Are Your Students Blogging?

I have posted about blogging before, but cannot say enough about the impact it has on students. Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite resources to get you hooked on blogging with your students. PLEASE try it for six months and I know you will see how much it improves students' writing. I challenge you to try it NOW.

1. Pernille Ripp on Student Blogging (great expert resource)
2. Blogging 4 Kids by William Chamberlain
3. Student Blogging Basics by David Theriault
4. Easyblog.org
5. Comments 4 Kids
6. Blogging by Cybraryman  (lots of resources)
7. Paper Blogging by Pernille Ripp (great for introducing blogs)
8. QuadBlogging 
9. Blogging without Text by Richard Byrne 
10. Sample Student Blogs on Edublogs

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Posted in Basics, Blogging, blogs, Challenge, Comments, paper blogging, Quadbloggin, writing

Why Your Students Should Be Blogging

Why My Six-Year-Olds Blog (And Why Your Students Should, Too) -- THE Journal 

I love this article on blogging with younger students. It speaks volumes to the writing process as well as teaching students early on how to protect and consider their online presence. There are many options to use for blogging with students that is safe and teachers can monitor the posts and comments. One I recommend to teachers is KidBlog.org  You can set up your class for FREE in 20 seconds so they claim! There are more than 3 million K-12 students taking advantage of Kidblog. Why not start off with a class blog? You can use blogs for classroom discussions, to learn good digital citizenship, to practice writing skills, create an e-portfolio, to have students reflect on learning, and more! This is the year to try something new. Why not start with blogging.

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Posted in Blog, blogs, collaboration, digital citizenship, discussions, e-portfolio, kidblog.org, refection, writing

Make a PDF or Book from your BLOG!

Teachers! This is such a great reason to create a CLASS BLOG next year. You can put the class blog into a PDF or Book as an EOY memoir to take home. Students also can download a PDF of their SCHOOL blogs that they posted during the year. I would make sure that they completed an EOY entry with a final reflecion of the school year and their choice of the most valuable learning. I found this from Richard Byrne’s great website. He has some great ideas that are easy to implement. If you have a blog, follow his steps to download it. I will be using Blogbooker for mine, since I use Blogger. Thank you Richard!

Free Technology for Teachers: Three Ways to Your Blog Into a Book

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Posted in Blog, blogger, Blogging, blogs, bookmaker, end of year, pdf

Blogs in Education

I posted earlier that I would provide information on the benefits of blogs. I've located some great information and hope you can use some of them. Here is a simple explanation of Blogs in Plain English:


The best resource on Blogs in Education is from the Department of Education. What better place to get your information? Included is a Tech Learning article about Gaggle (which we currently have in our District).  It shares how students use Gaggle for their Personal Learning Network. They have access to Chat Rooms, Assignment Drop Boxes, Social Wall, blogs, Digital Lockers, and Discussion boards all in a filtered safe environment.

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Posted in Blogging, blogs, class blogs, education, gaggle