Building Blogs

With the first quarter now complete the second leg of the school year is underway. Time passes quickly. Students were home last Thursday and Friday, but teachers were at school working hard to complete report cards, wrap up first quarter data and look at where their classes were headed in the second nine weeks.
Amazingly, many teachers added building their class blog to the to-do list during those teacher work days. We've been talking about the educational impact they can have, and how it's a very connected way to involve students in authentic reflection and writing.
With one workshop offered on Thursday and one on Friday 15 class blogs were created and readied for student use in the second quarter. There are numerous ways these blogs can be used in the classroom and many teachable moments can and should come from teaching students to blog. The On an e-Journey with generation Y blog has a list of 20 reasons why students should blog, and they are all good reasons. I just need one to convince me the work involved with having a class blog is worth it all - authentic expression. Allowing our students to respond says we care about what they think, and that it is important enough to be published.
Students don't reflect enough on what they've been taught or on what questions they still may have after the teaching. Blogging is a way to do that individually, or with a collective voice as a class, and on a platform that invites responses in return. Check out our Blog List on the right side column to visit our classroom blogs. This list is incomplete and will grow - and so will our students.