Blogging in a college classroom makes a lot of sense, but as I thought about how to incorporate blogging into an elementary classroom it seemed a little harder to rationalize. But then... BAM... it hit me. What is something that most classes do weekly that uses paper instead of technology? A newsletter!
I think when I have a classroom of my own I would like to incorporate blogging into my classroom by letting my students write their own daily/weekly newsletter describing what they did during class. It could be used as something their parents could go to in order to see their student's work and to find out what is happening at school.
Along with getting the students to write more often, the students will also be able to see their progress as writers throughout the year. I think I would have students in charge of the different aspects of the learning throughout the day such as literacy, math, science, social studies, and specials/special events. Students will work in groups to update the weekly newsletter but to prevent the students from getting bored with their topics, I will rotate the groups so they each have a chance to write about each content area.
With tools such as blogger and wiki spaces creating an online newsletter should be fairly easy. I know as a first year teacher I will have a lot to learn when it comes to managing classroom activities but I am excited to give it a go!
I LOVE your idea of a newsletter! I thought of that too as I was blogging about blogging in the classroom! I think it's a great idea to have students write what they have been doing in the classroom so families can see that at home! Great idea.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a wonderful idea! A really great way to put students in charge of their learning. An idea we learned in class that I really liked was how the students in a classroom helped update the classrooms status through out the day. I think its another great way to communicate what is going on in the classroom with parents as well as help students work on spelling, grammar and synthesizing information.
ReplyDeleteThere are really many ways to use blogging with students - we just need to remember what can the tool do best? With our discussion of keyboarding - having students blog will help develop those skills.
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