Something New and Fun

I am always excited about trying new things with my students. The introduction of something new expands the possibilities of what can be done. My principal has become interested in using blogging with students. I am all over this idea!

Obviously, I have been playing with this blog since August, and it has become very important to me. This blog is more of a personal experience kind of thing, like a journal. I treat it this way because I was afraid to limit myself to a single topic. I didn't want to lose interest. While I get very excited if someone comments, I am not sure if I am motivated by what others think. Do I do this for selfish reasons, or is it an attempt to share with others? Can it be both? That is not important now, this entry is about the school project.

The new school blog must be more focused. It needs to have an educational point to its existence and it must have participation to be meaningful. Having played with this blog, I have a better idea of how to set a school blog up and gear it to meet a specific goal. I created a test blog site for my school. I did it as an exploration of the available tools, and to show some of my staff the possiblities of a how a blog could be used to start a conversation. This idea can then be used to help student's reading comprehension and writing abilities.

Edublogs has some great features but it is super slow. Learnerblogs is from Edublogs with the same features, but it is faster. So, this site will be the future home of my school's blog. Unless something better presents itself. I really am not sure exactly which direction the blog will take. Right now I have the idea if it being a writing prompt activity. Pictures, science stories and perhaps some literature will be weaved together to give students the change to put their thoughts in writing and interact in a new way.

I hope that this is just the beginning. There is still so much more out there that kids can jump right into. Podcasting and vodcasting are two that I want to explore asap. Not for myself, but for my students. They need to find their voice and where they can fit into the conversation. Everyone has something to share, they just may not know how to share it.