Responsible Blogging Students use blogs at BHS for several purposes:
- To respond to and comment on curriculum topics;
- To discuss current events and debate current issues;
- To publish projects and comment on each other’s work;
- To hone writing skills;
- To analyze and react to texts they’re reading.
Blogging provides the power to publish to a global audience. With that power comes great responsibility. Student authors using a blog for school purposes agree to be responsible, respectful, ethical, and safe:
- Responsibility:
- Publish only content that is appropriate for school: if your words, ideas, or images are questionable, don't publish them.
- Keep one another accountable: if someone posts inappropriate content, ask them to revise or delete it. Otherwise, notify a teacher.
- Take pride in your work, and carefully craft your ideas:
- Always proofread before publishing, attempting to write in standard English, eliminating spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors.
- Avoid the use of chat language or texting lingo; stick to well-written educated conversations.
- Contribute actively and frequently to the conversation. Use the tips below as well as the blogging comment tip sheet:
- Ask questions. Answer questions.
- Make connections--to personal experiences, to other texts, to big ideas and current events.
- Synthesize ideas.
- Evaluate others' work and ideas.
- Agree or disagree and explain why or why not.
- Respect:
- Always treat others with respect: discuss issues, not attack individuals.
- Offer only constructive criticism.
- Ethics:
- Respect other authors' ideas and works. Instead of plagiarizing, share others' ideas by quoting, summarizing, and/or paraphrasing, and attribute the source.
- Never use copyrighted images. Instead, use creative commons images and attribute the source.
- Safety:
- DO NOT REVEAL ANY PERSONAL DETAILS--either in your profile or in posts or in comments. Personal details include your age, your address, your phone number, and any other identifying information.
- If someone makes you uncomfortable or tries to contact you directly, notify your parents and teacher immediately.
- Never use your last name or other students' last names.
- Publish photos of yourself or of other classmates only if the teacher has written parental consent.
Breaking any of these rules could lead to any of the following consequences depending on severity and repetition:
- Warning;
- Deletion of some or all of a post;
- Temporary loss of blogging privileges;
- Referral to the school administration.
