Blogging- Who Would Have Thought?

Why don't I let my kids run with things more often? I introduced our classroom blog to my class on Monday and couldn't be more impressed with my kids! They have jumped on board without hesitation! I have been so afraid to bring this into my classroom all year. I was afraid that it would be too much to handle and become too overwhelming for me to teach the kids how to use the site and then properly "blog."

After my last observation, I decided, what could it hurt? I set up the classroom blog last week and realized that it only took 10 minutes to do! I figured that would be the easy part, but it turns out, it isn't the easiest part. On Monday, I pulled up our classroom blog, showed the kids how to log in, and then we jumped right in and wrote a blog together stating our requirements. We did this as a shared writing and then posted it for them to frequently check back to.

My kids couldn't get to the computers, laptops, and iPads in my room fast enough to start "blogging." I had a few students ask if I knew how to write a blog post because they felt that the writing was different than a typical response. I was immediately taken back by the insight my kids had about this type/style of writing. I thought that the only thing I would get out of this experience was to read their reading responses in a more convenient way for me. Who would have thought that would be the smallest thing I would get from this?

My kids wrote posts this week that were deeper than any other reading response I have read this year (they used to write a response each week in a notebook that was passed between myself and them). My "lowest" readers/writers became examples for classmates on insight and depth in their thinking and writing about their books. I had students who never turned in a reading response (or rarely did so), posting immediately! Now, mind you, the requirements did not get easier, only harder! They still have to write a post once a week, but now they have to respond to at least three classmates. Plus, this is worth more points than their old responses (now 20 points, was 5 points a week).

Why do I think a huge improvement was shown? Well, I think for one, this was of high interest to my kids because it involved technology. They love the technology we have in our room with this pilot program (which I hope I never have to give up this technology), but now they have a way to interact with one another using this technology.

I think that their responses are more insightful and well thought out, because their peers are reading their posts as well! I would love to think that my kids valued my opinion on their writing, but the reality is, I am the teacher. Their peers have "real" opinions that matter to them much more than mine ever will. If the kids are anything like me and my blog posts, they can't wait to log into the blog, open up their recent posts, and see a comment about THEIR writing from THEIR friends.

If I could go back in time and was allowed to make one change to my classroom and instruction this year, it would be to start this classroom blog from the beginning of the year. I have already learned more about my students as readers (and writers) from this first week "experimenting" with this than I think I have learned from many of our conversations. I have also found that they are more excited to talk to one another about their reading and participate and share in our read aloud discussions. I am so excited about this in my room and can't wait to hear what my kids think after our first week is completed and we re-evaluate as promised.