Celebrating living and learning together. Welcome to the blog of Division 4.
…your brain’s attention.As we Huzzahnians have discussed (and expert researchers have told us), vision trumps all other senses. We attach meaning and recall better if there is an image connected to a message. Is this why advertising is so successful?
We are going to get busy with images this week: finding the right ones for the messages in our posts, and as important, giving credit where credit is due. This means finding images we have been given permission to use and giving attribution to the artist or photographer.
We’ll do this in class and write a “how to” page so you can do the same thing from home. We will use a few sites such as Flickr and tools to learn the technical details.
And we will respond to Miss Wyatt’s challenge to add images: choose one of the following activities:
Go to one of your previous posts and add an image to make the post have eyeball appeal. Give credit! Then write a new short post with a link to the improved one inviting us to notice the difference.
(From Miss W:)
…and choose a great image. Write a post about that image and remember to include the attribution. This means you have told readers where you got the image from. Look at the URL for the image – this does not mean Google search images but the original site where the image was put on the web.
…which, put together, tell a story without any writing from you. Remember to choose a great title for this post. Remember also to give attribution for the images. ”
Image: (227/365) Look by Sarah G
Looking for some common interests?Blogs let us write about events and topics about which we are passionate. Reading the thoughts and hearing about the experiences of people who share your interests is rewarding, inspiring, and fun. If you have an interest in any of these topics, you may want to connect with these bloggers:
Want to learn about a holiday celebration? Read Priya’s post. Like reading about special pets? Savannah’s post is worth reading and commenting on. Want to be transported back to the summer? Travel back with Easton here.
Our blogs are barely 2 weeks old, and already there is so much to read! I didn’t mention every student blog, but there is a treasure trove here. Huzzahnians, now that you now how to link, why not put in a link to something you’ve read on a blog, either from our class or from somewhere else in the blogosphere in your next post?
Friends and visitors, drop by and join in the conversation!
Image: Ready for take off by vyxle
Readers arrive with questions:Who is this writer? What are his interests? What is her personality like? Do we have anything in common?
Your “About” page might just be the first place a reader goes to find out.
Miss Wyatt’s post gives some directions and examples of ways to write your “About” page. We have already reviewed the advice to be “internet savy” by making wise decisions about our writing and blog content.
Take a look at these about pages from last year: Daniel C, Nicholas, Catie, and Rebecca. Notice how they tell you just enough about their personality without saying WHO they are.
This post will be a PAGE on your blog.
Your “About” page shows your voice: who and what you feel strongly about, your sense of humour, your passion and compassion–what drives you.
Look at the draft of your “About” page. What one word most captures who you are?
Image: Questions by oberazzi, Creative Commons license.

Last year a student in Division 16 looked up the meaning of random for us: it means lacking a plan or depending on chance. But in blogging it’s not wise to rely on chance to keep your identity safe. Take a look at my random facts below. In combination, they tell a lot about my life, but those facts don’t identify who I am, precisely where I live, when and where I do activities, or give that information about my friends or family.
Look at the random facts of these students Sophie, Daniel W., and Haley. They have used a numbered list to organize their posts.
Write your own Seven Random Facts. As you write your own, think about covering a broad range of facts that your close friends and family would know about, but that don’t give away too much about you.You are writing a quality post, so proofread and get a second pair of eyes to review your work.
After you have written and posted yours, visit and comment on the 7 Random Facts of other Division 4 bloggers: notice surprises and connections–I bet you’ll find other bloggers whose random facts are similar to your own!
Image: Seven about to happen three different ways by fd Creative Commons license

You’ll notice student blogs are popping up in our blogroll to the right. These are exciting times for Division 4! In the next week, students will give their blogs a name and a tagline, add a Clustrmap, and write their first posts. Some may even start their own blogrolls.
Right now all the blogs have the same theme, but this will change. Once students have grown some serious feathers, they will be ready to fly! (Yes, I know chickens can’t fly–but bloggers can!)
Come back soon to see how we have grown.
Have you ever thought about what it’s like to be in a Canadian court? Well, today we (Catie and Rebecca) will tell you all about it so that you’ll be ready for a real case someday! We have just recently been working on a unit in Social Studies about justice. We have been focusing mainly on court. In this post, we are going to share with you what we have learned.
Everybody in the court has an important role to serve justice to the citizens and their community. We are going to define and explain what their jobs are.
Now that you have learned about the important people in court, we will teach you the important things, in the courtroom to make the trial run smoothly.
All of these things and people, help make the courtroom FAIR. The Judge listens carefully to everybody, the Jury are unbiased and have no connection whatsoever to the Accused or the Witnesses, the Crown Counsel/Attorney defends the law while the Defence Counsel defends the Accused. Each one of these jobs and people are very important in making the procedures fair.
We really have learned so much about court and justice in Canada, and it’s only been a few days! We really hope that you have learned as much as we have about this important topic. We couldn’t have learned all of this without this website. Thank you so much for reading this post, and we hope that you will visit Huzzah again soon! Until next time… this has been Catie, and Rebecca on Court and Justice. See you soon!
Photo Credits
Courtroom One Gavel by lambdachialpha
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Huzzahnians, if you check your first post, you will probably see the date was October 7th, 2008, six months ago…Can you believe you’ve been blogging for 6 months? Wow! Give yourself a pat on the back. Maintaining your blog, reading, commenting, and writing take effort. You have evidence of your growth and success right in front of you. How does it feel? What have you noticed?
In a comment on this post, please share what you see as you successes in the last six months, and maybe some of the challenges, too. What has changed about you as a result of blogging? We’d also like to hear about your plans…what are you going to do to improve as a blogger? What advice do you have to others to stick with it when the going gets tough?
I can tell that you are proud of your blogging, as you should be. Congratulations on all you have achieved!
Image: Make a Wish by Theresa Thompson