Monday, June 27, 2011

"What's all the blog about?"

I would love to use blogging in my classroom as a form of assessment.  I think it would be a motivating way to get students to communicate with each other and their teacher about content knowledge. However, I never seem to implement my ideas about blogging with my students. Is it because of my inexperience with blogging? No, I have experience blogging :-) Is it the logistics of the idea? Yes.  These questions enter my thoughts every time I want to set up classroom blogs.
  1. How do I set up an account for all my students if we don't have individual student emails set up at my school?
  2. How do I monitor everything my student's post?  In the world of cyber-bullies, this can be scary for a teacher.
  3. How do I know parents will allow their students' to post work on the Internet?  Are there rules about this? 
  4. Will I be able to acquire enough time in the media center to use this as a valuable learning and assessment resource?
This summer I will make it my goal to figure out the answers to these questions.  Hopefully the answers will be ones that will get me one step closer to using blogs with my 7th graders.
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3 comments:

  1. asplund2002June 29, 2011 at 7:47 AM

    So maybe I can help. I had a lot of these issues when I started blogging last year with my fifth graders. I set up a personal account on blogmeister.com. When I did it you had to email the host and request a school account. That was easy. Then you set up your blog site. When you are ready you create a prompt for students to respond. I use it as a free activity on Fridays so my topics range from school happenings to suggestions to the school lunch menu. At fifth grade I just want to get them thinking and typing at the same time.

    I set up the parameters when I create the prompt to say I have to approve the comment before it appears on the blog. A student's comment is sent to my email address and I look at it and then send it to the blog. This insures I know I see what goes out and students know they are being watched.

    At the beginning of the semester I send home a note to parents telling them we plan on blogging on a secure site and they sign permission for their child to participate. I have not had any one say no, but I reassure parents the student's grade does not suffer if they choose not to have them participate.

    Hope this helps you get started. My students love it and I plan to bring it down to the 3rd and 4th grade level this year.

    Anne

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  2. chadJune 30, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    I am new to blogging myself and I was wondering about the logistics with using blogging with younger students. I do not work in a traditional classroom and the only kids I work with is in the winter time when I work as a ski instructor. I am thinking about creating blogs for all of jobs now. I just have to see if my employers will allow me to do so. Good luck on your blog attempts!

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  3. MattJuly 6, 2011 at 6:04 AM

    This is just suggestion is just a spark: but perhaps this is where Google+ might come in handy? Closed-loop & secured socialized media. Another idea is to look at possible BlackBoard (if your school has it) add-ons or other LMS software that your school district may provide (ex: the free Moodle software?)

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