Blogging in the Classroom

I have been considering how to best utilize blogging in my classroom which has been a little difficult for me. I teach third grade and unfortunately blogging sites, personal pages, etc. are strictly banned from our classroom computers and the bans have no chance of being lifted anytime soon. It was a huge deal for the Internet bans to be lifted on inauguration day so that the students could witness President Obama's speech. Regardless of all of that though I have been interested in how I could utilize blogs in my room if my students were actually allowed to access the sites.

One way in which I might utilize a blog would be to use it as a place where parents could access information about my classroom. Information regrading homework, tests, lunch menus, etc. could very easily be added and parents could look at the information at any time from their home computer. This would cut down on scheduling questions such as when does my child have gym? When is picture day? It would also serve as a forum so that I could leave messages to parents about important reminders that the students would need to know (picture day, field trips, etc.)

Another way that I would be interested in using a blog would be to use it as a collaborative space in which my class could connect and discuss information with students from other schools. One idea that I had would be to have my students read Charlotte's Web (I teach third grade). I have a friend that also teaches third grade in another state who could also read the same book with her students. While reading the classes could post questions to each other and have a discussion about the book via the blog. The students would be able to hear the opinions of others while being able to articulate their own ideas.

While discussing the book students could also research links about the author and post so that both classes would have a wide variety of web-sites that discuss the author. Students could also research spiders as a part of the book and share their information with the classes on the blog page. The students would then have the opportunity to write a research paper about spiders using the websites provided from both classes. After writing their paper the students would be matched up with a partner from the other class. They could share their research papers and then have a discussion about how to best improve and revise their papers. This would allow students to collaborate with each other as well as work through the writing process while at the same time reading and discussing the book.

A blog would be ideal for this sort of lesson because it would allow students to hear opinions from students in other schools and places. It would allow the class to work together to either individually or collaboratively write a well thought out response to literature.