Blogging Lessons (Online Resources)

Paul Hamilton — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:18:02 +0000

Since beginning my own journey as a blogger, I’ve become convinced that blogging is a powerful option that can facilitate learning for anyone, especially the children in our classrooms. I recently spent a morning with Jan Smith’s grade 6 class where every student is a blogger. In my six years of teaching grade 6, before the era of blogs, I never saw such high quality writing by so many motivated writers.

I interviewed a few of the grade 6 bloggers, and was tremendously impressed. You can watch the video footage and see for yourself.

I’ve been blogging for about two and a half years. When I started out, I dived in on my own, without any help or advice from anyone. I was just determined to take advantage of an opportunity to share something I was exited about.

At the beginning, there were moments when I wondered if I was going to drown in the vast ocean of the blogosphere; but I’ve kept swimming and somehow managed to stay afloat. I still have much to learn, but when I look back at my earliest posts, I can’t help but notice that I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. In fact, I feel almost embarrassed by those early efforts. On the other hand, comparing now with then is encouraging.

Today I want to share two helpful resources for any teachers who might want to launch the learners in their classrooms as bloggers. Excellent help is now available to anyone who is just starting out on a classroom blogging adventure. There is no need for anyone to swim alone.

Early this month the “21st Century Literacy Specialist” at the International School Bangkok, Kim Cofino, wrote an extensive blog post entitled Blogging is Elementary. Kim outlines 5 lessons for introducing blog writing in an elementary classroom.

Silvia Tolisano is a technology integration facillitator at a school in the US. Silvia has just completed a series of blog posts where she has further fleshed out a set of “Blogging Lesson Plans”

There are other resources available, but the work of Kim and Silvia is a great place to start for anyone who is contemplating classroom blogging in the new year.

Blogging Lesson Plans from Langwitches

Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner » Silvia Tolisano

Blogging Lessons (Online Resources)