The preparation

Yesterday, I did some preparation work for the blog project.

First, I created a yahoo group for the class called "113班聯絡簿". Any instructions or discussions about how to carry out this project will be posted here.

Second, I created three blogs for this project. The first one is the main page, called Newsroom 113 (http://newsroom113.blogspot.com/), for linkng students blogs. The second one is Teacher's Journal (http://teachersjournal.blogspot.com/), where I can log the progress of the project. The third one is called Ching-ching(http://ckshchingching.blogspot.com/), which can serve as an example or one of the participant blogs.

The first day instructions

I will be teaching the juniors during the next school year. I plan to ask my students to prepare for the upcoming blog projects before school starts at the end of August. Tomorrow when I meet them at the orientation, I will give them a to-do list so that they have something to work on during the last days of their most carefree summer vacation.

First, I asked them to open a yahoo account so that they can sign up for the yahoo group which I have already started. The group, called 113班聯絡簿(http://tw.club.yahoo.com/clubs/Class_113_Log/), will serve as a class bulletin board or problem-solving front desk for this project. The discussions held there can either be in Chinese or English. Students can post any questions concering this project. Students are asked to post a self-introduction without giving out thier real names, and they can respond to the messages. This activitiy will be sort of an ice-breaking activity for the new class as well as a warm-up for the project.

Second, each student will send me a message from the e-mail account that he uses most often, so that I can collect their email addresses for future contacts.

Third, they will go to the Blogger website to create a blog of their own. I gave them specific instructions about how to create a blog title. Each student's blog title will start with "class113", then "the seat number", and finally the English name or a preferred web identity. For example, if a student's seat number is #50, and his web identity is Tomcat, then the title of his blog will be "class11350Tomcat". I ask them to do this in the hope that it will be easier for me to keep track of thier blogs in the future.

Fourth, I asked each student to send me a message with his blog address once his own blog is created, so that I can link his blog to the main page of the blog project.

Fianllly I upload the instructions, called "The First Day Instructions", to my GeoCities website(http://www.geocities.com/liu_chingching/Firstdayinstructions.doc), which is listed in the students handout too. Every handout or information will be collected and oploaded to my geocities website for future references.