To Blog or Not To Blog?

We are in the middle of the four-week OKCPS Blogging Challenge.  Seasoned bloggers and newbies alike are joining the challenge to reflect and share through a professional blog.  This seems the perfect time for a blog post about blogging!

Why Blog?

The standard approach to blogging is to reflect on and share your perspective and experiences.  Blogs are also useful for sharing recipes, resources, photos, and student work.  They can also be a great way to keep parents informed about class happenings, in place of a weekly newsletter.

Blog With Students!

Blogging develops writing skills and so much more.  Students grow as digital citizens (publishing and commenting), build connections, receive feedback, and reflect on their learning.

Idea 1:  Students write a 3-part blog weekly: one positive thing from the week, one thing they learned, and one learning topic they don't yet understand.  Students then leave comments to support each other's learning.

Idea 2:  Students create a reflective learning log with photos and details from the week.  The blog then serves as both a portfolio and study guide.

Idea 3:  Students practice specific writing traits (e.g. voice, point of view, word choice) within a short creative writing piece each week.

Awesome Tips:

• 5 Tips for New Bloggers from ShakeUp Learning
• A MUST-READ for Students:
  Blogging is Killer: Why Teens Should Blog (After They Read This)
  from 60 Second Recap.  This post includes links and examples of teen bloggers with unique approaches and viral success.
• Twitter hashtag #Comments4Kids solicits comments for your students' blog posts. Imagine the validation and global reach!
• 100 Brilliant Color Combinations and How to Apply Them to Your Blog from The Design School.  Scroll through and find one that speaks to you, then customize your blog.

But How?

How Blogs Work:  A blog places the most recent post at the top.  You can label or tag posts with keywords, so posts can be easily sorted into categories.  In addition to posts, you can create and link to  pages in your blog, which are not part of the post stream.

Choose a Blog Platform:  If you have a Google account (Gmail, Drive, etc.), you have access to Blogger, Google's free blog platform.  (When you create a blog in Blogger, your blog URL will include "blogspot.com")  Other blog platform options can be found and compared in this chart.

Consider a Class Blog:  If you are a teacher, KidBlog, SeeSaw Blogs, and Edublog all allow you to set up a class blog where each student receives their own unique login yet the blog space is shared.  Some let students create their own sub-blog as well.  You can keep the blog private, share with parents, or make it public.

Make Time for Initial Set-up and Design:
Plan your blog goals first.  As you create your blog, remember YouTube and Atomic Learning (paid subscription) if you need support related to the details of setting up your blog.

Share!
Share your blog link on Twitter and Facebook.  Link your blog URL in your email signature and your webpage or website.  And Tweet the link whenever you write a new post.