Blogs

Personal Reflection
Since early 2006, I’ve been trying to convince teachers to blog with their students. It all started when Will Richardson spoke at the Illinois Computing Educators annual conference. After hearing him speak, I walked up to him, handed him a check and went away with his book. After reading it, I was totally convinced of the value of facilitating a blog for students. Since then, my personal blogging experience has been a bit limited, but really valuable. I have set up blogs for teachers that I have worked with, as well as facilitating a collaborative blog with a few middle school students. Overall, the process was really positive, but never really sustained. As I reflect on the process of using blogs with students, I would say that any opportunity to publish writing is important, particularly when students for these reasons:

• They are publishing their writing for an authentic audience and really enjoy knowing that others are reading their work • We are giving them first-hand experience in a supervised manner to be content creators • Students must write //all the time// for all content areas - and this medium is flexible and engaging

Recently, I came across a nice post from another educator, Patrick Higgins that pointed me toward some empirical data that supports how useful blogging can be in the effort to improve writing. Drexler, Dawson, and Ferlig’s research paper also covers concerns such as time commitment and keyboarding skills, so it’s worth a careful read. This [|wiki], although it's a couple of years old, provides comprehensive information about objectives and guidelines for safe and responsible blogging in the elementary classroom.

Nadine Norris

**Good Examples of Class Blogs**
Check out this list that is being developed by Scott McLeod for a long list of Blogs Murphy Math Mania - a good example of how blogging works in a math class Reflective Creations 5NT - 5th grade class blog Books and Bytes - Ms. Stewart's 6th grade Language Arts blog Mr. Coley's Class Blog Mr. Green's Class Blog Dream Extreme Class Blog Mrs. C's Class Blog A World of Wonder Mr. Crosby's Class

[|Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog] An article was written about her class. Read it [|here]. [|Ms Patty's Pre-K Classroom Blog] [|KinderKids] [|Willow Room 2nd Grade] [|Mr. Crosby's 5th grade class] [|Gordon Brune's 5th grade class] - [|(last year's class)] [|Mr. Warkentin's Class] [|Moturoa's Web Log] [|Mark Ahlness's 3rd grade writers] - [|(last year's class)] [|Pam Lewis's 3rd graders] [|Clarence Fischer's 8th Graders] [|Julia Osteen 6th Grade Language Arts] [|Mrs. Brown's Middle Schoolers] [|Chris Champion's Computer Class Projects] [|Kimberly Brown's 6th and 7th graders] [|Brian McLaughlin's 9th Graders] [|Shehee's English 9 and 10] Same class: Night Wiki [|Mr. G's 8th Graders] [|South Parish 5th Graders] [|AP Calculus] [|Mrs. Huff’s English Class] [|Ms. Smith’s Honors Class Blog] [|Mr. Stevens English Blog (with students] [|Mr. Fischer’s Blog] – Wow…these are middle schoolers! [|The Electronic Pencil]- sixth grade story writers [|Ms. Schwichtenberg's Classroom Blog]- First Grade [|Ms. Patty’s Pre-K Classroom] [|Grade 1 ESL] [|Grade 3 Blog Pals] [|Our Online ESL Classroom (Grade 5)] Mr. Barrett's Blogging Wiki with ideas for the classroom Blogging 101 wiki