Thing #4

Commenting on other people's blogs is a great way to create a community because it allows other readers to gain a sense of who you are, and who others are that follow the same topic. I found it important to make sure that you are commenting from a profile rather than anonymously, so that you can get more traffic directed back to your own blog. I also found it important to criticize kindly. It's ok to criticize or question the topic but it has to be don in a kind and constructive manner.

Within our student community I commented on Rachel Lichtenberger's blog, agreeing that the mash ups on the Flicker discovery project were hard to navigate at first. I commented on Hanna Mann's blog, she found a wonderful tool using Web 2.0 called Resumup. I appreciated her discovery of such a wonderful resource for reaching your career goals. My comment on Haley Cauthen's blog was in agreement that Flicker didn't seem to serve much purpose in the classroom setting. On Elizabeth Howell's blog, I let her know that she had a terrific idea of using her blog to share her student's art work with parent's that are in the military and separated by distance. I also thought Markesha McCombs' idea on using her blog for an answer and question board would be beneficial for all parties involved.

For blogs outside of our group I commented on "The Crafty Teacher Lady" blog, she had a post on technology that would be useful for teachers. I commented on the fact that I had never heard of a text message service that will send students a reminder on homework and projects. Everything comes directly from this service and does not allow the students to do a return text. I found this to be quite useful, especially with the way children use text messaging these days.

I also commented on "The Positive Writer" blog, he had a post on seven inspirational quotes that could change your life. I commented on his recommendation he made for a book called, "The Power of Positive Thinking," I have read the book also and found it to be very inspirational.