Blogging with your

elementary students

Kelly MoranJulie Poling

Kirtland Elementary School

What is blogging? Definition: a web page containing brief,

chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites.

Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001, Department of Education and training website:

http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/

Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on curriculum.

Blogging with elementary students?

• This generation of young children is familiar with technology and are eager to use it

• Blogging can help you connect with parents/families

• Blogging will help your students become more excited about writing

• Blogging can correlate with any subject you are teaching

• It is interactive and promotes the use of technology into your teaching

• All of your students can participate regardless of ability

Good Examples of Blogs http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/

http://itc.blogs.com/rikard/

http://trantwoodelem.learnerblogs.org/

http://thorezthinkers.blogspot.com/

http://www.kesartistdave.blogspot.com/

Our Experience• Became interested last year after attending eTech• Started slowly last spring – the kids and I became

very excited and involved• Spoke with Julie and she started blogging with her

students• This school year we became more structured with

weekly and unit oriented blog topics• What we found was that previous students were

still blogging with us this year• We learned more about our own students from

their responses

Are there any cons?• Remember to check your students’ responses

often – they look forward to your responses back and your thoughts on their ideas

• Some students will participate more than others• Some of our past students want to use it more as

an email type of forum and will respond with messages that don’t apply to the topic

• Lack of computers in the school/home

How to get started• Find a reputable site to use

• Get your students excited and respond back to them quickly so that they know you’ve read their responses

• Practice together as a class – utilize your school’s computer lab

• Blog permission form

Where can I get a blog page started? http://edublogs.org/

www.gaggle.net

http://www.classblogmeister.com/

www.21classes.com

How to get started• We suggest using POW-PAK

• http://www.pow-pak.com/powpak.html

Why POW-PAK• Child and parent friendly• Our students are more apt to use it

because they come to our class homepage often for other resources

• Easy for the teacher to use and create new blog topics

• We like that we can add pictures Teacher must approve a response

before it will be posted on the web for others to see

Our Current Blog Pages• Mrs. Moran's Blog Page

• Miss Poling's Blog Page

How to incorporate blogging into your teaching• We’ve done everything from casual posts to

academic topics on concepts we’ve covered in class

• Get creative – incorporate holidays, books you’ve read together, have your students write poems and/or songs

• Offer it for extra credit• Use blogging to intro a new topic or unit• Weekly computer lab time• Connect with your students in a different and more

personal way (example: our new classroom blog)

Blog Topics/Ideas• Story starters (see attached list at the end)• Ask your students to log on during winter, spring

break and tell you what they are doing (they’ll be excited to “talk” to you when they aren’t in school

• Acrostic poems• Describe a main character (fictional, real person)• Post a challenging math problem and have them

respond with their answers• Weekly/Daily review – your students who are

absent due to illness or vacation won’t feel as left out

Need More Info?• Feel free to contact us

• Kelly Moran ki_morank@lgca.org

• Julie Poling ki_poling@lgca.org