A host of bloggers from around the world have taken up the 31 Day Comment Challenge to work on becoming better blog citizens.
One of the goals of the 31 Day Comment Challenge is to improve commenting skills and draw more people into blog conversations. To get a better picture of blog commenting skills and strategies, bloggers were asked to answer the following questions:
• How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?
• Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?
• Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?
I think this is a great exercise to become a better blogger and I’ll be responding to the questions later today.
For now, a few comments. Since I started blogging a few months ago, I’ve confined my reading to the blogs listed on my sidebar (currently 11 teacher blogs and 28 educational policy blogs) as well as a few others set up in my aggregator relating to some other areas of interest, like South Dakota politics, photography, and church. I add a few now-and-then, and prune a few back occasionally.
The reality for me is that I only have a finite amount of time each day to read and comment. That being said, I know I can go a long way on becoming a better commenter.
As a start, here’s a handful of the edupolicy blogs I’m following — the blogs that I plan to do a better job commenting on — and a summary of the site or blogger:
Eduwonk
Andrew Rotherham is co-founder and co-director of Education Sector, an independent national education policy think tank. Rotherham, who Washingtonian Magazine describes as being “at the forefront of U.S. education policy,” is also a member of the Virginia Board of Education.
American School Board Journal (ASBJ)
Education magazine published monthly by the National School Boards Association.
Associated School Boards of South Dakota
All the local in-state juicy stuff relating to education. This is an everything-goes no-holds-barred blogsite.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that represents superintendents, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members.
Core Knowledge
Discussion about core knowledge in education.
Education Week’s NCLB II
Education Week reporter writes on K-12 issues primarily relating to No Child Left Behind.
More to come later —