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“The more you write, the more you discover your subject, your world, yourself.” Donald Murray

Hello. Welcome to my demonstration about using weblogs in the classroom. I’m a 6th grade English teacher at Brandon Middle School in Virginia Beach, VA. This presentation is part of the Third Annual Technology Retreat, sponsored by the VAIS in Richmond, VA.

My demonstration is divided into three parts: safety, the educational value of blogs, and becoming familiar with a basic weblog tool. I’ve also posted a few useful links for anyone who is interested in learning more about this subject.

Part I. Safety

Safety is my first concern. I’ve spent the last two years using blogs with my 6th grade students, and haven’t had any problems. When set up correctly, blogs can be used safely in the classroom. Here are a few tips:

1. Do not allow comments.
2. Protect students’ identities.
3. Only allow students to access their own blogs by setting up individual passwords. As a result, they become responsible for any inappropriate content. Make this a zero-tolerance policy.
4. Closely monitor student blogs. Ask parents to sign permission slips authorizing blog use.

Part II. Why Weblogs?

There are many reasons to use blogs in the classroom. Here are a few:

1. With blogs, everyone gets to experience the thrill of seeing their words published. Students suddenly have a built-in audience. So far this year, we’ve had more than 3,500 hits to our Student Weblogs. We’ve also had more than 9,000 hits to our Online Magazine since October of 2004. The readers are parents, relatives, administrators, teachers, and the students themselves. Class weblogs truly create a community of readers and writers.
2. Weblogs update the classroom writing format, and offer an efficient way to organize student writing. All work is neatly archived in a clean and easily accessible format. Blogs are the new turbo-charged writing folders.
3. It’s fun. Students enjoy writing on their blogs.

Part III. Let’s Try it.

1. I’ve created 25 blogs to use for my presentation. This is the same type of blogging template that I use for my Student Weblogs.
   Here’s the link to our Presentation Blogs. I hope you don’t mind being an insect for the afternoon.
2. CLICK HERE to log into your practice blog.
3. Please follow the directions on the handout.
4. Writing Prompt: Please take a few minutes to post to your practice blog about one or two interesting things you’ve learned at this technology retreat.

Some useful educational blog links:
Weblogg-ed.com
Why Weblogs?
K12 Blogging Techniques
Edublog Insights

Will Richardson, who runs Weblogg-ed.com, has recently published a book entitled, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. It’s a very informative and helpful book for anyone who wants to learn more about using this technology with their students.