IEP

Technologically advance your class by using a Blog

As a teacher, I am always looking for new tools to help me engage students. Recently I found a new tool that greatly increases student interaction: the blog. I have been Incorporating blogging into my English and history classes and it has produced some great results (to read the results continue reading to the end of this post). I educated myself about how to effectively use a blog in my classroom and what follows is what I discovered.

• I can post yearly class resources like our class syllabus, rubrics, and parent-letters.
  
• I can easily post weekly and daily assignment including projects, reading schedules, and writing reflections.
  
• I can provide students with links to online resources that can help them in their work.
  
• I also found out how organize different class periods by using the different pages function.
  
• I also learned how to limit access to the blog by incorporating passwords OR limiting viewers of the blog.
  
• I also learned that I enjoy being able to personalize the appearance of the blog.

To view our class blog: click here (Note- I have placed some sample resources under the tab "Mr Routon's College Class," and the rest of the blog is our class's primary blog)

One way to introduce and use a class blog

I’ve included some lesson plans detailing one way to introduce my students to blogging. This approach blends English (with persuasive writing), history (using the topic of slavery) and technology. Click the following links to see the lesson plans:

1. students will do a scavenger hunt on the class blog to gain familiarity.
2. students will learn how to post
3. students will learn how to write peer comments
   
4. students will complete a self directed assignment using the several blog resources
   
5. students will post persuasive writing piece, citing blog resources
   
6. students will create an online resource and link it to the class blog

Reflection on Blogging:

Blogging is a great tool that educators should be using in this technological age. I have found that a blog is a wonderful tool for me to be able to post daily assignments and class documents. Students can use the blog as a resource to find class information and a blog can provides for students for independently work. Finally, as a language arts teacher, I have found that the quality of student work has improved when using a class blog. When we use the blog, my students answering the questions more thoroughly and write in greater length. Also, when we use the blog, students spend more time reading. They are curious to see what their friends wrote and enjoy being self-guided as they can view every student's thoughts.

Learning to use a blog can be cumbersome because each blog-host is different and it takes time to learn each different blog template. It takes a while to learn the features, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised with how much control I had as the blog mediator. I was able to set security features to limit access to the blog. I was also able to add many different multimedia features and improved the look and function of the blog. I heartily recommend using this classroom technology to engage today’s students. For my full report: click here.