Totally Blogging Tuesday

In my classroom this past year, I started a classroom blog.  I was familiar with blogging, and I wanted a way for my class to take ownership and share about their learning.  I had a blog previously for my classroom, but I was the only one who posted.  I had to take time to think about what I was posting, I took pictures, and I did not have time to post everything that I wanted to about the amazing learning that was happening my my classroom. 

This past year, I turned the ownership over to the students!  After countless mini lessons in digital citizenship, they became experts on how to post and comment on our blog and others.  It was the best writing motivator I could have ever presented, and I am so glad that I let them do the work (with my help of course)!

Below is our very first post from December:

I started SIMPLE with a shared writing.  The class and I worked together to create a summary of  our read aloud book, "The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail."  I was still the one typing, and my students loved their first moment of sharing.  I sent our blog information home to parents, and we had some comment right away!

After our first post together, the writing took off!  We added another group post the following week, and then it was time for the students to try their hand at commenting on OTHER blogs as well as writing their OWN posts!  Each Tuesday I will share our journey in blogging as well as give some tips for creating your own classroom blog.

If you are interested in Edublogs, this is the platform I use.  This link gives a great intro for how to set up a blog of your very own using Edublogs.  It also explains how a classroom blog can be beneficial!  There are many others, such as Kidblog, for  younger students.

Check back for more ways to use a blog with your students next Tuesday!