Classroom Blogs
Teachers worldwide are connecting and sharing ideas with one and other through the medium of blogging. Reading blogs is one of my personal favorite things to do. It’s a great way to keep up with education trends and to hear about what’s happening in a variety of classroom settings all around the world. As the educational blogging community is ever growing you can find posts about pretty much anything you can think of. It’s a great way to find new ideas to incorporate into your teaching and classroom.
Blogging is not only beneficial for teachers, it is equally beneficial to our students. Obviously blogging is a great way to promote literacy and writing skills, however, it is a resource that can be used across all subjects and topics. Creating a class blog offers a space for students to post their own work from assigned topics or free writing. When students are passionate about something it makes for better engagement in the classroom and in turn more organic learning. If writing matters to our students, and consequently the quality of their work matters, they inherently raise the bar for their own learning.
Blogging encourages independent research, promotes critical and analytical thinking and improves reading and comprehension skills. Do you ever feel like your students are almost there with a topic but you feel there are some gaps? Blogging can be a great intervention as it gives students time to learn more through research. This will help them to fill in any gaps they may have and likewise through sharing one and others posts students will learn from each other.
Blogging also gives our students a voice. It allows them to express their thoughts and opinions. Before your students start their class or personal blog, it's a great time to introduce the topic of digital citizenship. As our students live a generous amount of time online their associated responsibilities are changing. Discuss what digital citizenship is and what expectations correspond to it. Blogging offers a safe space to practice authentic ongoing digital citizenship as it encourages engagement and feedback through comments which lead to interactions. It’s the perfect way to practice these skills in a real life situation.
Find a free blog writing prompt below, perfect for jotting down any ideas that may arise during a lesson. Click here for a downloadable printable!
We’d love to hear about any teaching strategies that you use with your students. Please share what works well for you with @aquilaeducation on Twitter orFacebook.
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