Some Ideas for Using Blogging in my Classroom

I am amazed at how many different ways blogs can be utilized in a classroom setting. An assignment for the class I am taking is to propose an idea of how I could use a blog in my classroom. I currently do not have a classroom of my very own, but am a teacher's assistant. I work with a population of students who have Autism and many of them are non-verbal. Our classroom has six students, ranging in age from 7-12. Although many of them may not be able to physically use blogging, I did come up with some ways that our classroom could use it.

Using a blog is a way to connect ideas. The teachers in my classroom could use blogs to connect and communicate with other educators who are working with a similar population of students. We could share ideas and suggestions about different teaching strategies. It could be a place to discuss things with other people who are familiar with what you do.

Another idea is to use a blog as a class portal. Our class blog could be used to communicate information and updates about the class. This would probably be mainly for parents, due to privacy issues. I really think this would be a great idea, especially for the type of school I am working at. It is a residential school, so this would be a great way for parents to really keep updated on what their children are doing being that they don't get to spend as much time with them. We could use the blog to post any upcoming special events, school news, information about Autism, activities that our class is working on, the class schedule, and so much more. We could also provide helpful links for parents.

I also really like the idea of having an E-Portfolio. Blog portfolios can be much easier to manage and organize. We could take pictures of student work and track progress over time.

A blog is a good tool for the instructional context because it offers so many different possibilities. Both the teacher and students can benefit from it. If your students are not able to actually blog themselves, you can use it to communicate with parents and the community about what is going on at your school and in your classroom. You can communicate with other professionals who are knowledgeable about or are in a similar teaching position. I know that when I do get a classroom of my own, I would definitely like to take advantage of what blogging has to offer and let my students get a hands on experience with it. Just think of the audience they can reach. It could be other grade levels in their school or another class on the other side of the world. When students blog, they are learning critical thinking skills and how to appropriately respond and communicate to others. They are also learning new ways to organize information and find things that they are interested in. Besides writing, blogs can also be used to share images and videos.

The world outside is changing and our classrooms need to keep up with it! :)