1. One class blog or many? I originally thought that each student in a class would have their own blog, but have realized that a better first step is to start a class blog where students can contribute comments as well as be occasional posts. It's much more manageable and also more interactive and collaborative.
2. Build a community of followers: I would love to see parents as well as other Benchmark classes become regular visitors of a classroom blog. I just recently read a post on 5 Posts to Jumpstart Your Classroom Blog by Richard Byrne, and he suggested that early posts should have high parent interest. One idea of his that I really liked was "Tasty and healthy snacks to send in with your child" I think that both parents and kids would comment on that post! I think another postcould be something like "Favorite iPad apps for school" in which you could make some suggestions about apps that parents could add to an iPad.
Joyce,
ReplyDeleteI think I will try blogging with my students again this year. http://kidblog.org/Room7-29/ This is the address for last year's blog. You can sign in as "Guest" and use the password "Room7." I did not have much luck with parents posting; I had a parent log-in but couldn't quite get it to work, so I sent them the "guest" information. Only one parent ever wrote on the blog, and maybe one other made a reference to it in an email. I mentioned it regularly and sent the link in emails to parents and on my teacher web page. I know some parents helped kids comment on it, and add responses to reading. Maybe if it is ready by Back-to-School Night, we can look at it then. Also, we could try for more curriculum stuff and maybe photos/videos . We invited Theresa Scott's class to join us, and they commented pretty regularly. You will see that the blog last year was mostly kids asking questions and sharing personal experiences, but it was a start.
I also looked at Melinda's class blog, and shared it once with my class, but I don't think we ever commented on it.
Sue
Well, the Kidblog people changed the format, and my "guest" account disappeared. New Guest logon -- #Room7
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