BlogIdeas

**Learning about Blogs in Elementary School**
Karen emailed me to ask for some information about blogs and using them in the classroom. So...I thought I'd try to briefly summarize a little of what I know about blogs and I'm sure there's tons more we can learn about together.

**What is a Blog?**
A blog is short for a weblog, which is an online journal that displays your entries in reverse chronological order. You can publish it immediately online without knowing hypertext code or uploading it to a server (it works like the wiki we have, for example, just save and it's there). You can post only your own comments/ideas, or you can have others respond and interact by clicking on a "comment button" right beneath your posting. There is a good overview of blogs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

**How are elementary school teachers using blogs?**
//Feel free to add to these comments here if you explore - just add a new bullet and write a few sentences about something cool you found at the blog that prompted a good idea in your own class! Just click "Edit this page" at the top, type in your thoughts, and save them to share with your team!//

1. [|http://roomtwelve.com] This is **Mark Ahlness's blog**. He's a Miss Rumphius award winner and this is his blog for his third graders. Note in the left margin the links to the 5th and 6th grade bloggers at his school too. They use their blog primarily to share and publish student writing and Mark finds it extremely motivating for kids.

2. http://anne.teachesme.com/ This blog belongs to **Anne Davis from Georgia** - she teaches 4th grade and also college at Georgia State University. She has two parts of her blog - the teaching part where she shares reflections from conferences, classes, books she's read, etc. - note the "comments" button after each posting where others have responded - and you can too just by clicking and sending. The other part of her blog is a series of classsroom projects at http://anne.teachesme.com/my-weblog-projects/ Explore some of these projects from some great examples of how she uses blogs to with kids to discuss literature, share writing, publish news articles, etc.

3. And if you really want to see what can be done with blogs and some of the newer technologies, you can explore **Bob Sprankle's Room 308 blog site** at http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/ where he combines blogging with podcasting (audio recordings collected with an ipod) so his students are truly online publishers! Here's a direct link to the podcasts: [|http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/C1697218367/index.html]

Take some time to explore these, and if this interests you, we can explore other ideas at our April 5 meeting.

But, what are some other examples??
If you really adventurous, a few other blog examples to get you thinking: a. **Mabry's Online Teaching Blogs** for all the teachers at your school > http://mabryonline.org/blogs/ b. **Mrs. Corry's First Grade Blog** > http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=12433 c. **Bookin It Library Media Center Blogs and Podcasts** > http://bookinitpodcast.blogspot.com/ d. **The Reflective Teacher Blog** > http://thereflectiveteacher.wordpress.com/ e. **The Bobby Bucket Show Podcast for Kids, Parents, and Readers of All Ages** > [|http://www.bobbybucket.com/blog/B96573213/index.html] f. An article with lots of links about **WebBlogs in the Classroom** > [|http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/] g. **Radio Sandaig Podcasts** from Sandaig Primary School in the United Kingdom > http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/radio_sandaig/index.php h. **Podcast Central from Mabry Online** with Middle School Students and Video Podcasts > [|http://mabryonline.org/podcasts/] i. Learn tons more about podcasting at **Education Podcast Network** > http://epnweb.org/index.php?view_mode=about j. A wonderful tutorial site for podcasting resources from Learning in Hand > http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/

1.Mark Ahlness' blog http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=41233 2.Scarsdale (NY) Blogs for Kids http://pfolkemer.googlepages.com/home 3. Mary Kreul's website http://www.mskreul.com/ 4. Literature Blogs from a teacher's perspective http://itc.blogs.com/literaturecircles/ What do you see that interests you? What do you see that might have potential with your students? What concerns do you have?
 * Internet Workshop with Literature Blogs:**

1. Think.com http://www.think.com/en_us/ 2. Epals Email and School Blogs http://www.epals.com/ 3. ClassBlogmeister by David Warlick http://classblogmeister.com/
 * Possibilities for "Safe blogging"**