Ms. Carden’s Juniors Reflect on the Classroom Blogging Experience

In August, The Unquiet Library helped Ms. Carden establish class blogs for her American Literature/Composition classes and introduced the concept of classroom blogging to her junior students. Two of her juniors reflect on how the classroom blogging experience is working for them:

Why Student Blogging Matters: Social Media for Real World Research

Ms. Lester, I, and one of our students, Nolan, were thrilled that a real world expert took time to respond to one of Nolan’s blog posts. Nolan, who is researching the latest advances in military prosthetics, received a gracious and helpful comment with suggested research information sources to one of his posts from Troy A. Turner, Research Portfolio Manager for Advanced Prosthetics & Human Performance with the U. S.Army Medical Research & Material Command Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center in Maryland. Nolan, I, and Ms. Lester are hoping to arrange either a class Skype interview with Mr. Turner or an e-interview in April. These kinds of meaningful and authentic connections are exactly what Ms. Lester and I envisioned a year ago when we first began thinking about our collaborative learning project and plan for our students.

Here are Nolan’s thoughts on receiving feedback and information from a real-world expert via his blog:

Readergirlz Winter Blog Blast 2008!

Readergirlz is ushering in the winter season with a blizzard of blogging!  Surf over to the Readergirlz blog to see which of your favorite YA lit authors will be blogging and when/where they are scheduled to blog!  It’s a flurry of blogging fun, so get a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the blogging fun!

readergirlz: 2008 Winter Blog Blast Tour Schedule

Sarah Dessen 2.0!

Sarah Dessen, a Peach Book nominated author, is one of the most popular writers at The Unquiet Library!  Take a look at her great website, which links you to her blog and discussion forum!  You can also follow Sarah on Twitter!  These web 2.0 resources are wonderful for giving you a firsthand account of how writers like Sarah go about honing their craft and giving you a way to keep up with your favorite authors.

home | Sarah Dessen via kwout

Twitter / sarahdessen via kwout

Simon Pulse Blogfest Is Underway! Get Bloggin’!

Just a reminder—the Simon Pulse Blogfest has kicked off!  Here is a short synopsis about this landmark event that arrived in my “inbox” yesterday from the organizers of this great blogfest!

“It’s here! Our first annual Simon Pulse Blogfest launches today, giving you the chance to watch more than 100 of your favorite teen authors come together on a single jam-packed blog for 2 weeks, answering fan questions. We previously solicited questions from teens and chose 14 great ones, with the authors addressing one question every day!You can come on the blog and post your own responses to any entries as well. Please note – your own responses won’t show up immediately, as for safety purposes we are moderating the blog. But any posts that don’t contain inappropriate language or personal information WILL go up! Not all authors will be able to respond to your posts – many authors are touring and on the road, and aren’t able to check back to see the responses to their entries – but other authors will be joining in and answering back. And we’ll make sure all authors get printouts of any comments you leave about any of their entries, so they know your thoughts!So head on over to www.PulseBlogfest.com to watch the fun! Click here to read the rules first before posting your own comments, but after that, dive in and have a blast. And in case you can’t always stop by the website every day (we’ll have new entries going up every HOUR) be sure to visit our downloads area for a screensaver you can have on your desktop that pulls the blogfest directly into it!

The fun kicks off today with a question submitted by Dana, who asks our authors: “What would you be doing if you hadn’t made it as a writer?”

Just a handful of the authors posting over the next few days include:

Holly Black Julie Hearn Staton Rabin Judy Blume Karol Ann Hoeffner David Randall Jennifer Bradbury Nancy Holder Deborah Reber Kate Brian Ellen Hopkins Randi Reisfeld Teri Brown James Howe Kristopher Reisz Linda Buckley-Archer Jeffry W. Johnston Ashley Rhodes-Courter