This class has sparked an interest in me wanting to begin blogging with my students. I have always enjoyed reading blogs whether related to travel, education, fashion, religion, or mom life. While conducting research for a recent assignment, I came across an article where a special education teacher uses blogs in her reading/writing resource class. Her students really struggled with written expression and she begin to see an improvement once students began using the blogs initially as a journal. From there, she began assigning smaller assignments that required students to think creatively and overall, she and her students were extremely satisfied with the end results and progress made.
This week on Richard Byrne's blog he offers suggestions on classroom blogging. He mentions two services that he recommends- Edublogs and Blogger.
He recommends Edublogs for elementary and middle school classrooms. This service allows teachers to create a blog and then add students to it. Teachers have control over student accounts (which is awesome in my opinion because my 7th graders struggle with remembering their passwords) and teachers can also monitor student posts and comments, even if students are able to maintain their own blog.
Blogger is recommended for high school classrooms, but this is the service I would more than likely use with my classrooms. Blogger allows students to sign in using the Google accounts (which is pretty much ALL we use at my school). Blogger does not offer all of the monitoring features that Edublogs does. I would still be able to edit and delete posts, but only after the student has already posted their comment. This is fine with me because I am trying to teach my students how to be good digital citizens.
Richard offers a tutorial video on his YouTube channel and also an organized lesson on how to create a classroom blog. This is on my summer to-do list!
This week on Richard Byrne's blog he offers suggestions on classroom blogging. He mentions two services that he recommends- Edublogs and Blogger.
He recommends Edublogs for elementary and middle school classrooms. This service allows teachers to create a blog and then add students to it. Teachers have control over student accounts (which is awesome in my opinion because my 7th graders struggle with remembering their passwords) and teachers can also monitor student posts and comments, even if students are able to maintain their own blog.
Blogger is recommended for high school classrooms, but this is the service I would more than likely use with my classrooms. Blogger allows students to sign in using the Google accounts (which is pretty much ALL we use at my school). Blogger does not offer all of the monitoring features that Edublogs does. I would still be able to edit and delete posts, but only after the student has already posted their comment. This is fine with me because I am trying to teach my students how to be good digital citizens.
Blogging with your students is such a good idea. It allows students to have pride in their work since it will be shared using a media platform they use in their daily lives.
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