Blogging with your
elementary students
Kelly MoranJulie Poling
Kirtland Elementary School
What is blogging? Definition: a web page containing brief,
chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites.
Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001, Department of Education and training website:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on curriculum.
Blogging with elementary students?
• This generation of young children is familiar with technology and are eager to use it
• Blogging can help you connect with parents/families
• Blogging will help your students become more excited about writing
• Blogging can correlate with any subject you are teaching
• It is interactive and promotes the use of technology into your teaching
• All of your students can participate regardless of ability
Good Examples of Blogs http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/
http://itc.blogs.com/rikard/
http://trantwoodelem.learnerblogs.org/
http://thorezthinkers.blogspot.com/
http://www.kesartistdave.blogspot.com/
Our Experience• Became interested last year after attending eTech• Started slowly last spring – the kids and I became
very excited and involved• Spoke with Julie and she started blogging with her
students• This school year we became more structured with
weekly and unit oriented blog topics• What we found was that previous students were
still blogging with us this year• We learned more about our own students from
their responses
Are there any cons?• Remember to check your students’ responses
often – they look forward to your responses back and your thoughts on their ideas
• Some students will participate more than others• Some of our past students want to use it more as
an email type of forum and will respond with messages that don’t apply to the topic
• Lack of computers in the school/home
How to get started• Find a reputable site to use
• Get your students excited and respond back to them quickly so that they know you’ve read their responses
• Practice together as a class – utilize your school’s computer lab
• Blog permission form
Where can I get a blog page started? http://edublogs.org/
www.gaggle.net
http://www.classblogmeister.com/
www.21classes.com
How to get started• We suggest using POW-PAK
• http://www.pow-pak.com/powpak.html
Why POW-PAK• Child and parent friendly• Our students are more apt to use it
because they come to our class homepage often for other resources
• Easy for the teacher to use and create new blog topics
• We like that we can add pictures Teacher must approve a response
before it will be posted on the web for others to see
Our Current Blog Pages• Mrs. Moran's Blog Page
• Miss Poling's Blog Page
How to incorporate blogging into your teaching• We’ve done everything from casual posts to
academic topics on concepts we’ve covered in class
• Get creative – incorporate holidays, books you’ve read together, have your students write poems and/or songs
• Offer it for extra credit• Use blogging to intro a new topic or unit• Weekly computer lab time• Connect with your students in a different and more
personal way (example: our new classroom blog)
Blog Topics/Ideas• Story starters (see attached list at the end)• Ask your students to log on during winter, spring
break and tell you what they are doing (they’ll be excited to “talk” to you when they aren’t in school
• Acrostic poems• Describe a main character (fictional, real person)• Post a challenging math problem and have them
respond with their answers• Weekly/Daily review – your students who are
absent due to illness or vacation won’t feel as left out
Need More Info?• Feel free to contact us
• Kelly Moran [email protected]
• Julie Poling [email protected]
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