Words. Isn't is amazing how words can communicate thoughts, paint images, and create feelings? Read a five letter word like santa and WHAM... an instant image of a jolly old man in a red velvet suit with a white glistening beard pops into view. That mind image continues to fester, eventually bursting into a story, or a memory, or even a new idea. Get a group of people together and watch those stories, memories, and ideas spark into conversations. Words. They're really magical. They set a mood. They illustrate our voice. They give us the power to communicate, collaborate, and create. Words. I love them! I love reading them! I love saying them! and most of all I love writing them! Which is probably why, the most absolute favorite part of my job, is turning kids onto blogging.
I'm currently working with 13 classrooms who blog. Some use the blog for publishing writing, others use it as an online portfolio, and one uses it to explain their thinking in math. Kids love, love, love having an audience. Have you ever sat through a lecture and listened to a presenter who spoke using eloquent English but couldn't hold your attention because the elephant words being spoken didn't jive with the mouse words in your vocabulary- or- have you ever skimmed a really long newsletter full of educational jargon only to file it for another time because you didn't have the time to decipher it? Have you ever wanted to just shout... talk TO me not ABOVE me? I wonder if they'd ever learned that words + voice = engaged audience. Blogging is a great way to teach our future wordians how to communicate and collaborate with an authentic audience.
So what does this blog stuff look like? The students post (type and submit) their writing. The teacher approves the writing and makes it public. People comment on the students writing. The teacher approves the comments and makes them public. Students read their comments and answer questions or add on to their post.
There really isn't a right or wrong way to start blogging. The key is to start. Some classes blog once a month, others blog on special occasions or when content gives them the opportunity to share, some blog every other week, twice a week, or weekly. Some teachers give blogging assignments and some expect students to create pieces on their own. The secret of success is to give your students the opportunity to continue. Kids want to blog. They want to be heard.
Blogs are motivating. Students are capitalizing titles, remembering punctuation, using stronger word choice with less reminders. What once took them 45 minutes to type is now taking 20. Comments are becoming stronger, with students making connections, asking questions, and adding on to others writing. A rubric is discussed so students know what kind of writing behavior is expected to write a level 3 or 4 post. Also, since a blog dates each post, it can be used as a growth comparison.
How does this blogging stuff work? First, set up an appointment with your tech partner and discuss ways that it can incorporated into your curriculum. It shouldn't be an "extra" thing you have to find time to "fit in". Once you have a blogging vision, your tech partner will work with you to choose a blog site and set it up. Then they'll make about 5 classroom visits, teaching the students about internet safety and nettiquette, setting up their page with avatars, backgrounds, and bios, entering a first post, and commenting. They'll even continue to support you for future blogging sessions if you choose.
Check out the links to our 13 blogging classrooms. Read their posts and leave a comment. All commenters are guaranteed to be as popular as the jolly old fat man in the red velvet suit- Ho ho ho!
(Websites will take you to the classrooms' homepages. Click under My Classes and Students to see students. Click on a student to visit their blog page.)
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade
http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=246207
Check out my old classroom blog- under practice junk- junk 1. It's where I practice putting up web 2.0 ideas before heading into the classroom.... lots of ideas are beginning to accumulate :0)
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