Simple Beginnings
My vision for classroom blogging is simple. Use it as a tool in the classroom to ensure that the students and the teacher are talking, reading, and writing frequently about how and what they are learning and thinking. Get them to explore their thinking and the teacher can do the same. Get them to interact with others through comments. Encourage others outside the classroom to join in on the conversations. Value the students’ ideas by making them feel safe to share real thoughts and feelings so discussions can be meaningful. The teacher sets parameters to lead students toward building a community of learners who respect and encourage each other. They can learn to disagree agreeably. They can develop a good standard for learning on the web. They will be writing about the content they are learning. They will be thinking about it. Best of all, they will be writing about it. Writing to learn! You can start on a class blog with students commenting. You can give the students their own blogs or let them be contributing/junior authors on the class blog. I believe students will rise to the occasion, especially if we make them a part of the process of developing it. Take five or ten minutes of each day and have your students blog about what they have learned and what it has made them think about. It won’t be perfect the first time. That’s OK. If you stick with it, you and your students can create a blogging/writing experience that works for your class. You can guide the thinking. If you can’t do it daily, try at least weekly. I think it could be a great way to reassess our teaching and re-examine student learning. It is also a good way to give our students a voice. We can listen and learn from them. And just imagine what other blogging/learning/writing activities may spring forth from these simple beginnings.