Thing+Two

toc =Blogs= Allanah King has created an exemplar site of quality education blog posts - check it out to find interesting articles to read and to get inspiration for your own class blogs: @https://sites.google.com/site/linklearningexemplars/ Some other links are:

@http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/

@http://www.interfacemagazine.co.nz/teacherblogs/

Why Blog
Seth Godin says it best in this video: media type="custom" key="12165644"

Teachers Blogging
The best value of blogging as a teacher for me is the reflection of my work and experiences that goes into the blog posts. Seth Godin talks about the 'metacognition of what you're going to write' - as teachers we are encouraged to reflect on our practice - blogging is a great way to do it - and to invite others into the conversation too.

Research on student blogging
As part of my research last year I looked at blogging and what students thought about it.
 * I interviewed 2 Year students, a boy and a girl, both 7. They have been blogging in their class, using the Kidblog platform.  They start by drafting their stories in their draft writing book, and then publishing some of them to their blogs. They work with buddies from a Year 5 class to do the blogging.

<span style="background-color: #ffffdd; border-bottom-color: #9999aa; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: #9999aa; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: #9999aa; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: #9999aa; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 30px; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 10px; width: 90%;">I ask them how they felt about their blogs. "Proud to have my writing in my blog." "I feel like a famous writer."

I then asked them how they felt when people commented on their blogs. "I feel proud." "I feel special inside."

Then I asked what kinds of things they said when they were commenting on other people's blogs. "... how good the writing is..." "... what sort of words they've used..."

I asked them if there was a difference to their draft writing when they knew it was going onto the blog. "It encourages me to work harder at my writing." "I know that I have to write some more detail in my writing."

They were able to identify the audience for their different types of writing: Draft book: the teacher and maybe a buddy Blog: mum and dad, grandparents, maybe friends, all sorts of people

Finally, when asked, they both said they'd like to continue blogging.||

Student blogs
I like to use Kidblog to create individual blogs for my students and then Blogger for our class blog.