A Few Ideas for Blogging with Students

You have your blog account set up, now what? There are lots of things to blog about with your students. Here are a few ideas that I found:

Elementary Teachers:

• Begin a discussion! Did you come across something interesting today in class? Encourage more discussion on the topic by posting a follow-up question that the students can respond to. For example, second graders learn about insects and non-insects. Perhaps you could challenge the students to see how many more names of insects they can discover.
• Give a few tips! Is the homework assignment for tonight a little tricky? Maybe you could post the big ideas from class that day to help the students when working independently at home. Share a few helpful links for extra practice too! Students may comment if they found the tips helpful (or not) as well as a few tricks they discovered that may help others.

Students:

• Teachers, encourage your students to post personal thoughts, ideas, or just what they did over the weekend by beginning a "You are free to comment" post. Students may discover something new about their peers and what they have in common with them. This could be a wonderful classroom community building exercise!
• Seat work. Instead of having the students complete their reading group work by filling out a worksheet at their desk, have them respond to a thought provoking question online to then use in the next reading group.
• Edit and Revise. Students could type their creative writing into a blog and receive feedback from their peers. What a great way to teach proper use of punctuation and correct spelling!
• Share your favorite websites! Students probably have the opportunity to explore the internet on their on time at home. Maybe there are a few websites they frequently visit and would like their friends to check out. The students can post the links on the blog for other students to explore at home. (This can be educational, or not. But, hey, technology is supposed to be fun, right?)

Have anymore ideas??? Please share, I'd love to hear them!

Blogging

Now that you've learned a little about blogging, admitt it, I have made you curious enough to begin your own. Well, GREAT! Let's start blogging!

I am currently blogging at Blogger, and I have found it to be very user friendly. When you sign-up you are able to choose from a variety of different backgrounds, setting such as who may view your blog, as well as the title and web address you would like your blog to have. Once you have set your blog you may begin posting as well as changing the font style and color, background colors, and layout. Even though you have chosen a pre-made background, this is your time to really make your blog your own!

As a teacher in Howard County I have been approved to use Edublogs with my students. This is a great blog site for teachers because of the security settings available. When the teacher sets up the blog they allow for only the students to access the blog. The students may read the entries and post their own comments. However, when their comments are posted they do not directly go to the site. The students' posts are sent to the teacher for approval before they can be seen by other students on the blog. This is a great feature to prevent any inappropriate comments from making an appearance on the class blog. I have set up a blog on this site for use with my class this coming fall. Check it out!

Blog Basics

Until I began this blog I was actually unsure of what a blog was myself. After setting up an account and writing a few entries it is difficult to imagine not blogging. I am hooked! With a little background information and ideas for use, hopefully you will soon love them too!

What is a blog? The term blog comes from the two words web log. A blog is a website maintained by an individual who posts written entries, links to websites, pictures, audio, and/or video. Some blogs are written to inform while others are personal thoughts and opinions like a diary. Blogs may be available to the public or viewed by invite only. Viewers may post comments on entries as well. Personally, that is my favorite part! I have had a few of my peers already post a few comments to my entries. It is pretty cool to know that other people are reading what I write and want to take the time to tell me about it.

But, why? Well, each blogger has their own personal reasons. For some it may be to share facts and information that they know about top new stories, politics, or sports. For others it may be to share thoughts and opinions and receive feedback. Then, there are those who are required to create blogs for course they are taking. But, for whatever the reason, us bloggers are communicating. In this high tech, on the go, society of today blogs give people an outlet for communication that fits their schedule. When the news happens, when a thought pops into your head, or when tomorrow is the deadline for the last entry, the blog is always there waiting for the next post.

Let's get ready to BLOG!

Creating Podcasts

Teachers, you now feel comfortable with podcasting enough to say what it is, where you can find them, and how you can listen to them. But, you are still unsure of how they can be helpful to you and your students in the classroom. Depending on the grade level that you teach, you may find that a podcast is more helpful when you or your students are the creators. This can be done in a few different ways. The program Garageband, available for Macs, can be used to import recorded audio files to be saved as an mp3 file and uploaded to the Internet for sharing. Or, websites like podOmatic allow its users to record through their site. The completed recording would then be shared through the personal page the user has created.

But what do I say?? Here are some ideas:

• Elementary Teachers
• Create your own listening center for any book in your room! Whether students have excelled at reading or still need assistance, they all like to be read to. Now, you can personally read and record any book in your classroom library then share with your students while you are busy giving individual attention to one of their peers.
• Tell about your day! Take a few minutes at the end of each school day to remember the day's events and lessons. Upload the podcast to the class website so parents at home can become a part of the classroom.
• Mini-lessons! Record mini-lessons for a variety of topics that the students can use to review both at school and at home.
  

• Students
• Review! Students can create their own study guides for a topic that they have just learned. For example, in math the students are learning their multiplication facts. In pairs, students create a podcast reviewing their assigned fact. Gather the class together to listen to all of the podcasts and review all of their multiplication facts.
• Guided Tour! Take a tour of the classroom, school building or school grounds and record what you see. This could be an assignment where students imagine what the school building looked like in the 1800s as a social students activity or an assignment when the students actually look at the classroom to learn about their surroundings on the first day.
• Practice Fluency! Students can read and record the book they are currently reading in reading group to work on fluency. After the student is finished, and they playback the recording they can hear for themselves the speed in which they read.
• Book Review! Read a good book lately? Share a short synopsis and reasons why kids like you might want to read this book.
  

Teachers, before you begin podcasting check out this short video with more ideas on integrating podcasts in your classroom.

Podcast Search and Use

Looking for a podcast? Well, there are many places to find them. I have compiled a list of some helpful sites for you to check out first!

• PodcastAlley is a site with information about podcasts and podcasting. The site also has a comprehensive directory full of podcasts for you to enjoy. You may share podcasts that you have created at this site as well.
  
• PodcastDirectory is also a site containing podcasts for you to search. You may search podcasts by subject, language, popularity, etc.
  
• Podcast.com is a similar site that house numerous podcasts for the user to search and download.

Now, teachers, you have found a podcast that you would like to share with your students. Perhaps you are learning about the presidential election and you found a podcast of an interview with one of the candidates. You might choose to listen to podcast streaming from the internet or by downloading it to listen to on the computer. But, maybe you give the students an option to listen to the podcast at home, in the car, or at the gym, after they have transferred it to their mp3 player!

Podcasting Basics

Podcast is a term that was developed to describe audio output created to be transferred to web page or a mp3 player. The term is derived from the words broadcast and iPod, Apple's mp3 player, to mean audio files shared with others. Podcasts may be syndicated, subscribed to, or downloaded.

Why podcast? Well, do you have information that you would like to be easily shared among large groups of people far and near? If you do, then you may choose to share that information in the form of a podcast. If you do not have information to share, there must be information that you are interested in researching. In which case, as you research you may come across a helpful podcast. Perhaps it is a interview with a famous author or a radio show discussing politics; whatever it may be, the podcast was probably easy to access.

Facebook and MySpace

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have been on the rise in recent years. Both are outlets for the young and old alike to connect with friends and family as well as with new people based on common interests. While Facebook and Myspace are similar both sites attract different users for different reasons.

Myspace launched in August 2003, after the success of Friendster, as a file storage site. In 2004 the site changed to become a social networking site. Myspace operates not by a fee charged to its users but by revenues generated from advertising. Once a member of Myspace the user is able customize their space based on features such as: moods, blogs, comments, profile customization, music, etc. For more information and history of Myspace please visit Myspace at Wikipedia.

Facebook launched in February 2004 as a social networking site. The name, Facebook, comes from the paper facebook, often given to new students and teachers, which included photos of current faces around campus. The Facebook site, however, takes this idea a step further by allowing students to join networks based on schools as well as workplace or even city in order to connect with others. Initially, Facebook was only available to students at Harvard. Mempership was eventually opened to include all ivy league colleges, then all colleges, to high schools, and finally to anyone with a valid e-mail address. Facebook offers similar features to Myspace where the user is able to customize a profile, share moods, post photos and videos, and comment on friends pages. For more information and history of Facebook please visit Facebook at Wikipedia.

Can Facebook and Myspace be used in education? After discussing this question with a few fellow teachers I have come to the conclusion that neither site has any direct educational value. This is not to say that both Facebook and Myspace cannot be brought into classroom in other ways. CyberEthics, cybersafety, and cybersecurity are hot topics that should be discussed with all students just as we discuss what to do if a stranger approaches you at the bus stop. Students need to learn how to stay safe online at the same time learn how to be a good digital citizen.