I know, I know, another blog about student blogging.

 

Tough! 🙂

 

We’ve talked about blogging, did paper blogs, and finally, FINALLY, got our hands on our KidBlog site last week. We talk about making writing meaningful, we talk about making it authentic, well, we did just that. Last week was Thanksgiving, so we, as many other classrooms did, wrote about Thanksgiving. This is one of the first times I’ve had students so actively engaged in their writing, asking how to spell words, asking if these words made sense, going to others for proofreading more then once.

 

Why?

 

Because they have a “worldwide” voice now. I figured I’d get buy in, but not like this. Students who struggle to write came up with words and my students who are overflowing with them picked much more carefully.

 

We first did a practice, just a couple of sentences, and went through practicing the art of commenting. Eh, something to work on, but it served it’s purpose, to get something out there to show off to Mom and Dad. Of course, silly teacher I am, after we got our blogs posted, no one could comment on them! Apparently there are more of the safeguards there then I give KidBlog credit for, because all Thanksgiving break I was messing with various settings and finally got it opened up for comments. And we got them too! Comments from teachers here and afar, comments from parents, and even one from Australia! You think I’m excited, imagine them!

We are taking a “break” practicing friendly letter writing to a group in Argentina. Again, authentic writing anyone?? Pretty wild what teaching has become, and how you can take students, give them a voice, the challenge of “do better” and see what they create! So yes, your students need to blog. I may not be as eloquent as some in my writing, but this is something you must try, if only to experience that, “yes, I got a comment” statement echoing in your classroom!

And guess what we are doing next week? 🙂 Comments anyone?

 

Check us out: http://kidblog.org/Theblogsof5J-2/