Blog Topic Ideas For the Classroom

Spring Break is pretty much over and now that it's coming to an end I've had some time to reflect on some things in my classroom. A few weeks ago, I received a comment from a visitor asking what I have my students blog about. I thought that I would create a post about just that. Now that I've been in school for 3/4 of the year and my students have been blogging for that length of time, I feel that I can truly discuss blogging in the classroom.

One thing that I think is very important when your students are blogging is that they still have the freedom to choose what they write about. This is still writing but just in a digital way! I tell my students that this is their virtual Reader's/Writer's Notebook. With that, I do require certain things from them on the blog because I do know that:

1. Some students are not yet ready to produce their own topics
2. Writing assignments for my class are required from time to time

The writers in my class treasure their blog and have truly taken ownership of it by personalizing and freely sharing, posting, and commenting on one another's blogs hoping to develop the writing connection with one another. Other students need a little more help from me in what I want to see as far as writing goes. 

Exit Tickets- A great way to give your students an idea for a blog post is have them write a post in response to what happened during class. Just like a written exit ticket it can be about anything!

Quick Writes- This is a great way to start class when students first arrive. They complete a quick write over the topic that you want them to write on for a few minutes. This can be posted on their blog and then allow each other in the class to comment on these. Commentary is such a great tool for each student to see that their words are powerful!

Create a weekly blogging schedule- I have a weekly blogging schedule for my students to use if they wish. Every day of the week has a different theme like "Text Talk Tuesday." The way this works is if a student is blogging on a Tuesday and they need something as a topic they can use Text Talk Tuesday. Text Talk Tuesday (for my Language Arts class) just means that their blog post focuses on a piece of text where they thought it was meaningful/insightful/powerful, etc. and they quote it and then respond to it. This is a way for me to bring in reader's responses without calling it a reader's response. 

Book Reviews- If you teach a Language Arts class this is a great way to get the conversation about books going! Students love to talk about the books they've read (good or bad!). Just make sure you've gone over book reviews first. You may even keep a template for how to write a book review as a resource for them to follow on the blog.

Embed Web Tools- Sometimes I use web tools like Padlet to start discussions in my class and then my students are able to interact with it. I've also had my students use Smore recently and embed the Smore directly into their blog. Students learn how to embed basic HTML code this way. It really opens up what they're able to do and share. 

Keep in mind- if you can write it on paper, you can probably find a way to share it on your blog.

For more ideas check out my class blog here! Have a great week everyone!!

What Have I Done? Or- What Kind of Blogging Challenge Have I Really Made For Myself?

In hopes and dreams of getting all of my 8th graders addicted to blogging I decided on a whim today (of course) that I would reopen EduBlogs to my students. Now, for those of you with me earlier in the school year remember, I started my students out on EduBlogs but abandoned it and switched over to KidBlog for the ease of the blogging platform. I desperately want to use EduBlogs with my kids because I have this dream that they will learn to love blogging as much as me!

So, today when a student who was "jazzing up" their KidBlog came to me and asked, "Ms. Bush, is there any way to customize these pages?" I knew immediately the time had come! It was time to go back to EduBlogs. Oh sure- not everyone is ready for this. Some of my students haven't even changed their avatar or taken any kind of ownership on their blog.

The plan is this: those students who are blogging savvy and ready for EduBlogs can begin using EduBlogs while the rest of the kiddos stay in their comfort zone on KidBlog. All the while I will be posting on both platforms and encouraging everyone to transition on over to EduBlogs.

Fingers crossed!! Wish me luck!

EduBlogs Grrr...

I haven't had a voice since Tuesday. It's been really hard to give directions and start my kids on all the technology we use and my classroom procedures without it. I've been trying though! Tuesday, when we get back, I'll start them on blogging!

I'm so excited to start blogging with my students. I have things all setup. I finally have them all entered and blogs created on EduBlogs. I decided to abandon KidBlog this year. I thought that I could so much more on EduBlogs. I think that I can except for one thing: linky parties. I really wanted my students to have linky parties following the schedule I posted about earlier in the summer. Come to find out WordPress powered blogs can't. Yeah... any ideas out there about how to get around this?

I've also spent the past 3 hours today at Starbucks. It was the only way to get any work done. Hey- I got a blog post completed, 152 blogs created, lesson plans submitted, emails sent and a start on the following week's lessons too. Not too bad for a Saturday at Starbucks. Thanks Starbucks for letting me hang forever.

I wish I had more excitement about the beginning of the school year but I've just been plain worn out. Next week awaits!

A Blogging Epiphany and FREEBIE!!

I love words. I love the word epiphany. Today, on the way home from a super fun playdate, I had an epiphany. I'm pretty sure if I was able to still teach with the two ladies, Laura and Lori (from The Thompson Trio in Texas), I would have more of them.

Blogging has become a kind of obsession with me this summer. It annoyingly (sorry everyone) comes up in my daily conversations. I was determined to make this work. Life has a tendency of getting in the way of so many things, but I thought if my students were going to do this then I'm going to do it too. So, needless to say, blogging has been on my mind.

On the drive home, I began thinking about blogging with my kids. Was I going to use kidblog or Edublogs? Was I going to have the same requirements as last year? What was I going to introduce to them first? How? Then it occurred to me. The teaching blogs I read, I've been exposed to them through a linky party. Why not have a linky party with my students? Why not have guest bloggers on my teacher blog page? Thus, the epiphany!

I came home and began to think of all the things that I want my kids to do on their blogs. This is their reader's/writer's notebook. I want them to write reflections, wonderings, book reviews about their books, etc. I also want them to be creative and create their own writing. I want them to share with their peers. I want them to give each other feedback about their reading and writings.

That's what we do as professional educators. We aren't reading one another's blogs looking for mistakes and how to edit our writing. We're learning about teaching from one another. We're looking at the content of the blog post. I learn just as much from an elementary blogger as a middle school blogger as a high school blogger. This community has so many talented people in it. I want my classroom to have that same sharing of ideas and community feel.

I made this schedule for my students to follow. I won't require them to blog every day. Let's be real here- these middle schoolers have their plates full with athletics, extra-curriculars, and academics! I do expect one blog post a week. They can pick the day. They'll link up like we do here in "teacher blogging land" and share with one another. Here is the schedule I've created. It's FREE on my TpT store. Get it now!