The final challenge of the year is upon us, Challenge #10.  This challenge asks us to audit our own blog by answering some questions. We will do just that right now.

• How many posts did you write? We have written 24 posts since we began the challenge in September.
• How many were school based, your own interests or set by the challenge? Of those posts, thirteen were challenge related, eight were school based, and three were of personal interest.
• How many comments did you receive from classmates, teachers or overseas students? We were really fortunate enough this year to have received 101 total comments.
• Which post received the most comments? Why do you think that happened? The posts that received the most comments were Christmas Crafts and Top 100 Classroom Blogs. We think that Christmas Crafts received several  comments because it gave helpful information at a time when making crafts as decorations or gifts was appropriate due to the coming holidays. The Top 100 Classroom Blogs received comments mostly from our local readers because it was quite an honor to have been chosen for that listing, and those commenting wanted our students to know that they were proud of them.
• Which post did you enjoy writing the most and why? The post that we enjoyed bringing to our readers was Open Season. The reason was it was personal and unique. We shared with students something that they might not have otherwise experienced. One teacher stated it was like taking a field trip.
• Did you change blog themes at all and why? We did not change our blog theme because of a couple of reasons. Our students designed the heading back when we began and it is very special to us. Secondly, our school themes are limited, and none that we previewed fit our current needs. We did, however, create a new heading as suggested in this challenge and now exhibit a seasonal theme.
• How many widgets do you have? Do you think this is too many or not enough? We have a total of 29 widgets. Yes that does seem like a lot of extras, but we use our blog as the center of our curriculum resource. We have 20 widgets in the left sidebar which the students use on a regular basis for their Moodle lessons, AR reading tests, and language arts activities. The remaining widget in the left sidebar were added as a part of the Challenge.  We have 9 in the right sidebar which include subscriptions, introductions, search engines, our podcasts, and various blogrolls. It is important that these links be here for our students so that we can move through instruction in an efficient manner.

We are already participants in The Blogger’s Cafe challenges, and our blog is listed in their blogroll as well. We look forward to participating in the next Blog Challenge and hope that we can involve other classrooms here on our campus.