Post 2- Blogging in the Classroom

Alright I've had a day to mull over this whole blogging thing since I began yesterday, and I'm really starting to come around to it. Since I'm already on my second post, I've already made more progress here than in half the journals I've ever started. As I said in my previous post, I have always been intrigued by them but have just never really had anything worth writing about. BUT in the future if I get one for the classrooms I will teach, it will be the perfect setup. I will have material to write about dealing with the classroom, and I will have a built in readership because obviously I'm going to force all of my students to follow it.

I have always liked teachers that send out some type of newsletter to parents. I guess I didn't really receive them too much once I left elementary school, but I thought it was a great way to reach out to parents and coordinate what teachers are doing with what they need parents to do. To me, blogs are the perfect alternative to this because parents and students can read about what's happening in the classroom more often, and the "comment" feature allows them to give their own feedback or ask questions. I think kids should be encouraged to start blogs also because it allows them to experiment with the written word that hopefully spans more than 160 characters, and it enables them to explore subjects that they are passionate about.

A way I would like to use a blog as a future teacher would be to use it as a supplemental lecture resource. I want to teach high school history, and I would imagine that there are a lot of days where you won't be able to cover everything you wanted, or maybe not have enough time to clarify as well as you would have liked. Using a blog would allow me to make brief connections or comments that students could use as a reference. They could ask questions or even start discussions of their own (which I probably will force them to do...) Oh the possibilities are endless...

As easy and user-friendly these programs have become, I think blogging really is a beneficial technology to incorporate in the classroom. I'm sure as I get more comfortable with it myself I will really learn all the capabilities this blog has to offer.