1. Blogging with your elementary students Kelly Moran Julie Poling Kirtland Elementary School

2. 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/i ct/weblogs/ http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/i ct/weblogs/  Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on curriculum.

3. 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

4. Good Examples of Blogs  http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/ http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/  http://itc.blogs.com/rikard/ http://itc.blogs.com/rikard/  http://trantwoodelem.learnerblogs.org/ http://trantwoodelem.learnerblogs.org/  http://thorezthinkers.blogspot.com/ http://thorezthinkers.blogspot.com/  http://www.kesartistdave.blogspot.com/ http://www.kesartistdave.blogspot.com/

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Where can I get a blog page started?  http://edublogs.org/ http://edublogs.org/  www.gaggle.net www.gaggle.net  http://www.classblogmeister.com/ http://www.classblogmeister.com/  www.21classes.com www.21classes.com

9. How to get started We suggest using POW-PAK http://www.pow-pak.com/powpak.html

11. 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

12. Our Current Blog Pages Mrs. Moran's Blog Page Miss Poling's Blog Page

13. 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)

14. 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

15. Need More Info? Feel free to contact us Kelly Moran ki_morank@lgca.orgki_morank@lgca.org Julie Poling ki_poling@lgca.orgki_poling@lgca.org