Blogs

=Blogs=

What is a blog?
A blog, short for we** b log ** is a reading and writing tool. Both teachers and students can blog about their day, classroom events, field trips and so much more. You can blog about any event or activity that you'd like to share with others. Blogging is a great way to practice essential reading, writing, and communication skills both during and after school. Blogging can also be a great tool for teachers to use to communicate and share ideas with other teachers. There are tons of people on-line blogging about their jobs, kids, hobbies, and other interests.

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Educational Purpose and Benefits of Blogging
Blogging:
 * allows the learning environment to extend beyond the classroom walls
 * helps students to find a voice
 * inspires self-reflection
 * creates enthusiasm for reading and writing
 * generates dialogue among students, teachers, and colleagues
 * enables students to learn about responsible journalism
 * empowers students toward higher level thinking

Blogging Correlates to Educational Standards

 * Common Core Standards for Mathematics**
 * Common Core Standards for Language Arts**

ISTE NETS for Students:

 * Creativity and Innovation
 * Communication and Collaboration
 * Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
 * Digital Citizenship
 * Technology Operations and Concepts

ISTE NETS for Teachers:

 * Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
 * Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
 * Model Digital Age Work and Learning
 * Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Ideas for Using Blogs in the Classroom
Blogging can be used in many parts of the curriculum. For instance, story telling, reading response journals, class newsletters, on-line book clubs, explaining the steps involved in solving a particular math problem, journaling about math problems, summarizing daily lessons... the list goes on and on. For more information on blogging in the classroom, check out [|On-line Journals]

Planning a Blog
adapted from "Blogging in the Classroom" Teacher Created Resources

Just as you would plan a lesson, it is important to plan your blog in order to receive the greatest educational benefit from its use. Establishing instructional goals as well as community goals for the blog is imperative to its success. Some questions to ask include:
 * What is the general purpose of the blog?
 * What are my instructional goals for the blog?
 * What goals do the students have as a classroom community for the blog?
 * Do students have the necessary skills to be able to successfully write and post entries on a blog? If not, how can they learn these skills or how can their work get posted to the blog?
 * Will readers outside the classroom have access to the blog? What kind of access?
 * How will I moderate comments on the blog?
 * What blog platform will best accomodate my needs?
 * Will work be graded? How?
 * What permissions must I get from my district/ parents/ guardians before allowing students to post?

[|Lorelle on WordPress]

How Can I Get Started?
Just like web sites, each blog site is a little different. Your best bet is to check the HELP feature of the site that is hosting your blog, many have video tutorials to assist you in setting up a blog for the first time. You might even be able to do a little research on sites such as [|You Tube]or [|Teacher Tube]for a tutorial that will help you get started blogging.

There are tons of blogging sites available for use and the majority of them are FREE. You definitely DO NOT want to pay for this resource. You'll want to keep a few things in mind when searching for the right blog...most important is student safety. Many blogs have a variety of security measures that can be implemented to keep them private - do read the site information to make sure the blog you choose is appropriate for your needs. In addition, you'll want to find a site that DOESN'T contain those annoying pop-ups! You just never know what might 'pop-up' while your students are writing or reading. You'll also want to make sure that the site hasn't been blue-coated by the district before getting things set up. School Wires, the email tool we use at Central Dauphin also has blogging capabilities. This can be a great medium to use for beginning bloggers, especially the younger elementary group.

[|Blogger] [|blogster] [|WordPress] [|Edublogs] [|Class Blogmeister]

Resources:
[|B's Blog] [|A Space of Your Own] Read more about how a reading intervention specialist uses blogs [|Technorati] and [|Google Blog Search] are two sites where web users can search for blogs on a variety of different topicts from Politics to Sports and everything in between. [|On Line Education Database] Top 100 Blogs in Education [|Blogging? It's Elementary My Dear Watson] [|Using On Line Journals and Blogs] A collection of resources and examples of blogging put together by the eMINTS organization [|Support Blogging] This resource is a wiki designed to Support Blogging. This page has plenty of blogs that may be of interest to persons interested in education as well as the integration of technology into the curriculum. By exploring the wiki further, you'll find some other resources and links that may be helpful to you as you learn more about blogs and blogging.