BECOME A BLOGGER: Create a Classroom that Extends Beyond the Boundaries of the School Building.

WHAT IS A BLOG? A blog (originally called a web log) is a Web publishing tool that allow authors to quickly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or Web sites, and a whole array of other content.

Here’s a Blog I use...

Blog Quick Facts:  Set up like most conventional websites.  Navigation Links  Pictures  Allow for “Posting”  Text entries, similar to a diary or a journal, but includes posting date  Collaborative  People can respond to your posts.  Easy to update frequently.  Posts appear in reverse chronological order.

Blogs are User Friendly!!!!  They require minimal technical knowledge.  If you can type, you can blog!  Flexible in design, can be changed easily.  Students find them convenient and accessible via home or library.  Parents like them because they can also keep tabs on what their student is doing in class (or needs to be doing).

Educational Benefits of a Blog:  Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.  Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.  Effective forum for collaboration and discussion.  Powerful tools to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur.

Using Blogs to Extend the Boundaries of the Classroom:  Classroom Management  Collaboration  Discussion  Student Portfolio  Parent participation  Accountability for Students

Classroom Management:  Easy to create and update efficiently, so it is a great tool for keeping students “in the know.”  Class requirements  Handouts  Notices  Homework assignments  Question and Answer Board  Supplements to class learning

Collaboration:  Teachers and students can work together to develop writing (or other skills) with the advantage of an instant audiece.  Teachers can offer tips.  Students can practice and benefit from peer review.  Online mentoring (pair your class with an elementary class?)

Discussion:  Students can discuss topics outside the classroom.  Allows time for reflection before answering.  Every person has an equal opportunity to share.  Teachers can bring together other “experts” in the field for a unit of study and then allow students to network and conference.

Student Portfolios  Blogs present, organize, and protect student work as a digital portfolio.  They can forget to do it, but “the dog can’t eat it.”  As older entries are archived, developing skills and progress can be analyzed.  No stacks of papers to haul back and forth!  Students realize their efforts will be published, and therefore are more motivated to produce better writing.  Teachers and peers may conference with a student individually on a developing work.  Expert or peer mentoring advice can be kept for future reference.

Parent Participation  They feel included.  They can see what’s going on in class without e- mailing you every day.  They can put pressure on students at home to finish work on time.  They can use additional resources you post to help students continue learning.

Student Accountability  If students do not write down what’s due, they can look it up.  If students lose a handout, they can reprint it.  If copyrighted, there is a way to password protect the document so you can still post it.  They cannot lose the work. Or the feedback.

Places to Set Up a Blog:  – my favorite!  User friendly.  Lots of storage.  Lots of features.  – another good choice  – set up for teachers (not as user friendly, nor does it have as many features as most blogsites.

WANT TO SET UP YOUR OWN BLOG? I’m here to help!