Begin blogging...with students

So in my last post at the end I mentioned a blogging tool for kids. Today, my PLN (professional learning network-ie. twitter) pointed me to an old post from October 2008 entitled 33 Ways to use blogs in your classroom. A a couple things struck me about this post so I thought I would point them out to those of you who might be just beginning to blog.

1. These are great ideas but in most cases I would change the words "blog about" to post about. I say this because there are so many great ideas that could all be placed into a single blog. Create a class blog in edublogs which uses wordpress, kidblogs, or blogger and you have the ability to create pages. Adding pages for different topics and allowing students to post about those topics through the year creates an e-portfolio. Can you say formative and summative assessment?
2. It's been 2.5 years since the post was put out there. The ideas are still great ones and not much has changed. I think this tool is around for a long time and it is simply a matter of deciding how you want to use it and what works best for your environment.

So, again the best way to decide is to start blogging on your own and before you do that, start reading and commenting on other blogs to get a feel for it. The more comfortable you are when you get started the more natural it becomes. Just write what you are thinking, feeling or reading. If a tool inspires you share it. You can build your own PLN to make up for that lack of time you have to connect with you colleagues during the school day. If you are looking for more resources to determine everything from the pedagogy of blogging to ways to assess it, safety concerns, and to view other class examples, check out this post that covers resources for those educators who want to learn more.