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

2. 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.

3. Here’s a Blog I use...

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. 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.

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

8. 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

9. 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?)

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

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