Register For The March Student Blogging Challenge!

The 24th Student Blogging Challenge begins on March 15 and registrations are now open!

Since 2008, the Student Blogging Challenge has run twice yearly, beginning each March and October.

Why take part in the Student Blogging Challenge?

• Help your students learn how to publish on the web safely and effectively
• Increase student motivation for writing by engaging with an authentic audience
• Reap the benefits of global collaboration by connecting with other participants around the country and world.

Sound good? Read on to find out more!

Challenge Summary

The next Student Blogging Challenge begins on March 15, 2020.

The challenge is made up of a series of 8 weekly tasks all designed to improve blogging and commenting skills, while connecting students with a global audience.

The weekly schedule is published on the Student Blogging Challenge website.

This experience is totally free and open to students and classes aged between 8 and 16.

Many teachers appreciate the fact that they don’t have to be the expert or bring the ideas or audience. It’s all done for you.

The challenge is also flexible — you can participate every week, every second week or choose a time frame that suits you. You can also adapt tasks to meet the needs of your own class.

Quick links

• Find out more about the Student Blogging Challenge
• Register to take part as a class
• Register to take part as a student
• Volunteer as a commenter

Why Take Part In The Student Blogging Challenge?

Last year, I made a short video with insights from past participants to give you an overview of what the challenge is all about.

Take a look and please share it with others who might be interested.

You might also want to read 8 Reasons To Take Part In The Student Blogging Challenge which breaks down this infographic.

How Do I Register For The Challenge?

Interested? You can follow the steps below to register or check out the FAQs if you want to read more about the challenge before registering.

Step One: Join Our Mailing List

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Student Blogging Challenge mailing list to stay in the loop!

This isn’t a registration form but you’ll want to be on the mailing list to keep up to date with all the challenge news.

Step Two: Decide How You Want To Register

There are three ways to register:

1) Register As A Class

This means teachers and students participate together and students don’t need to have their own blog (although they can).

Student work will be published on the class blog as a post or series of posts. Or the teacher might publish a post and invite the students to comment.

2) Register As An Individual Student Blogger

Students with their own blogs can take part by publishing posts in response to the weekly challenges (these challenge are published on the Student Blogging Challenge site).

As well as publishing on their own blogs, students can comment on other students’ posts.

3) Register To Be A Volunteer Commenter

Commenters need to be approved by our commenting team leader, Sue Wyatt. They need to be involved in some field of education — e.g. teaching, working with children, studying education, retired teachers etc.

If you know someone who might like to volunteer, please ask them to consider registering and joining our mailing list! 

Commenters are asked to visit five blogs per week and you can make a big difference in the lives of young people by just dedicating one hour a week for 8 weeks!

Step Three: Get Ready

While participants will learn about blogging through the challenge, it can be very helpful to start setting up your blog before the challenge begins.

These two self-paced courses will be helpful if you want to be walked through the process of setting up your blog:

• Student Blogging Bootcamp (for students) — This course guides students through the process of setting up and using their own blog. Some teachers like to assign all/parts of the bootcamp to their students before the challenge begins.
• Blogging With Students Teacher Challenge (for teachers) — We walk you step-by-step through the process of setting up a class blog and blogging with students. You can also sign up to complete this challenge over 30 days if you wish. 

Join Our Facebook Group

We’re very excited to be launching a Facebook group for educators involved in the challenge this year. This group will be the ideal way to find connections for your students, ask questions, share tips, and stay in the loop.

This is a private group so only members can see who’s in the group and what they post.

The group is only for challenge participants and is for educators. Older student participants may join if they are old enough. Remember, Facebook has age restrictions (13+ and even older in some areas) so the group is not for young students.

How To Join The Group!

To join the group, just go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/StudentBlogging

Alternatively, search for “Student Blogging Challenge March 2020” on Facebook.

Click on “Request to join” and answer the three questions so we know you’re a challenge participant. When your request is approved, go ahead and introduce yourself!

I’ve Registered As A Participant. Now What?

Fantastic! Perhaps you’d like to add the challenge badge to your sidebar or About page?

Every week on a Sunday (starting March 15), we’ll publish a new post on the Student Blogging Challenge website.

If you’re subscribed to the email list, you’ll get a reminder about this via email. Otherwise, you can just check the Student Blogging Challenge site when it suits.

Then there are four steps to follow each week:

1. Read: Teachers can read through the post that’s on the Student Blogging Challenge site with their class, or assign the post to their students to read. Alternately, teachers can summarize the information on their class blog.
2. Task: Students will complete one (or more) task and publish it on their individual blog or class blog.
3. Form: Participants need to enter the URL of their blog post in the Google Form that will be at the bottom of each weekly post. This is so commenters and others know about their post and can visit.
4. Connect: The last step involves visiting other participants’ blogs. Leave a comment and strike up a conversation.

If you can’t complete a task every week, that’s fine. You’re also welcome to adapt tasks to best meet the needs of your class.

Find out more here. 

I’ve Registered As A Commenter. Now What?

Our commenting team leader, Sue Wyatt, will contact you to let you know if you’ve been accepted as commenter. She’ll also email in the lead up to the challenge explaining the process if you’ve been accepted.

Sue will support you as a commenter throughout the challenge. She’ll send you weekly emails with instructions and tips, and you’ll be able to contact her to ask further questions.

There’s also a badge for commenters that you might like to display on your own site if you have one.

More Questions?

We’ve created a PDF document of Frequently Asked Questions. Click here to save a copy to your computer.

Anything else you’re not sure about? Leave a comment and we’ll get back to you! Alternatively, you can send us an email via this contact form. 

Remember, the Student Blogging Challenge only happens twice a year, so don’t miss out!