I have been thinking about how I might use a blog in my classroom. Blogs are a powerful tool in the instructional setting in so many ways: reading, writing, collaborating with people across the globe, and archiving and sharing student work (Richardson, 2009). Since I am a kindergarten teacher I feel somewhat limited in the ways I will be able to use a blog in my class. Since they are just learning how to write phonetically, I don't feel it practical to have a blog where students write themselves. Because of this I am struggling with ways to use a blog within a lesson. I see my use of a blog as more of a communicative tool.
I would like to start a classroom blog as a way to post student work, and communicate with parents. It would keep parents updated on homework, and upcoming school activities. As a class we could even write a summary of our day together and post it so that parents know what we did that day. I will be sure to include links to websites that have good educational games on them so that students can get extra support in a fun way.
Another use for my classroom blog is to find a classroom we can be blog pals with. A technological twist on the traditional pen pal. It could be educational for my students to learn about what life is like for children outside of the the small community they live in.
Currently, if we have extra time in our day we will research a topic on the internet that my students want to know more about- for example animals, and bugs. When I get better at blogging, I can have my students post questions to the general public about things they want to know about and see what kinds of responses we get. Students might even chose to research the topic at home and post a response with their family.
My question to anyone who might be reading this is simple: what are some different grade level appropriate ways I can use a blog in my classroom of kindergarteners? While I have no problem imagining the uses of this technology for older students I am stumped for ideas of to use blogs in my own situation. I would be appreciative of any ideas.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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Posting your kindergarteners work would be a great asset to your parents and will help them feel a part of your classroom. Will you teach your children how to use a digital camera so they can share the work, or will you or an aide do this? This may be time consuming and tedious depending on how many students you have. If you have parent volunteers, maybe they could snap three or four shots during their time.
ReplyDeleteOur kindergarten classrooms use "Kid Writing." Would it be possible to have your children (with the help of a parent volunteer) do their "Kid Writing" on the blog? Since it's kindergarten, I wouldn't expect my students to be able to spell correctly. You could also post on your site that spelling hasn't been edited. Think of the progress you would see if you started this at the beginning of the year and continued to the end of the year! What a great way to showcase the huge amount of knowledge these young children gain in a year's time!
Your shared writing idea of summarizing the daily activities in your classroom is a fabulous way to get students involved in an easy way. You are modeling good writing traits during this time and then they can see that there is an audience to consider.
The biggest drawback to a blog in kindergarten is finding the time to keep up with it. Consider asking for help from older students in your school that you could train. Instead of "Book Buddies," you could have "Blogging Buddies."
I think you have some wonderful ideas for using blogs in your classroom. I especially like the idea of posting a summary of the day in order to keep parents notified of what is happening in the classroom. How do you intend to make sure that the blog is updated each day? Do you have an assistant that can help you to maintain the blog?
ReplyDeleteDo your students have internet access at home? This is one setback that I face with using blogs in my classroom. Many of my students do not have internet access at home. How will those parents without internet access view your blog?
I also like the idea of blogging with another classroom. Have you heard of ePals? The web address is www.epals.com. They provide a pen pal service that is utilized by teachers and students across the globe.
Great idea for using blogs in your classroom! I think that posting the days’ activities so that parents can see is a great way to keep open communication in the classroom. This is especially great for parents of kindergarteners who might worry some about their child going off to school for the first time. I'm sure they appreciate being kept in the loop.
ReplyDeleteI know that kindergarteners might have a difficult time with the writing component since they are still in the early stages of writing and are not able to spell things correctly. Maybe you could use some type of recording tool so that your students can read what they wrote and you can post the audio on the blog. This way, parents can understand what the writing says.
Do you have any ESL learners in your class? This would be a great tool to use for them because they can read their writing in their native language so that parents and family members that may not speak English can enjoy what their child has posted on the blog.
Good luck with blogging in your classroom. I look forward to hearing your updates.
Thank you everyone for the great comments and suggestions. I will attempt to answer your questions as best as possible! You have given me much to think about.
ReplyDeleteIf I post my student's work I will take the pictures myself-or scan the work (I do not have parent volunteers and I only have my aide for an hour in the mornings which is not during our writing time :( ). To make it more manageable I will pick one story a day and make it the feature story. I agree that posting this work throughout the year will show great progress. I also love the idea of adding audio to the reading. It would be a neat way for students to be able to read the blog and their writing once they get home.
Managing a daily blog will be very time consuming. I think I will try to include the class in the updating of it as much as possible so they feel involved. Anybody have any good ideas on that? I suppose if it becomes too difficult I could update it bi-weekly instead of every day.
Many of my students do not have internet at home. I do not know what to do for those parents who do not have access to the blog site. I am open to any idea of how to include all parents in this process!
I LOVE the idea of epals. Thank you so much for the website. I will be investigating it this week!
80% of my class is made up of ESL students. I agree that using this blog could be a great way for students to be able share their classwork with their parents. I can see the parents really enjoying that.
Once again, thank you for all of the great comments.-Amber