Lessons Learned from Blogging with my Students

Two weeks ago, our class began blogging.  A great deal of learning, practice, and discussion went into the weeks leading up to students crafting their first post.  We also learned how to compose meaningful comments.  These were all important lessons; however, during these past two weeks I have also learned what a powerful tool blogging can be for a variety of reasons.

Blogging is powerful when is a choice not a requirement.  In our class, blogging is (and always will be) a choice. Each week I do have an optional blog challenge.   Students may respond to the blog challenge, post about any school appropriate topic they would like, or choose not to post at all.  In the past two weeks, students have composed over 100 posts.  Some students have more posts than others and that is fine.  We write in class every day.  Now that we have learned how to blog, blogging will one choice in how we can publish our work.  Blogging provides an authentic audience for our writing; however, we do have other outlets as well.  

Blogging allows us to connect with other students.  We have a class in Canada that we have connected with in Kidblog.  It has been very interesting for us to read what second graders in another country write about--surprisingly we write about very similar things.   

Blogging provides a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss digital citizenship and safety.  We are learning how to leave a positive digital footprint.  We have discussed how to choose our words carefully and have had to edit some of our posts and comments to be sure we are mindful of others feelings.   We also had a situation where one of our learning friends in Canada asked one of our students where they lived.  Because I have our settings set so I have to approve all comments, we were able to turn this into a teachable moment and talk about putting personal information online and how to respond when someone asks us questions like this.  

Parents are powerful partners in blogging.  Before launching our blogs, I obtained each parents' permission.  I explained the purpose of our blogs and how I saw us using them.  I also explained that I wanted the blogs open so families could comment on them.  Even though some parents were apprehensive, 100% of them gave permission with the understanding they could opt out at any time.  So far, I have had overwhelmingly positive comments from parents about our blogs.  It is important to me that they know they have a voice and choice in their student's online presence.  I also have a team of parents who serve as blogging volunteers.  They help me comment on blog posts, and they write the most amazing comments!

Blogging allows us to tear down the walls of our classroom and allows families and friends to communicate with us.  In the past two weeks, we have had over 360 comments (and counting) to our posts.  I had been worried that we would not have very many comments.  That simply had not been the case.  Grandparents, cousins, aunts, big sisters, and parents comment on our posts. We have had comments from all around the United States and Mexico. I love reading these comments and knowing that blogging has allowed student families to see what is happening in our classroom.  

I am excited about the learning opportunities that blogging has brought to our classroom.  I would love to hear how other classrooms use blogs and what they have learned.