Blogging In The Classroom

Creating a mock classroom blog has solidified my belief in incorporating technology into the classroom. By creating posts that relate to the Ontario Curriculum for a grade 8 class (my current placement grade), it has become clear how beneficial a classroom blog really is. I have learned that communicating to parents about the purpose of an activity can be easily accomplished through the use of a blog. It is a great way for students to actually show their parents what they are working on and the teacher can address the parents and explain why in the blog forum.

I plan to incorporate a classroom blog in my future practices as a teacher. Even in my current block, my associate teacher has been wanting to get a blog up and running but is unfamiliar with the process. We plan to take on the challenge of a creating and using the classroom blog together. What a great experience for both of us!

From my mock classroom blog, it has become clear that media literacy is the most obvious strand to address. By embedding videos and pictures, students can interpret and analyze from school or home, and develop their media literacy skills. Although I tended to stick with the Language curriculum for my mock blog, I can see the benefits of integrating science, music, and even mathematics.

This experience has motivated me to integrate technology as a teacher. I will keep you posted about my upcoming experience with an actual classroom blog!

There are many different blogs to choose from, such as EduBlog. Although for a particular website, this video shows the benefits of using blogs in general.

EDUBLOGS.ORG TO VIEW THIS VIDEO AND TO SIGN UP!