Getting Creative with Blogging (link included)

Using Blogs in My Future Classroom

In order to prepare our future generation for the real world that they will be apart of, we need to incorporate as much technology in their learning as possible. Blogging is a great way to teach students because they can start with basic knowledge of a computer and the Internet. There are many different educational blogging website for a child's personal use and they can learn form other blogging websites as well. David Warlick's article called "Bloggers Who Help You Teach" gives teachers many options of educational blogs to choose from. This opens up a whole new avenue of learning! Students can use their blogs in my classroom to share their knowledge about subjects they are learning in my classroom. Since a blog can be collaborative, it will be easy for groups of students to combine their individual projects so that those interested in their topic of study can see all aspects of their work. Again, those who are interested in the topic of study can comment on the blogs of the student working on the certain project. Through commenting, students can gain knowledge they never explored before, or they can help other students in their own quest for knowledge.

One way that I would use blogging in my classroom is by having students answering open ended questions to different novels we have explored in the classroom. Once a week, my class could go into the computer lab and blog in that class period. I could give them a grade, not only for the content, but for participation. This could be an easily earned grade and can motivate students to give blogging a try! As a fourth grade English teacher, we would be reading small novels, therefore, I could ask the students opened ended questions to allow for their own personal input. For example, "How do you think this character should have acted in this situation?" "Would you have done something differently?" "Why or why not?" This question would then stimulate the children into creating their own rightful opinions and engage them in the novel. Also, student can also enjoy reading what their friends thought about the situation in the novel and how they would have handled it. The blogging we did in class could also be shared with students from a town, city, state, or country! The children could also explore what someone elsewhere thought about the novel they explored in class. This is truly exciting, not only for students, but teachers as well.