A Newly Converted Blogger

Me, blogging?  Yea right.  Being one who previously viewed blogs as a nothing more than a technological soapbox for those who couldn't get anyone else to listen, there was no way I could ever see myself taking the time to create one.  Was I really that desperate to have someone know my opinions on Lady GaGa, Obama Care, or the latest Twilight movie that I needed to create a whole website dedicated to it?  Not me!  No blogs, no thank you.  Or so I thought...

I have recently learned that blogs don't just have to be for voicing your opinions to the world (or anyone who will listen).  They can be a fun way for friends and family to keep up to date on their most recent happenings in life.  They can be an easily accessible way for corporations to let their employees know what's going on and what they can expect from their company.  And most importantly, for the purposes of this blog, they can be used as an educational tool; a way to let parents know what their students are working on; a way to display students' work; and a way for the class to communicate.  I used the link about Edublogs provided on Blackboard to identify some ways blogs can be useful in education.

So the big question--is this something that I think I will EVER use in my own classroom?  Definitely.  I think that blogging is a fun and extremely easy way to get parents and students involved and more interested in what's going on.  I can just image how cool it would have been if, when I was an elementary student, I could have gone online and seen my project posted on the web.  How exciting!  Just knowing that it was going to be on there for parents and classmates to view would have made me want to work even  harder on it!  So, that is something that I would like to incorporate and use as encouragement for students to complete each project to the best of their ability.  Maybe for some projects, only those who are selected as being the best will be posted--hopefully this will encourage them to try harder as well.  I will need to keep a close monitor and possibly create barriers for who can post what.  A strict "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" policy will have to be practiced when students respond to classmates' works.  I also think I will use the blog to involve parents and let them know what we are doing in the classroom; a newsletter outlining what the students are learning and what they will binclude a calendar for upcoming events, assignments, etc.  Another approach, and a fun assignment, could be for the students and I to work together to create a blog post about a specific topic (a unit we are studying, a field trip we recently took).  This way, it will be a collaborative effort and it will be something different that they will hopefully get excited about.  They can determine what is included (with guidance) and they could even bring in pictures, drawings, videos, etc. that can be posted.

Getting creative with blogs in my classroom sounds like a FUN way to approach some otherwise boring  tasks!