Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog

    I explored Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog, and I was extremely impressed. It was quite obvious that Mrs. Yollis has spent a lot of time putting her blog together and updating it. I explored the various links that she had and enjoyed looking at the information that was put together for other people to use and learn from.

    The Meet the Bloggers link showed a picture of some of her students in their classroom and gave some general information. For example, there are 22 students in the classroom, which is located in a school that is in a suburb of Los Angeles. It listed some of their hobbies, including: sports, karate, knitting, cheering, building with Legos, and reading. They also love blogging.

    I enjoyed reading about Mrs. Yollis on her Meet Mrs. Yollis page. She has been teaching for 25 years. In addition to teaching third grade, she has also taught combination classes and fifth grade. She enjoys teaching and working with parents. She holds a master’s degree in “Integrating Technology in the Classroom.” In her spare time, she and her husband love to travel. Some of her vacation spots include: Hawaii (where she enjoys swimming with turtles), Montana, Alaska, Belize, the Arctic Circle (for fly fishing), and San Diego. She attended the Google GEO Teachers’ Institute and learned about the Giant Traveling Maps. This is a program that is offered through National Geographic. It allows schools to “borrow” giant maps. The cost is $480 for a two-week loan of the map. Mrs. Yollis and her students show an example of these giant maps.

    The video How to Comment is a student-made video. The students provide five tips on comments. These tips are: compliment, add new information, make a connection, end with a question, and proofread. The students suggestion that “content is key” is essential to commentating.

    Mrs. Yollis’ Website was precious and appropriate for third graders. The page contained animation for autumn by having trees with leaves falling and a turkey that made sounds when you put your cursor over it. Her website contained multiple links for students and parents. It contained class information, Mrs. Yollis’ e-mail, a learning game, vocabulary, activities article links, and general curriculum information.

    The Learn HTML Code link provides information on codes to be used in your blog. It also gives a video on how to create a hyperlink. One piece of advice Mrs. Yollis offers is that she leaves the code on her desktop, so all she has to do is copy and paste it.

    Time Zones of Friends takes you to a page of different clocks associated with friends all over the world. The clocks show the times at many different locations.

    Learn About California is a video set to music showing pictures of California symbols, such as the state bird, state flower and state tree. It also gives the population, a picture of the state capital building, and a picture of the current governor. Finally, the video shows pictures of some famous sites in California, such as Death Valley, the Golden Gate Bridge, Disneyland and Hollywood.

    Learn How to Shoot Great Digital Images is a video of students giving tips to taking spectacular pictures. Some tips include using the wrist strap, holding the camera level and pressing the shutter without moving the camera.

    Educational Blogging Resource for Teachers takes you to Mrs. Yollis’ Wiki page. This gives valuable information and resources that can be used in the classroom, including ideas for using technology in the classroom.

    Mrs. Yollis’ blog page contains some information in its sidebar. Like EDM 310, Mrs. Yollis has a cluster map. Her blog had 72,060 visitors between January 1, 2010, and October 27, 2011. EDM 310 had 48,860 visitors between January 9, 2010, and October 20, 2011. Also, located on the sidebar is the New Global Project. This project allows her students to learn from other children in different countries. This week’s post is from Leopold, Australia. The students in Australia talk about the foods they have at school for lunch and snack. In Australia, the cafeteria is called a canteen, and the most popular snack is chocolate chip biscuits. This is a great learning experience for students. In addition, the sidebar contains awards that the blog has won. Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog has won several awards from Edublog, including first runner-up in 2009 and 2010, as well as a lifetime achievement award in 2010. The blog won best overall for elementary in 2009 from Digital Voice Awards. Finally, the sidebar contains a Blog Archive, Pals, a link to become a follower, gratitude for commenting, and a link to a Happy Birthday Blog. Mrs. Yollis is constantly updating her blog with new information and posts which contributes to the reason her blog is award-winning.