So You Want to be a Blogger? (or a better blogger?)

During my Classroom 2.0 Live appearance (the recording is now available) on Saturday morning I was asked to recommend a "first step" for teachers who are just beginning to use technology in their classrooms. My response was to start a blog because through the process of developing a blog you can learn a lot of skills that carry over into other technology applications (that's the condensed version of my response). If you're considering starting a blog or you started one once but didn't do much with it, the 30 Days to Kick Start Your Blogging Challenge sponsored by Edublogs is for you.

The 30 Days to Kick Start Your Blogging Challenge is a series of daily tasks to get your blogging started on the right foot. The challenge started today (the challenge is self-paced so don't worry about starting a day late) with directions for creating your first blog on Edublogs. The directions include some very helpful tips about picking your display name, blog url, and blog title.

If you're not brand new to blogging, but you would like to kick your blogging up a notch, 30 Days to Kick Start Your Blogging has some good stuff for you too. Each day, in addition to the beginner challenges, there are advanced challenges and tips for bloggers who are looking to improve their blogs. Today's advanced challenge is to write a post on one of the following:

1. Ten questions to ask my blog – Take on the role of reporter and ask your blog ten questions, documenting the responses from your blog eg When did you start? Why did you start? What is your most exciting moment? Where does your future lie? etc 
2. “Life as a Blogger” or “My life as a blog!”
3. 10 things you should know about blogging.

In the interest of full disclosure I must mention that Edublogs is a paying advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers.