I often speak about the Rover Reporter activity from my fifth grade classroom. One student each day was assigned to be the reporter. That student took photos and wrote an article about the day on his or her handheld. I would publish the photos and article the very next day on The Daily Planet web page. Read more about this activity in an article I wrote and at Education World.

Samiekay Hartney, a fifth grade teacher from Granite Falls, Washington, recently wrote me:

I took your blogging and podcasting classes at the NCCE conference. I used your Daily Planet idea to get the kids excited to personalize our blog. Instead we came up with a class mascot who has a digital camera, flash drive and extra batteries in a backpack he travels in. He is currently visiting the kids’ homes having a blast. I feel this is strengthening the kids’ voice and style in their writing. The audience is loving it too. I went with this idea instead of yours to help the kids realize how easy it is to transfer files from home to school. I am also using our blog to excite the kids to respond to ordinary classroom questions in various subjects. I am trying to align the questions to our state assessment. Thank you for your ideas and teachings. It inspired me. I think the kids are very excited about our blog.

What a great idea! Assuming each child has a computer at home (Internet not necessary for this project), the flash drive can store the document for the teacher to access at school. The flash drive could also hold free word processing software if needed. Extra batteries are an important little detail that Samiekay did not overlook. Jump on over to the C7 Chatterbugs blog to read Mrs. Hartner's fifth graders' blog and to see lots of photos of Jo-Jo, the class mascot. Also note the comments for each post. Isn't web publishing grand??!

Labels: blogging