C4K Summary for February

C4K #1

Sosaia is a fifth grade student at Point England School in New Zealand. His most recent blog was posted on February 7th. It was about his trip to Tonga. I looked on Google Maps to see where Tonga was, and as you can see in my picture, it's a very tiny island just north of New Zealand. I gathered in his post that he went to see family because when him and his family landed, he saw is auntie and uncle. He said at the beginning of his post that he was cold on the way to the airport, but in Tonga he got in the ocean. He did say it was a "bit cold" when he went swimming, but it sounds like it was a nice vacation.
My comment:
"Hi Sosaia! I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the United States. I am doing a blog post on comments for kids around the world. I was lucky enough to be assigned to your blog this week! Your trip to Tonga sounds like it was fun. I have never been on an airplane before. Was it scary? I looked up Tonga on a map to find out where it was because I have never heard of it. Traveling to see family is always a fun thing to do. Did you go on this trip for Christmas? It was nice visiting your blog. You are doing a better job at blogging than I am! You can view my summary of this on my blog at http://willoughbycarlyedm310.blogspot.com/ It will be posted by March 4th. Enjoy blogging and good luck in school!!"

C4K #2

Hannah is a fourth grade student at Leopold Primary in Victoria, Australia. I commented on her blog 2011 Edublog Awards. She gave a link to the Edublog Awards website, and it "is a community based incentive started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media." This was quoted from Edublog's Website. Hannah's post is her nominations for the Edublog Awards.
My comment:
"Hello Hannah! I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the United States. I have been assigned to comment on your blog for this week. I will be publishing a summary of your post on my blog in the first week of March. My blog is Carly Willoughby's EDM310 Blog. I have never heard of the Edublog Awards before, so I used your link to visit their website. It sounds like a very good way to inspire students to do a good job on their blogs. Does it motivate you to make a good blog so you will be nominated? I might have my future students use this website to nominate their fellow classmates. Your blog is very organized and all of your links look really good. You use color and size to show your headings. Keep up the good blogging and good luck in school!!"

C4K #3

This week I commented on Royce's blog Amazing Things You Find in Nature. This blog was very well written. There were tons of pictures with illustrations. He had taken pictures of quail and deer in his back yard! I couldn't imagine seeing either of those animals near my dorm room or my house back home. He also posted pictures of a "math leaf". This was interesting because I have never seen that before either. It was a leaf with different colors as it's "numerator and denominator". This blog was very interesting to read and I enjoyed commenting on it.
My comment:
"Hello Royce! I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I will be summarizing your post on my EDM 310 class blog. I enjoyed seeing pictures of animals other than cats and dogs I have as pets. I am from the city so I never see animals. I will occasionally see a ground squirrel when I go visit my grandparents' house. I bet you enjoy being able to learn about those different creatures as they appear in your back yard. That leaf is pretty cool. I've never heard of a fraction leaf before so you have taught me something new! I hope I will be able to use things like that in my future classroom to get my students excited about learning in an outside environment. Check out My Blog and comment anytime! Keep working hard and enjoy school! Sincerely, Carly Willoughby"

C4K #4

"Cookie" is a fifth grade student in Iowa, and their blog post Why kids should get cell phones is exactly what it says it is about. They bring up some excellent points. They did their research and said, "According to www.missingindiakids.com, 2,185 kids get lost a day." This is a substantial amount, and they said if kids who got lost have a cell phone, they could call for help. They also say that a child could call 911 if they see an accident or a robbery and could save lives. This is a very valid point. Their final point was that it could be used to keep in contact with friends, family, and emergency services.
My comment:
"Hello! I am Carly Willoughby, and I'm a student at the University of South Alabama. I will be summarizing this blog post on my blog tonight. You did a great job giving points for why you think kids should have cell phones. They would be able to call 911, get help if they get lost, or connect with friends. These are great points! I personally don't think kids should have a cell phone unless they have to go somewhere by themselves. However, if kids do get cell phones, I believe there should be some limits. Like it should cut off at a certain time at night so the kid doesn't get woken up by it and not get sleep. If it has internet access there should be a parental guide so they could not access something he/she doesn't need to be looking at. I think the parents/guardians should closely monitor the cell phone to make sure the kid isn't doing anything they shouldn't be or talking to people they don't know. All of these things could lead to dangerous results. I believe that is why many kids do not have cell phones. Your post has got me thinking more about allowing my future children to have a limited cell phone in case of emergencies. Thank you for bringing up these good points. Keep up the good work on your blog, and good luck in school!"