By Koriann Lance
Blogging has become an invaluable part of my class routine in the past few years. I never knew when I started blogging that I would learn so much about my students – academically and personally. It may seem overwhelming to some, as technology/social media can scare teachers away, but I challenge you to try reaching your students in a different way – a way that is second nature to them: the blog.
Last summer I signed up to teach a session at our district technology conference. In my session, “Oh My Blog”, I shared ways to utilize a blog. So, here are ideas to to ponder. Again, I challenge you to try something new and perhaps out of the box. After all, if we are asking our students to work hard and try new things, shouldn’t we?
1. Getting to know your students as individuals (informal teacher feedback)
2. Gaining content area background knowledge from students – This is a great idea before starting an upcoming unit in class!
3. Sharing writing ideas. Kids love telling others what they are going to write about!
4. Posting research – Students share out credible sources and collaborate for class assignments.
5. Arguing your position – What kid doesn’t like a good argument?
6. Constructively Criticizing others – This is a hard skill, but one that students need to learn for the real world!
7. Holding book clubs – When you can’t meet with all of your book clubs, you can always catch up with their conversation through the blog.
8. Collaborative note taking – This is another great way for student to share what they learned in class by posting their own notes. This also helps out students who were absent! (Might be best for older grades, especially high schoolers).
9. Community/Home interaction – Have a guest blogger or ask parents to join in your conversation.
10. Reflection – Share their thoughts/feelings on the term or set goals for the future.
A to Z Literacy Movement Blog 
We just started a new writing unit: The Myself Book Project. Each student needs to write six chapters for their Myself Book, and we only have about seven weeks of instruction. The students are posting the rough draft of each chapter onto their blog, and the members in their literature circle post constructive feedback in the form of a comment (reason number 6!). The week before the books are due will be a writer’s workshop, and the students will use the feedback from their peers to create their final drafts.
I also love the book club and reflection ideas! I could have the students post a reflection about what they learned from their literary circle discussions on the book on their blogs. Thanks for the ideas! You’re brilliant!