Blogging is a great exercise for both teachers and students alike. Let me start this piece with the teachers. I don't know about you, but I often find it difficult to be concise. I tend to blab and blab and blab some more. This is not the greatest quality in a teacher because it is very easy to lose the students' focus; before you know it, you have 30 kids staring at you with blank faces and drool hanging from their mouths. Therefore, keeping instruction, rubrics, lessons, and tangents concise is the key to ensuring that you give students information without losing them along the way. What better way to practice the art of conciseness than by blogging? Blogs help teachers reign in their tangents because if they want to develop a readership, they need to keep their posts as short and interesting as possible. Quality is ALWAYS more important than quantity! Hopefully these same skills can be transferable to the classroom.
Teachers can also lead by example. If you want your students to blog, you need to be their mentor. Create your own blog, lead them through the set-up process, and give them tips and tricks for creating their own successful blog.
Now onto the students. Why should our students be blogging? Two words: LITERACY SKILLS. What better way to have students practice their reading and writing than by having them blog about a specific topic of interest to them? They will be engaged in their topic; they will have the ability to practice their writing skills; and they will be motivated to edit and review their posts before sharing them with the online world. Students can be creative in their posts and in the design and set-ups of their blogs; they will have the opportunity to express themselves, and teachers and readers will be able to get a sense of each student's identity.
Teachers can also use student blogs as an assessment tool or student tracker. Teachers can track the progress that a student is making over time, as they begin to develop their blogs and continue to post about various topics throughout the school year.
Try it out teachers. See what you can create, and share this experience with your students. Happy blogging!
