Update

In the interest of efficiency, I will not repeat posts here that are on my class blogs but simply link to them. I'm getting a little concerned already about the redundant work involved in keeping separate blogs for two classes. I am trying to maintain each individual blog so that both classes have a sense of "ownership," but I'm quickly realizing this creates a bit of extra work for me. On the other hand, I don't see how it can work if 60 students (2 classes) are commenting on the same posts in the same blog.

I may at some point train an assistant to perform the redundant tasks.

I have recently posted to the class blogs:

A Note to My Students
outlining some rules about privacy & etiquette.

A Test Question
for a small group of students to do a little informal pilot program between now & the end of the school year. I want to see how it works on a small scale before launching at the end of June. My students will love the fact that I plan to engage them over the summer already for eighth grade science!