Puzzled by How to Write an Effective Blog?
30 Day Blogging Challenge, Blogging Tagged #ksyb, blog, blogs, effective_blog_posts, jigsaw_puzzles, what_makes_effective_blog_posts January 15th, 2011Do you want to write a really great blog that people will love to read?
Just put the pieces of the jigsaw together and YOU can solve the puzzle of how to write an effective blog.
(You can also solve my problem of which jigsaw you like by mentioning your preference in your comment)
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO START
The Edublogs Teacher Challenge task for this week was to discuss the characteristics of effective blog posts.
Let’s see if the blog post I chose for discussion completes the puzzle for you.
Being a newbie to Twitter, I have spent quite a bit of time engaged in following some wonderful educators. One of these is George Couros, who in less than 140 characters, conveys a wealth of leadership qualities, and yet a touch of the human side.
His blog, The Principal of Change aims to help and inspire others to find their passion. (Well that caught my attention!)
His blog post Pockets of Excellence demonstrates some sound blogging techniques.
- The title is short, but catchy . . . I’m interested in the word ‘excellence’, and the word ‘pocket’ to me sounds like it’s small and do-able.
- But the first sentence “I was totally inspired by this video clip last night” was what actually drew me into reading the post.
- Using media (video) to support and illustrate what had inspired him, appeals to visual learners.
- He writes with passion to illustrate something he believes in, using words like . . ‘moved me’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘amazed me’, ‘ALL pulled together’, ‘powerful’, ‘teamwork’ and ‘camaraderie’. . . It also reveals a little of his own personality – his own passion for what he does and his relationship with students and colleagues.
- His style of writing keeps it real by drawing on his own experiences at his school and makes me feel as if he is actually talking to me.
- He supports the points he was making on the importance of ‘community, collaboration and sharing individual gifts’ by making links to two posts about similar amazing celebrations at his school – Identity Day and the Portfolio project.
- The post ends with questions to think about. “How do we make these projects happen more in school? How do we respect the individual gifts and autonomy of teachers while bringing the entire school together in activities such as the one in the video?”
It left me inspired and thinking that we all have a pocket of excellence within us, but when we all step up and share our gifts it has an extremely powerful result.
One final thing . . . the post was not too long, so I also had time to read his previous post People Business . . . . sad, but again, very inspiring!
Thanks to George Couros ‘The Principal of Change’
Note: I made the graphics for the puzzle at Bubbl.us and the puzzles at Jigsaw Planet and Jigzone.
January 15th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Love this! What did you use to create it?
January 16th, 2011 at 3:48 am
Wow! Thanks so much for you kind words. I really appreciate that you used a piece of my writing as an example as this is something that I have really tried to improve of myself over the last year. I am truly honoured
January 16th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Hi Pam
Just touring from the teacher challenge. Your linking didn’t work so I had to google you. It worked as you can see!
Wow fancy you getting the model blogger in to comment. Awesome. I haven’t looked up his blog but you convinced me in your excellent post. Thanks.
Kathryn
New Zealand.
January 16th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Thanks Miss T. I think links are working now – HTML problem. Yes it was great to get a comment from George – he was very quick to add it, I hadn’t even finished post.
January 16th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
I also follow George Couros on Twitter and you are right. He is not only informative, but inspirational.
January 17th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Thanks for a great post, sharing important elements of an effective post. I particularly liked your point, that when a post is not too long, you have time to wander more and read more posts from the same blog. That is quite true. Love the fact that @gcouros commented back. Shows how blogging can lead to great networking and also, great to know that @gcouros has worked on improving his blogging too.
I just loved your jigsaw puzzle. Great added effect to your blog. I was thinking of using something like this for an extension activity, had found a site, promptly lost it but will use the jigsaw tool that you have shared with us. Love this challenge, as there are so many creative posts and great use of tools that may be new to us. Have you used that jigsaw puzzle tool with students? If so, how did it go?
January 17th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Thanks so much for sharing your insights into what makes an effective post. I just love the way you have used the puzzle to help communicate the content of your blog. Well done!!
Cheers
Penny
CLOUD9 http://penbentley.global2.vic.edu.au/
January 17th, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Love the fact that you engaged me with your jigsaw puzzles. (I preferred the one from Jigzone.) George Couros is an excellent example of the kind of blogger I’d like to be. He is so passionate and personable too.
I hadn’t stopped to think about the fact that if a reader stops by and isn’t bored with a long drawn out post, he might stay a little longer and explore. Thanks for pointing that out.
January 17th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Thank you for your comments. It was a lovely surprise to have @gcouros comment on this post. I haven’t actually made a jigsaw puzzle before but it is a very quick and easy process. The longest part was making the bubbl.us first
January 18th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
You chose your focus blog very well. I have had George’s blog in my RSS feed for a long time and always enjoy his posts. He manages to make some valuable and thought provoking posts very succinctly. I too like the way he often has a stimulus, such as a video.
If you like George’s posts you’ll probably also enjoy reading The Connected Principals blog – http://www.connectedprincipals.com
January 18th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
Thank you for the link to The Connected Principals blog. I have seen it mentioned in tweets but hadn’t got around to looking yet. I’ll give it a try.