I post blogging prompts often using images from flickr.

Students post reflections on their learning.

I had students do a Muddiest Point exercise on the blog once.

I occasionally post blogging prompts. Not using images from flickr often enough.

Students post reflections on their learning.

We've done a few Muddiest Point exercises.

I've been more explicit about ethical blogging and internet use.

Students post links to reviews and other learning resources in the del.icio.us boxes.

Students (and occasionally me) interact in the chatboxes. They often help each other out with homework.

Students write a scribe post for each class every day — this has morphed into them essentially writing the textbook for the class in their own words.

My AP Calculus class is using blogs to write their own digital story.

Students have the option of writing an acrostic instead of a Blogging on Blogging reflective post.

Students have the option of editing the textbook instead of writing a reflective post — this is another way to get them to reflect on their learning. ;-)

I've used the blog to have the students communicate with a substitute teacher before a class I was away from.

I've also used the blog to give an online class when I was away.

I've got them learning problem solving by playing games I post to the blog each Sunday.

Just before the holiday break I added a Visitor Map to each blog.

Each class made a podcapsule at the end of the semester.

I posted blogging prompts even less frequently; another mistake. Again, not using images from flickr often enough.

Students post reflections on their learning. The Pre-Cal 40S students started calling these posts BOBs. I like that. The name is sticky. I've become more explicit about having the kids write their BOBs a few days before their unit tests: "If you do it the night before you'll get your one mark for doing it. But if you post your BOB a few nights before the test then I'll specifically address the issues you raise. You'll pick up a whole bunch of other marks that you otherwise would have missed because you didn't get the answers you needed to the questions that you have."

No Muddiest Points. Another type of post to be sure to include next semester.

I continue to be explicit about ethical blogging and internet use. About a week into the semester I went around the class and had each student vocalize their agreement to honour the guidelines I had posted on the blog and confirm that each individual had read them.

Students post links to reviews and other learning resources in the del.icio.us boxes.

Students (and occasionally me) interact in the chatboxes. They often help each other out with homework.

Students write a scribe post for each class every day (except test days). I have told the students the expectation is for them to collaboratively distribute the work involved in writing the textbook for the course.

My AP Calculus class finished their digital story: The Prince of Calculand. I'm anticipating a larger class next year and fully expect this assignment to grow into a more impressive learning tool. I'm still struggling with how to adapt this to my other classes. The main obstacle is time. The AP Calculus course runs all year. My other classes are only a semester long. Maybe it should be an optional project? But then what would the option be for kids who don't participate? Should it just be a bonus assignment? Still thinking about this ...

I continue to post interactive games to the blog each Sunday in an effort to help students learn problem solving. This tapered off as we approached the exam period.

Visitor Maps have become an essential feature of the class blogs vis a vis making the students aware of their global audience. I plan to be a little more Machiavellian about this for next year. I will create visitor maps and install the code for them on next year's class blogs this week. The links will be invisible. They will accumulate (random) hits over the summer holiday. I will reveal the links about the third week of class in September. Instant sense of audience. Although this may seem contrived I know that they will have a very real audience once they start blogging. As a matter of fact I hope to make their families a greater part of that audience. More on that another day.

I have also become more conscious of using this blog (A Difference) to invite people from around the world to leave my students comments when they're up to something impressive. Thank you to all of you who found the time to drop in on my classes and leave them an encouraging comment or two.

On February 21, 2006 all the class blogs went multilingual. I added the functionality of language translation tools. This sparked some interest amongst the parents although that was mostly to say that the Tagalog language translation was very bad. The kids really liked it though.

The quality of the student's scribe posts soared to such heights that Lani Ritter-Hall suggested in a comment to one of them that there should be a Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. I built a wiki to house it. This spurred the kids on to even greater heights. I included information in The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame for teachers who want to incorporate scribe posts into their own class blogs. (If you do, please contribute your students best work to The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame wiki. It will benefit your kids and mine.) Chris Harbeck was so taken with the idea of the Hall of Fame that he created one for his classes to house the best of their Growing Posts. Check out his Growing Post Hall Of Fame.

I've invited people to be mentors to my students via their class blogs. While a few people nibbled at the idea Lani Ritter-Hall jumped in with both feet and, as I've mentioned here before, she has been an outstanding mentor and an inspiration to me and my students. Lani, I can't thank you enough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm wondering if there are any retired teachers who read this blog who might be interested in participating on my class blogs in this way next year. If you or anyone you know might be please let me know.

I've used the blog to post more pdf/jpg files. Some are homework assignments, some have been solutions to the homework assignments.

All my Applied Math 40S students were required to sign up for ThinkFree Office, irows.com and Writely accounts.

I installed a Feed Window on the AP Calculus blog (scroll down to bottom right-hand corner). The feed is from another AP Calculus class here in Winnipeg; Ms. German. (see below)

Thinking about wikis and watching how Ms. German had her students use their blog sparked my creation of wiki solution manuals for each of my classes. (see my upcoming post: My PLE - Wikis)

We created podcapsules again. This time I incorporated the use of Vaestro as an audio commenting tool. This was the first use of Vaestro on the class blogs. I expect it will weave its way into all the blogs in some form next year.