Creating a classroom blog is a wonderful way to help your students develop their reading, writing and technology literacy skills. As an education consultant and trainer based in the Middle East, I work with teachers both locally and abroad to develop and incorporate technology tools into the classroom. Below is a document I put together this afternoon for a training session I am delivering next month. Feel free to use the document and share it with friends! I welcome you to share links to your own classroom blogs in the comments section of this post! To view the original document I posted on Scribd, click here.
Cheers,
P.S. To view a large size copy of the handout below, click the gray/white box on the upper right-hand corner of the Scribd toolbar. When you mouse over the gray/white box you should read “toggle full screen.” Click that!
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Hi Anna,
Thank you for the wealth of information! It was extremely helpful. I do have a couple of questions. Can I set up a classroom blog for only my students to use? Also, how can I make blogging safe for my students and convince my administrator it is safe?
Hello Lynette! Great questions! You can set up a classroom blog for only your students to use. In fact, why not set up a classroom social network that includes individual student blogs on Ning? With Ning you can create a site that only your students can view and/or use.
As for convincing your administrator, take a look at the ISTE advocacy resources and Edutopia and Teacher TV videos on incorporating technology tools into the classroom. They will help give you and your administrator a vision for how tools such as blogs and podcasts can be used for educational purposes.
Finally, for tips on Internet safety, visit this site:
http://www.k12science.org/internetsafety.html
Let me know how it goes!
Anna
Anna,
Thank you for responding. I have not heard about Ning. I will have to investigate Ning.
Once school is out I will sit and talk with my administration about Blogging for next year. I will show them a couple of the sites you mentioned. I am hoping they will see it can be of benifical to the students. I will let you know how it turns out.