Be a CopyCat: Reblogging - Classroom Blogging Tip

Be a copy cat!

Teachers in our school have begun blogging this year.  Many are classroom teachers who use their blog as a way to communicate with parents.  

Our specialists are blogging too - and it's time for us to help get their message out!  Many of them do not have one specific group of parents subscribed to their blog, and that's where you come in.

Reblog.

Post parts of their content to your blog, so that your parents see it.

This must be done correctly, so that you are not actually plagiarizing their work and claiming it as your own.  Rather, view this as your chance to promote a colleague's content, get important information to your parents, and give credit to the person who wrote it.  (Plus, let's be honest, it gives you a great blog post with little or no work to be done.)

How will I know when my colleagues post great things?

Subscribe to their blogs.  Subscribe by email (type in your email at their web site), or by using a site such as Feedly where you can see all the blogs at once, and view who has updated.

This way, you will always know when they update.

I think my parents would benefit from a colleague's post.  How can I reblog?

Go to your colleague's web site and highlight a portion of the post.  Right-click on the highlighted words, and choose "Copy".  Start a new post on your blog.  Right-click in the empty space, and choose "Paste".  Their content shows up.

If the author of the blog has given you express permission, feel free to reblog the entire post.  If not, simply quote a small section of the post to get your parents interested, but do not copy and paste the entire post.

Before you publish, please remember to give the original author credit, both at the beginning and end of your post.  Insert a short paragraph at the beginning of your post, saying that the following post was originally published on your colleague's blog, and include the web address of their blog.  Be sure to put the link to their site again at the end.

Please click here to find a list of colleagues blogs, and subscribe now.

In this way we can all collaborate to reach parents and help our school community become more connected!