This was originally published on SmartBlogs and Mrs. Yollis' Classroom blog to help parents have a good understanding about the benefits of blogging.
I have been an elementary-school teacher for more than 25 years and I am always on the lookout for meaningful ways to engage and motivate my young students. I started Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog in 2008 with the idea of sharing class activities with parents. Over time, the blog has grown to be the centerpiece of our third-grade classroom. It has become a true global learning community that offers myriad rewards for students, parents and teachers.1) Develop quality literacy skills
When I first started blogging, I thought the posts would be the primary focus of the blog. I quickly realized that the comment section was where the blog came to life. As a class, we set high standards and expectations for writing, agreed to always have an adult proofread before publishing, and created a video to help teach commenting skills.
My students are highly motivated by their authentic global audience and take great pride in producing top-notch writing for their readers. It has been a pleasure to watch my third-graders develop into writers who are eager to compose quality comments on one of our five classroom laptops.
What has been even more exciting for me is the student participation from home. Although I rarely require a comment, students frequently choose to comment on either our class blog or our class photo-of-the-day project during their free time. Clearly, my students enjoy contributing to our online learning community.
2) Parents are included in the learning
Parental involvement has strengthened and expanded the learning opportunities for my class. Twice a year, I run what I call Family Blogging Month. It is a great way to formally invite parents to join in the classroom learning via the blog. The family comments are always valued, and during FBM, I highlight several family exchanges on the blog in the hopes of encouraging more parents and family members to comment. Here are two posts that feature rewarding family contributions: More Quality Comments: Family Blogging Month! and Family Blogging: When I Was Young…
Many parents work but would love to volunteer in some way. Last year, I asked parents to become “virtual volunteers” for our blogs. A virtual volunteer is a person who supports the blog by commenting back to students. This type of interaction helps strengthen the home-school connection and makes the comment sections more engaging.3) Integrate curriculum in creative ways
With classroom time at a premium, I look for meaningful ways to integrate curriculum; the blog has been the perfect venue. When my class read “The Great Kapok Tree” by Lynne Cherry for language arts, the students followed up their reading by researching a rain forest animal that was mentioned in the story. Each student composed a comment for the blog from the point of view of that animal. It was a wonderful mix of reading, researching, science and creative writing! During our biography unit, I had each student select a famous person to study. Students submitted a creative comment pretending they were that person. George Washington got a comment from Queen Elizabeth I, Mozart and Tchaikovsky were chatting; the blog comments truly brought these historic people to life! See more examples of integrated curriculum.
4) Build a digital footprint
I believe it is important to teach young children how to be contributing members of an online community. Building a positive digital footprint and practicing Internet safety are not simply one-week units of study, but are regularly taught and practiced via the class blog.
5) Connect with other learners
Of all the riches that blogging has brought to my class, the relationships we’ve built with other classrooms around the world have been the most rewarding. The collaborative projects we have joined not only support the educational standards required at my grade level but have also given my students a real understanding of other topics such as geography, time zones, cultures and friendships. I recently presented four global projects at ISTE with my blogging colleague, Kathleen Morris from Australia. Although we have collaborated for many years, we met for the first time when we shared Flattening Classroom Walls with Blogging and Global Collaboration in San Diego.
How cool is this!? If I were to suggest the first change to teaching in the classrooms, it would be to have technology used in every classroom at every desk (i.e., every student with a laptop). It's one of the most important tools I have in our homeschool that encourages independent learning that engages my children's learning styles.
ReplyDeleteTerrific post. I would also include inquiry,research, and positive pressure for quality and accuracy for an authentic audience.
ReplyDeleteLove the kids' video on commenting! Very timely too... I'll be sharing it with my little group of Yr4 bloggers next week :)
ReplyDeleteWe did this with awesome results. My son has definitely learned a lot, including the things Mr. Schuetz names above.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lifebeforethedinosaurs.com/
I've been encouraging my class to read blogs during their free reading time and practise leaving comments. Do you mind if I share your 4 bloggers blogs with them? We're a y5 class in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI think the present crises of both eroding values and governmental irresponsibility demands the emergence of a new form of citizen activism. The greatest hope is of course the future generation. The idiom of social expression is rapidly changing and it is more than likely that future expression will take forms as yet unexplored. Getting kids to blog would be a wonderful way to get them involved in the issues of the day, get comfortable with digital community, and equip them to speak the language of tomorrow. And all of this in addition to the obvious school performance benefits that you have listed. Wow!
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