Welcome

Welcome to our class blog. This will be our space to discuss mathematics. There are a few basic guidelines to posting online. First, read this post from another blog about personal branding and the internet. Remember the blogging is a very public activity and your writing may be read by anyone on the internet- for as long as it exists. So, please be sure to use your first name only, and do not use a photo of yourself. If you like, you may use an image of something to represent you but that is not you (an avatar).

After each class, the scribe will post a synopsis of the day's events (Scribe Post). A student at another school described the role of a scribe as this:

A scribe post is basically like you are teaching the class again, but this time in your words in a way that other people can understand it. You can also recap other important things that we talk about in class (like Pi Day) so that if someone was away in our class, they would know what they missed. Also don't forget that when you scribe, you get the power to choose the next scribe.

You will also use this blog to post your revision questions before a unit test revision (Revision), and you may make a posting to share at any time (On My Mind).

Your contributions to the class blog consist of a quiz grade (rubric on the class website). To ensure that you receive credit for your contributions, please ensure that any post you make has exactly three labels:

1. Your first name.
2. The unit of study, e.g. Functions
3. The type of post: either Scribe Post, Reflection, or On My Mind.

Below are some guidelines for student bloggers that another teacher, Bud Hunt, came up with:

Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.

Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.

Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.

Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.

To kick us off, add a brief comment to this post- thoughts or additions to the above discussion of privacy and blogging.

Note: This blogging model is courtesy of Darren Kuropatwa.