21st+Century+Student+Blogging

Blogging with students is a powerful tool for connecting, communicating thinking, and reflecting. Why should students blog?

Rather than give a dissertation on the topic, here's a quote from a sixth grade blogger:

 I thought that our blogging this year was a lot of fun because it was a great way for us to be able to tell what we are thinking. It is also a great way for us to share about our books, in that way we actually learn more about the book. It was a great way for us to get away and just have our own say on what a novel is like not just what the author thought or what some adults thought, we get to have our own thoughts. Blogging is a great way to express ourselves.

There are many ways to set up blogs, classroom teachers usually need support from site-based technology staff to set up blogs.

Some tools to consider: [|Edublogs], [|Class Blogmeister] (David Warlick) and numerous internally set up systems.

Here's a sample of one students growth during the semester we blogged. While the increase in length is pleasing, so is the level of thought.

Beginning of the semester:  I read the book called __The tale of Despereux.__ This book actually had a couple of different stories inside of this one book. This book was about different mice and rat's stories.

End of the semester: " //Kidnapped: The Abduction// by Gordon Korman is a book filled with mystery, suspense, action, and adventure. This is the first book of this genre that I have read, and it was truly amazing! //Kidnapped// was the type of book that you could not put down because of the puzzle that this story created, and the obsession that developed as I tried to solve the mystery. I could not keep my emotions constant as the story was like riding a roller coaster. As I read the book, there were times that I thought I had figured out all of the details of the story, but then there would be a twist and I was having to start the crime investigation from scratch. Without giving away the story, Aiden and Meg are brother and sister. They come from a family that is under the criticism of the town because the family is suspected of being criminals. The really odd thing is that someone wants to kidnap the children in order to make the family pay for their criminal activity. Their parents have just been let out of prison because they were sentenced for stealing money, and the children were constantly teased at school. It was very hard for me not to feel really sad for these two kids because they had no friends and they were shunned by the town's people. Although this was a mystery adventure story, it had a moral. This book made me realize the tight bond between family and the love between siblings. It also discussed issues that are happening in the news today, like the necessary distrust of strangers in order to keep yourself safe. This story reminded me of the actual news reports about the little girl that was kidnapped from her hotel room when she was vacationing with her parents or about the numerous missing children whose faces appear on milk cartons. There were parts of this book that made me feel nervous and scared, but for some strange reason, I could not stop reading. I am anxious to read the other books in this series.