Classroom Blogs

Today I was thinking about different ways blogs could be used as a teaching tool in the classroom. I can only imagine the possibilities with older students, but I am mostly thinking in terms of the little guys. Even though I am working with older students now, my mind is always processing teaching information in terms of first grade. Since I taught at that level for three years, it's pretty ingrained.

I was thinking about the process of teaching young learners how to write and how to think about writing and the process of writing. Often times teachers conduct sessions of shared writing where a piece is brainstormed by a group effort. The teacher does the writing, but the whole group is pooling together ideas, giving input, and responding the secretly planned out questions being innocently posed by the teacher who is very consciously carrying out a specific lesson about writing while attempting to simply come up with a spontaneous piece.

With the use of certain technology elements, such as an interactive whiteboard or a document camera/projector combo (if they are available), this practice could be modernized a bit by introducing the wonderful world of blogging!

Some of the ideas I was mulling over:

• Writing a daily class post to reflect on the events of the day and what was learned. (Great time for a bit of review!)
• Inviting students to comment for homework sharing something they learned or liked about that day.
• Using a blog post (conveniently infused with errors) to teach about conventions or writing strategies. Students could help to edit the piece to make it ready for publishing.
  
• Using a class blog as a great place to publish students' writing for their families to see.
• Having a Student of the Week create a post about him or herself. (Student could hand write it and teacher could type it up or student could type it him or herself depending on age and classroom time allowance).
  
• Using a blog as a way to communicate with and update parents (which only works if parents own computers or have access to one).
  
• Having a great place to showcase class pictures. 
  

My favorite idea is using a class blog as a source of daily reflection and shared writing. I think that this would be a fantastic way to model the thinking process during writing and for me, it would be a great way to show the kids that I like to write and how I do it in my daily life. Yes, it's pretty much the same as using a big old piece of chart paper, but it's more environmentally friendly, right? Also, it's undeniable that certain aspects of technology are cool like the ability to use multiple colors, & highlight text, cross out text, cut and paste sentences etc. Also, for young learners, the red underline underneath misspelled words is a good clue/indicator of what might need to be fixed.

Imagine the excitement if comments appeared from parents, other teachers, or even the principal in response to student writing!? Oh, I can just imagine the fun!

Again, this is one of those moments where I wish I had my own class. I would definitely try out a class blog and see how it could be used to enhance instruction in writing and editing. At a school like the one where I currently teach, where each student has his or her own school email address and older students are expected to utilize an online server to access homework assignments posted by their teachers, I think that a classroom blog would be well received by parents. At my other school, I am not sure if all of the families would have access to computers for viewing a class blog, but it would still be a great tool for use in the classroom for instruction during the school day. Also, students could try out posting comments during a whole group computer class if they don't have computers at home.

Just thinking...

What do you think about classroom blogs?