Why blog?
Thinking about blogging in the education world and diving into the Blogosphere head first has enabled me to see this tool in a new light. Blogging affords so much more than sharing your personal story/interests to an engaged audience. Blogging expands the walls of classrooms, it can facilitate reflective thinking, teaches students how to organize their thoughts, gives a voivce to students who are more reluctant to share in class, supports database learning, helps students take ownership, and fulfills the new literacies students need to survive in our information age society.
Creating opportunities for students to blog in my specific content area might be a stretch but not impossible. I've already begun brainstorming ways in which blogging could take my educational career to a new level. I could create a blog for the parents of my students and blog about various Special Education services, laws, accomodations, modifications, etc. Helping to educate my parents and prepare them for life after their child leaves high school is something that I am very passionate about, and something that is quite scary for parents who have children with Intellectual Disabilities.
I could also start a blog for my basketball team or even my Professional Learning Community where we could post comments about meeting topics, game film reviews, team goals, technology tricks and tips. It might give a voice to those who don't normally share in meetings and could teach my athletes the importance of filtering what they are saying online. The opportunties are endless for blogging and I must admit publically that I am in full support....I'm a blogger, dear Abby!
I really like the idea of blogging to inform parents of laws, etc. One of my goals this year is to include parents more, and blogging would be the perfect way to do that. I wonder if you could involve your students in helping you choose images and some basic content of the blog?
ReplyDeleteI love your line "blogging can expand the walls of the classroom." I also think a PLC blog is a great idea. It's tough to find times to meet, so being able to leave or read a quick note or links to something relevant seems like a really smart thing to do.
ReplyDeleteJeannie I love your idea about involving my students....what a great way to adapt this tool for the population of students I work with. Taking the tool and modifying it for the level of my students. You're such a thinker.
ReplyDeleteGreat concepts here! I, too, like the concept of involving your parents. How neat would it be to even solicit a collaborative effort from parents and their children to comment on your blog together? I'm not quite sure how that would work, but with involved parents I can see something formulating well!
ReplyDeleteI agree with eveyone about the expanding the walls of the classroom and having the parents blog with your students would make it more accessable to them as well. An idea that came to me while reading ofther comments was if you had this blog for the parents then you could focus it around your goals for students for the week, or even post I CAN statements that you want your students to be working toward. Students and parents over the week could post thier progress toward the goal and how they are feeling about them... Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteYour idea to create a 'virtual community' for kids in your classroom and their parents would actually be awesome. This really could go in many different directions. The requirements on privacy issues and the need for confidentiality mean that families with kids with special needs have a hard time building a community - with other families of their kid's classmates, with families of any kind.
ReplyDeleteIf you had a class blog, then kids - and families - could have a space where they could contribute thoughts, ideas, photos, images or creations that they want to share with one another. Kids would have a place to proudly showcase their achievements and families could draw support, share encouragement and help celebrate these milestones, no matter how small.
Having a child with special needs is an extremely alienating and isolating experience on many fronts, but having a community to be a part of and to bond with, even temporarily, can help make this journey less painful.
One more idea: Maybe you could have different sections - a 'student gallery', a 'parent's place', a 'teen room' (students only) - as well as a resources section (with links to other organizations, local groups, and related sources of information) in addition to your blog.
Abby, the need is immense, but frankly the possibilities are truly endless for such a class blog to be an awesome resource. Good luck!
Lucia thank you as always for your very kind words! You've got my mind wheeling with ideas about a blog...thank you for sharing.
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