Kidblog.org

On Twitter, a few classroom teachers that I followed mentioned their students "blogging". My daughter's class dabbled in it last year (3rd grade). I wanted to try it, but...What was my objective? What was the purpose of having students blog? How would it impact them. I came up with the following:

1. It would be a way to communicate with families and the community about what was happening in our classroom.
2. It would be good writing and keyboarding practice for students.
3. It would continue to build and enhance relationships between students and myself, and also between students.

I decided that I would try it with my 2nd graders. I sent a TechSmith Snagit video that I made home over Christmas break. The video showed families step by step how to access the blog and create a post.

A few students wrote and I replied, but it never really got off the ground. Students did not blog regularly. After Christmas break, it took us a bit (as usual) to get back in the swing of things. We had all sorts of exciting things happening - parent volunteering for practicum hours, new student teacher, etc. It simply was not a priority during our ever valuable computer lab time, as we were constantly playing catch up.

I had been thinking about blogging a lot and decided we would give it a try today in the computer lab. I told the kids that I wanted them to write about anything they learned this week, and/or something they liked or didn't like. I anticipated spending 10-15 minutes on our first time blogging. Of course, it took us about 10 minutes to get everyone logged in, "Mrs. Simac, it's not working!!!" Note - it did work, but some of us are still working on our spelling and keyboarding skills. After that, they were quiet as mice blogging away. They absolutely loved it. I promised them that I would read their blogs. They were so excited. I was so excited that they were so engaged!

I encourage (and assign, but that doesn't mean that it gets done) daily journal writing. At one of our inservice days a couple, few (can't remember) years ago, we had a guest speaker talk to us about writing and the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. Something that I took away from that was to let the kids write. Everyday, just let them write. They can write about whatever they want - no spelling corrections, no punctuation corrections, no grammar corrections - just writing with no editing or revisions. Most kids love this. They write to me daily and I write them back. I promise them to keep their journals private, unless of course there is a safety issue. Again, most children love it. However, I have a few that are reluctant. They think they are not "good" writers and they simply don't enjoy it. It is hard work for them.

However, today during our blogging time, everyone was engaged. Every single student. Even my one CD child who cannot read or write. Today he typed. He typed random letters, but he was engaged, happy, and taking risks. He felt successful, because he felt productive. He is normally not in our classroom for literacy activities, as he receives replacement curriculum. This was a great opportunity for him to be a part of the class and be engaged to the best of his ability.

I will definitely continue to have the kids blog on a daily basis. At this point, I am not going to fuss about spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, but simply encourage and foster their love of writing.

http://kidblog.org/MsSimacsClass/