Blog Post for 9/15

Though I have never kept a blog or even subscribed to a blog, my family members have been urging me to blog for years. I am a storyteller by nature, and they prodded me to tell stories online. For some reason--one that's still unknown even to me--I've been resistant to the idea. And yet over the past two years--as I see the relevance and even reliance of my students on popular social networking sites--I can envision huge positive implications to using a blog in my classroom. Thus I am now eager to learn and utilize blogs as much as possible in my classroom.

As a 7th grade English and Reading teacher, I have noticed a definite increase in my students' motivation when assignments incorporate technology. I would definitely like to start by using blogs to discuss books--either independent reading choices or even literature circle choices. I feel like this would give students a format to dialogue, react, and think critically about their reading. I could also use this as an opportunity to incorporate critical lenses in my discussion forums, which are a part of my professional learning community's learning targets for the year. Finally, blogging also appeals to different learning styles than typical book projects.

Some of my initial reservations have stuck with me. I am nervous about confidentiality issues, as well as the monitoring of comments. I think I would need to approve anything before it's posted, so I'd like to learn how to do that in a timely and effecient manner. I hope this does not become an overwhelming task. I also want to ensure that students aren't using their real names, but at the same time, I'd like to develop a record-keeping system to ensure that they receive credit for the work they do. Again, I am sure there are easy and efficient ways to do so, and I am eager to familiarize myself with them.

Using digital writing is something I am ready to explore both personally and professionally as I move forward. However, I have limited ideas on how to use this, most likely because I have such limited experiences with blogs. Perhaps my initial step should be to subscribe to and peruse a variety of blogs in order to explore ideas for my own writing and for my students' writing.