Why blog?

            Web logs or blogs have many benefits.  Three benefits of blogging in the classroom are, “to promote critical and analytical thinking, combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction, and they promote creative, intuitive and associational thinking” (Richardson, 2010).  All of these characteristics of blogging can help in the classroom.

            The idea that my classroom can be transformed into a collaborative think tank for sharing ideas and getting feedback is very exciting.  By allowing my students to blog they can “learn to read more critically, think about reading analytically, and write more clearly” (Richardson, 2010). 

            My hope is to set up a class portal in order to keep track of assignments for my class as well as their other teachers.  They can use this space to journal about what we are doing in class as well.  Also, setting up an online filing cabinet so that they kids have access to their work paperlessly and chronologically.  Most importantly in order to collaborate with other teachers and for them to be able to see the students work would be so beneficial.  With the business world going paperless, it is just another way to set our students up for their own future.

            I believe that starting with these two online technology strategies would help to organize my fifth and sixth grade students.  It will also serve to help my students get familiarized with the wonderful world of blogging that is available to them.  Finally it will help them to become more analytical thinkers and adds to their 21st century skill set. 

Resources:

Richardson, W. (2010).  Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web toold for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.