After taking some time to look over the Russell Street School's Blog I think that their usage of blogging, as a school and with their students, is great. I took a look at student blogs from both Room 9 and Room 12-14, and I was quite impressed with what I saw. While I think individual student blogs is a great idea I think it definitely works better with older students. I will be teaching Kindergarten this school year, so I don't see my students being able to do that. If I use a class blog I will be the one posting things, but it's a goal to work towards, and if I had slightly older students I would definitely consider individual blogs for them. I feel like school and class blogs are a great and easy way for students and families to get information. With the population I work with this wouldn't be the most effective way though, as many families do not have internet access in their homes so parents would have to go to a public place that has internet service to check the site, but for those who do have access it's definitely a helpful resource.
It was very nice to see what students said about themselves and their work on their individual blogs. I can see how parents and family members would enjoy having access to work samples and commentary from the children themselves. With the technology push going on in my district I will not be surprised if a schoolwide blog shows up sometime in the near future, and I think that the Russell Street School is a good example to learn from.
So many great things have been shared with us over the last 5 weeks, so I can't remember where I saw it, but I saw a blog that kinders had contributed to with pictures they drew about something they were learning. Each student had a name set up (like ours here on the side) as a contributor, and the teacher (or parent helpers) had posted samples of their work. I think the kinders may have even dictated something that was written. Something to think about...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought about that. It seems like a great way to get them started without having them actually have to type and post things. Thanks for the idea!
DeleteGreat Idea and if you reference Miss LaRue post to this blog about a class blog and doing like a student of the month and they would get to post on the class blog was a great idea for younger students rather than the stress of keeping up with individual blogs.
ReplyDeleteThat would also work too. I just think of trying to get 25 Kindergarteners to be able to post a blog entry... chaos! Lol. But featuring one student for a week or two at a time or having them draw and/or dictate while an adult posts things for them would probably work out well.
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