I have to admit that I am completely new to blogging, or at least creating my own! I do follow some blogs, but this is the first time I have tried writing one. So for now, I kept it under a pseudonym, because I think this is going to take some practice on my part.
My experience in creating this blog was that it is relatively easy to create, and the upkeep could be fairly minimal, if I chose it to be. I haven't ever used it in a classroom only know of a few teachers in my school who use it, but I don't think theirs are updated very frequently. I would like to create a blog for my classroom after I get comfortable using it. I think that in order for my blog to be relevant, I will need to keep it updated frequently. The text convinced me of the power of blogging, and I love the idea of a digital portfolio for kids. I also like the sharing of ideas that it offers. I could post to my blog, and have students use the blog as a discussion forum. Very cool!
I think you are absolutely right that blogs must be updated regularly in order to be useful. I'd like to hear more about how the teachers at your school use blogs right now. It might be nice to start small with one assignment and then move on from there. I could see a blog becoming like a class website where students can post assignments, collaborate, and ask questions.
ReplyDeleteOne problem with blogger is that students would need google accounts to post, but maybe you could make a class account and they could post in class under supervision with one acct. Your admin may still want a permission slip. something to consider.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with blogs is very close to yours. I have followed them in the past, but not created them. I find that I gain a lot of ideas from blogs and would like to be the one offering up ideas sometimes. I would also like to find a way to get my parents more involved in the classroom. The problem with doing this virtually using a blog is that I think our school population has a very low number of homes that have access to the Internet. It's worth a shot though.
ReplyDeleteThis year, all of our students are going to have a google account through the school, so it might be a great time to give it a try. I'd love to survey parents at the beginning of the year and find out the best way to get make contact with them - do they use the internet regularly? Have smart phones? Tweet? Facebook? Text? The more that we can reach out, the better, and tools like blogs could be especially helpful for that.
ReplyDeleteI am also completely new to blogging. It's very exciting but there's so much to learn. I like so many of the ideas that Richardson suggests in the chapters, particularly about blogging as an academic exercise such as journaling, describing links, analyzing them, etc.. I agree that the digital portfolio is a great idea and hope to do that with students at some point as well. I think I will spend some time visiting other blogs so I can get ideas, see what I like, and incorporate some of those ideas as well as what i've learned into my own blog. I like your template; it looks great!
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