Blogging is for kids too-- right? (My Brave New Step)

One of the hallmarks of a 21^st Century education is the movement away from teacher-centered, memorization-required schooling, towards a creative, collaborative, student-centered classroom.  This can be a daunting task for many teachers, as many of us were not raised in this type of environment.  One of the tools that can help teachers accomplish this is a student or classroom blog. There are a variety of blogging platforms for teachers to use for free, and many school districts also provide a web platform that students and teachers can use. 

In many blogging platforms, there is a capability for students to post work and interact with each other.  Because I work with elementary age students, my school district does not allow us to have blog posts go public, but the web platform that my school district provides allows us to provide students with a password to create a private class site so that only students and parents can see it.  While this limits the audience for my students, it gives many of my students the ability to see each other’s posts, ideas, and projects.  There is also the capability for students to comment on each other’s posts and for the teacher to monitor and control what is posted.

I haven’t yet used very many of the blogging capabilities available to me, but I am thinking for next year about starting to have students comment about a text we have read together in class, and work on their ability to reference the text in their original postings and in their replies to each other.  This is something that will help us align our writing curriculum to the Common Core, which requires students to be able to reference the text in their thinking and writing.

I’ve always been nervous to start blogging with my class, because I haven’t been sure if I can trust my fifth graders to put appropriate, thoughtful comments.  But, next year I’m planning to take the plunge, along with some careful teaching about what thoughtful comments would look like. Wish me luck as I prepare to take this brave new step!