4,170 (135 hits per day)
Biggest day: July 10 (245 hits)
Most commented on post: How I built a culture of reading in my classroom
Top five posts
- Are teachers born or made? 296 hits
- How I built a culture of reading in my classroom 294 hits
- Why #wordpress is better than blogspot 266 hits
- Is Teaching a Creative Profession? 185 hits
- Should students call teachers by their first names 179 hits
Top Referrers
- Search Engines
- Reflective Teacher
- Google Reader
Coming up in August
Lots of teaching and more learning to make a difference.
Previous byte counting:
June
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
Blog stats June
Is it that the time already? April marked two big blog monuments. This blog has surpassed 50,000 hits last saturday and I’ve now published my 200 post. The 200th post was the text to my ignition talk Aborted Landings, Airsick Bags and… Teaching? My post rate has definitely gone down in the last month or two. I’m hoping that I might be able to do more over the next few months as I find so much to rant about but just do not have the time.
Posts: 8
Comments: 30
Page Loads: 4,349 (169 hits per day)
Biggest day: April 12( 145 hits)
Most commented on post: Tips for surviving your first term of teaching*
Why #wordpress is better than blogspot 230
Are teachers born or made? 219
Should students call teachers by their first names? 201
Why we shouldn’t be celebrating a ‘return’ to the status quo 112
Let them use Crayons? #eduignite #welly 106
Top Referrers
- Search engines
- Google Reader
- Gathering the evidence
Coming up in May
Graduation, a few how to posts and perhaps some renewed blogging mojo.
Previous byte counting:
April
March
February
January
November
October
September
August
July
Mid-January through to end of June
Setting up individual student blogs using google apps (Part 2)
Blogger FTW!
Most blogging platforms including blogger will let you have multiple authors on individual blogs and set up multiple blogs with one account. On reflection this is probably the best way to set up blogs you set up the blogs and invite kids to join rather than vice versa. Some of my kids have set up other blogs but their main school one is the one I set up to them.
Log into google and then into google and hit ‘create blog’ decide which template to use and then hit ‘create blog.’ Congratulations, you have created your blog. My first blog was just a sample blog that I played around with before setting the kids up with theirs.
Once you’ve created the blog, hit on the name and then click on layout. In this area you’ll be able to decide which kind of widgets you want for your students blogs. The ’Follow this blog by email’ widget is useful for family members who might not have google accounts to get blog updates. My students really liked being able to follow their classmates blogs but google has plenty on offer and there are more on the internet. A word of caution, too many widgets makes your blog harder to read so be judicious with the number of widget you add. Be sure to save your arrangement and view your blog before the next step.
Once you’ve finished, hit save in the top right hand corner then hit template on the tabs along the side and hit the grey edit html button. You’ll get a message warning you about editing this document but hit proceed. Once you are there, hit orange save template. This file will act as a template when you are setting up your student blogs so save the file somewhere you can find it.
Now you are ready to create your first student blog.
Go back to the blogger dashboard and hit create blog. Name and address the blog and then choose a template. Hit on the name of the blog and then hit the settings tab on the side bar and then the other tab. Click on import blog link and you will come up with the dialogue box. At this point you will need to find that file you just downloaded. You might get a message saying that you are deleting widgets. Don’t worry that’s fine. Your student blog should now look like your sample blog. Make sure you hit save settings.
Other setting that need to be changed on every blog before you hand it over to the students.
Comments
Hit on ‘post and comments’ under the settings tab. Decide on who you want to be able to comment on the blog. As a lot of parents don’t have google accounts, anyone can comment on the kids blogs. For comment moderation, I’ve gone the route where posts are open for 14 days without moderation. This usually stops spammers but allows for easy access for parents. You should also add a comment message reminding the reader about good commenting practices.
Emailing options
You still need to be monitoring the blog commenting sections which easily done by hitting the ‘mobile and email’ tab and then putting your email in the comment notification section. You can also be notified of new posts by putting your email here. You might also want to use this box for notifications to the child’s parents of new posts for them to view. Make sure that you hit save settings before you leave the page.
Alright let’s get the kids on board!
Hit on the basic under settings tab. Then hit on ‘add author’ and send an invite to the child’s email. The child will then get an email asking them to contribute to their blog. The child has to click on the link they receive and then may be asked to set up a blogger account. All they have to do is type in their name as a username and accept the terms and conditions and they are ready to start blogging.
Personalizing blogs
My students are Year 7/8 so being able to personalize their blogs was an important part of this process. During lunchtime my kids had the opportunity to take part in a ‘beautify my blog’ session where they could change the colours and fonts of their blogs. This was important for them to gain ownership over their blogs. To do this you have to grant the students admin rights. Simply click on their name and hey presto the kids have admin rights on their blogs. I let my students have a week of admin rights on their blog to personalize it. If the blogs become unreadable either have a quick fiddle or just import the template file you downloaded earlier.
I would recommend that the teacher stay as the admin on the blog as this creates a level of protection including shutting down the blog or limiting viewership if the need arises. You can also delete comments as administrator which is important if inappropriate comments are posted to the blog.
