Thursday, November 20, 2008

Blogging for 5th Graders

At school these days we are taking various trainings and workshops dealing with technology and helping prepare our students for the 21st century. One point that was mentioned is that the jobs the kids of today will do in the future have not even been invented yet! Isn't that amazing?

I got to thinking about what I could do differently in my class that would also fit with these new ways of thinking. And it finally occured to me....I could create a class blog!

I talked with my students about what a blog is and why people make them. We talked about what a teacher and some students could do with a blog. Then we decided to make one. We are going to use this blog to discuss what we are reading (books that are assigned, as well as books the students read for fun). We are also going to write about daily activities, such as guest speakers, assemblies, field trips, etc. The kids are doing the writing, but I am posting for them.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited the kids are about doing this. Especially when they found out it would be on the Internet for anyone in the world to read. We already have some comments from some of the other teachers. I'm hoping some of the parents will start looking in on it too.

Due to privacy issues for my students, I'm not going to disclose the name of my classroom blog. If you would like to view it, I will email you the link. If you choose to look at it, feel free to comment, but know that these comments must be approved by me first. And also, please DO NOT share this link on your own blog.

I only wish I had known about blogging years ago!

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