Week 2 – Blogging in Their Own Words
You are about to create your own blog.
- After watching this video, how do you think your students would react to a blogging experience?
- Is blogging suitable to your teaching environment?
- Do you know if any of your students are already blogging?
We’re eagerly waiting for your comments.
The Blogging Team
January 8th, 2008 at 1:38 am
A wonderful blog!
As I watched and listened, several things came immediately to mind:
– the degree of involvement by both students and teachers
– the frequent references to learning outside the classroom
– the look of the “bricks-and-mortar” classroom: not sterile and institutional, but lively and personalized and illustrative of inputs from many individual sources
– the power of collaboration and interaction
– the power of communities of learners
– the importance of co-teaching and co-learning
– the fact that blogs can become different types of things at different times for different purposes (individual / group / reflect / react / asynchronous / synchronous / inform / question / empower . . . .
Blogging has come a long way since it first appeared in the early 1990s, and its evolution hasnt yet finished!
January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I agree! Also, as I watched I was thinking about blogs vs. a discussion board in a learning management system like WebCT/Blackboard, ANGEL, etc. , which I’ve been using as a college ESL instructor for many years. Discussions there can be great, too, but what’s missing is the link to the outside world. Although we see each other’s posts, students in other classes & others interested in same topics can’t. Also, I think blogs are easier to scroll down & read than threaded discussions. I can’t wait to begin!
January 14th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I agree with you both, Dennis and Li-Lee.
I’d learned about blogging a bit earlier than I started it last year after the Blogging4beginners session. I’ve created many blogs for now: each time exploring new platforms and new opportunities. As far as our students still don’t have a good access to the Internet my colleagues and I have been learning and exploring different ways of using blogs, wikis and many other web2 tools for motivating our learners to communicate online.
Blogging is a very good opportunity to communicate and collaborate and exchange ideas around the world.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I loved listening to the students’ enthusiasm and level of engagement. I think blogging is less stressful and more personal than discussion boards and chat. Chat is hard for me because I don’t type as fast as other people. Moreover, a blog is versatile with so many possibilities for adding hypermedia.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Having heard these estudents commenting with such enthusiasm about blogging motivates me to give it a try. I agree with Dennis about the possibility of promoting learner autonomy, It gives students the opportunity of becomming part of a huge community. Many thoughts come to my mind about how to make it work in my EFL context.
January 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I liked the blog and the enthusiasm of students talking about its opportunities and advantages. I agree completely that it is encouraging, interactive tool for outside classroom learning. I think it might be suitable for my classroom activities though some of my students don’t have a good access to the Internet and have no experience of working in blogs. So, there is much to investigate and learn both for me and my students.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:33 am
I liked the video. What I especially liked was that the students were very positive (I hope this was a representative sample of the class) about the use of blogs in class. I found some of the same response from many of my own students. I gave my students an option to use the blogs instead of having to speak in class, and the quieter students really appreciated this. In fact some of the not so quiet students liked it as well, especially if they were not in the mood during class time to contribute to the discussion. I am not sure that my students (unlike those on the video) feel accountable for the content of their blogs. Do they take more care in writing? Does it encourage them to be more critical thinkers in terms of the content? I am not sure.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:16 am
I’m really not sure how useful blogging could be for my students…I have the impression that the German learning environment is certainly not particularly autonomous. My learners (adult professionals and “leisure-time” learners) are not generally willing to go beyond the classroom experience.Even my younger students (20year-olds)are not familiar with the concepts of blogging and wikis.As I’m trying to teach more online courses, blogging could be useful for these learners.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:56 am
I think my students will have mixed reactions to blogging… some will embrace it and others will not. My students are all fairly proficient with chat and personal pages (like myspace) but many are not comfortable using English in these contexts. Many are also reluctant to do “homework” and tasks outside of the classroom. I think the trick will be making it simple, easy, and inviting (for the technophobics and the students who don’t want to do “extra” work) and convincing students that it is okay that their language skills are not “perfect”–I have students who are uncomfortable with peer-editing for that same reason.
Gina
January 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I really liked students enthusiasm about blogging. I’m pretty sure my students will like it, too, but it depends on me,as a teacher, to be able to create an atmosphere that encourages interpersonal relationships. As somebody said before, it is not merely a question of changing the medium of instruction, but we have to be able to change the way we used to manage the distribution of power and knowledge in the classroom. Wikis and blogs should allow us to build up knowledge together. Forget the traditional idea that the teacher is the bearer of knowledge and the student is the recipient.
Surely we have a lot to learn from our students nowadays, specially about technology.
Thank you for the video!
January 21st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Thanks a lot for a wonderful video! The students are very enthusiastic and active. My students aren’t very good at blogging, yet. And me too, unfortunately. So it will be a great new experience for me and my students to explore blopgging. Autonomous learning is very actual today, so students need to work much on their own. Teacher’s role is facilitator’s. And blogging provides lots of wonderful opportunities for such work. I understand that I have to learn more and more.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Watching this video made me remember using Web CT in university to lead class discussions. I agree with Li-Lee that it can sometimes be difficult to follow all of the threads. Something that one of the students on the video mentioned was that the quieter students can take part openly in discussions on a blog. I found this to be very true in virtual discussion formats~they give everyone a voice!
January 21st, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Interesting. I have never used a blog in teaching my ESOL students. Is there a danger, as in regular discussions, of the medium suiting some students more than others? Some students are naturally more vocal than others and can dominate real-life discussions, even though they might be less proficient at writing than other, quieter students. These quieter students might prefer to write their thoughts down. And some of the ‘noisier’ students might be embarrassed by their written English. This might be especially so when the language itself is the subject being studied.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:59 pm
A great video! Many thought-provoking ideas – the variety of uses to which the blog platform can be put, the different learning environments, the enthusiasm of both students and teachers. I’ll definitely pass this one on to colleagues.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I have created a blog and used it with my ESL students,but mainly to encourage students to exchange information and link to the world outside the classroom. I have also created a video with my students sharing their impressions about their experience you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncW5tzMvP0
My blog was mainly used to create interaction between the students and what I like about blogs is that they can be used in so many other ways!
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:24 am
Very interesting work Daniela. Thank you for sharng it with us. I can see through the students´ comments that they enjoyed it, improved their vocabulary, developed writing and reading skills and more importantly learned a lot from other cultures. In my particular context (EFL) I would need to develop a project with a school of an English Speaking Country, so that they benefit from the cultural aspect of blogging, but I can perfectly start by contributing to their language skills development.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am
Like many of you, I was also impressed by the enthusiasm the students had for blogging in their classes! I just loved hearing from them how they could learn from each other and develop and share their own thoughts and opinions through reading, reflecting, and responding via the blog. After blogging with students this past year, I found that they were also enthusiastic to connect with an audience outside the classroom, but sustaining the conversation is something that takes thought; the interaction needs to be varied. Therefore, I liked hearing about the different ways they used the blog: fishbowl, scribe, live blogging.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Your comments have helped reflect on how I used the blog last year. My students resisted the experience because as I didn´t know much about blogging, I didn´t invite them to post. My first use of the blog was to publish class productions, so I asked sts to send them to my e-mail, then I corrected and posted. I see now that I wasn´t encouraging them at all! I´ll change my aims this year. Thank you
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Dear Edita,
What you said and many others have pointed out is that participants were resistant to blogging, but your conclusion was just my own some time ago…I didn’t use blogging to encourage reflection, dialogue, critical thinking. It was a place to display their content and production or to state the homework. I was trying to replicate the classroom in my class blogs. Not exciting, not motivating or engaging. The information was one-way and I didn’t encourage students to comment on the posts as they were merely informational. When I started using wikis to add class syllabus, extra practice, students’ productions, etc, and the blog for conversations and connection on a more personal basis, magic happened!
I’m glad from this video and other participants’ comments, you’ve noticed that it’s a matter of shifting our way of blogging, our understanding of its potential in engaging students in reflection and sharing.
Cheers to the new blogging era!
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
A great and inspiring video!!! I’m absolutely new in blogging, I’ve been thinking about the idea of creating a blog for my EFL students, but after this I’m sure I’ll do it.
You can do a lot of things from keeping informed the students who missed out the class up to making them feel more comfortable the language. The motivation and engagement students can get will improve their use of the language.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 am
I really liked the video because I could hear opinions from both sides,teachers and students and therefore reflect about the best way of blogging in language learning. I have a wiki for my private students and would like to connect it with a blog that could help them with their writing in a very interesting and fun way.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:02 am
Dear Ilse,
By connecting a wiki to a conversational blog will certainly impact positively in your class.
Christian, yes, engagement is key and blogging can be one of the elements in your classroom to achieve it. As for using blogs to post assignments, listen to our discussion yesterday during Bee Dieu’s presentation at WiziQ.
Enjoy.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Dear Ilse,
I also agree that it’s a great idea to connect blogs and wikis to cater for different aspects of the class. Last year, I started a blog for my TOEFL group to extend class discussions and later started a wiki for students to publish their work and share resources.
Have a look at this example of how we integrated both tools for a class poject: Blog post about class project
See how the idea of the wiki started on a comment thread: Blog post about zoos
I oficially presented the wiki on the blog: How do you feel about starting a class wiki?
As you can see, blogs are great tools to start and discuss new ideas with the class and see how these ideas grow and develop throughout the year. And, of course, blogs and wikis are a great match!
Since this was my first TOEFL class, I introduced the tools gradually and students had a very positive reaction to them.
Let’s keep sharing ideas!
Carla R.
toeflibtprep.blogspot.com
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Thank you both Carlas! Your words completed the rationale I need for this year: “shifting my way of blogging, understanding its potential,engaging students in reflection and sharing”
I visited the links you provide as examples, and now I can see how useful the wiki can become for syllabus and class production.
Thank you!
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Dear Edita,
Count on us to give you support in re-purposing your blog.
On Week 1 blog discussion, I had an interesting discussion in the comment area with Fabiana and others that might help you.
Take a look.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Dear Edita,
I just checked your blog ingles en el secundario, and you have wonderful resources there. So my question to you is: How would could you use the same topics in your blog to spark a dialogue among your students?
Just starting our process of re-purposing!
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I completely agree with Dennis in Phoenix and with most of the commets I could read here.
Now for me all this learning experience has been quite moving so far as many thoughts came to my mind not only as regards the use of this new technology in my EFL classes, but as regards education in my country as a whole… And I confess I’m even more worried about it now than I used to be before coming to know all this.
The fact is that in my city there is no access to technology in schools (some of them-even private ones-have computers but they are not given a proper use on part of the learning process) and this gives me the feeling of being falling far apart from the world. It’s time to change all this and contribute my 2cents for this change. The questions is how. I think my try-out blog will be on this subject, so see you there.
THANKS A LOT FOR GIVING ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO COME INTO TOUCH WITH ALL THIS!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Dear Pato,
I understand you so well! Once you realize the power and the possibilities these tools give us in terms of open communication and meaningful learning you simply can’t go back to your “walled” classroom where content, communication and individuals are seen as separate entities. I know that, unfortunately, it is not always easy to spread our enthusiasm among our collegues and to raise awareness in our f2f settings.
However, we must realize we are undergoing a “paradighm shift” in which the very concepts of knowledge and learning are changing. As in any process of profound change, there’s a lot of resistance and it will take time…
I think that just starting to share your views and reflections on your blog is a GREAT way to start!! Together we are building these “living cells” we saw yesterday in Bee’s presentation through which knowledge and information sharing flows and we can connect to each other to make a difference – even if it’s a little one at first. Besides, there are some new communities and projects in our country, Argentina, as well you may like to know about such as: Educ.ar or Edublogger Argento
Thanks for joining us and remember we are on this together!
Carla R.
carlaraguseo.edublogs.org
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Dear Carla,
Thanks a lot for your words. They really encourage me not to give in.
You are right about resistance, especially on part of colleagues and parents, but thank God this is not true on part of students who are constantly asking for more meaningful lessons, and is there anything more meaningful than connecting with the rest of the world?
Thank you for sharing the sites, I knew somewhere there already was other people working on this but didn’t know where to look for them.
I hope you’ll soon have the chance to comment on my reflections in my blog, if my brain doesn’t explode before… hahahaha!
A hug,
Pato
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Hi Pato,
I’ve been looking for your blog, but I can’t find it. Could you please add the link to our Participants’ Blogs database in the Links section of our Yahoo Group so that I can have a look at it?
Thanks!
January 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Hi folks!
I have made a start with my own blog and I love watching your blogs. I was particularly fascinated by the pictures I saw and showed to my other collegues of the trip to Argentina in the ‘Life is a feast’ blog by Anna Maria. I’ll try to visit all blogs and steal any ideas..:)
Hugs
Eleni
January 24th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Dear Carla A, thank you for your comments on my blog. As you say, it time to shift to students´participation. So I think that my first post this year will be an invitation to explore and comment on what other students did last year. How do I manage with students´posting? I mean, my students are 16 and I must confess I´m a bit afraid of the content and comments they may include. what do you suggest?
January 24th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I think ‘Blogging in their own words’, as well as Daniela’s video on Youtube are great!
Thanks for showing Me (a complete newbie on blogging tools, posts and all) that it can really make a difference in student’s commitment to learning.
It’s great to know that by posting in blogs students make a real effort to organise their thoughts before writing. It is also great that when they write, they use the language more carefully.
I truly hope to get to that stage with them someday.
Now I’ll concentrate in learning how to get there!
Thanks!
Elsa
January 24th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Dear Elsa,
You’ll get there as you’re heading in the right direction. Of course, that to get there we need to persist. Blogging just doesn’t happen. It needs to become a habit and part of your class routine. The teacher needs to be there as a facilitator of the process. Otherwise, your students probably won’t be reporting what these students in the video mentioned. On the other hand, if we see blogging as a space for interaction and conversations, then chances are you’ll get the outcomes you mentioned.
Dear Edita, don’t be so worried about working with teens. They will surprise you! Now, for a great start you could set with them some “rules for a healthy blogging experience”. Also, you can set your blog in a way that it doesn’t accept anonymous comments. Take a look at some of my teens have produced:
Stereotypes about Brazil
Let’s keep exploring this topic, blogs and teens. Certainly blogging is one of the skills they should at least know about as part of their digital literacy.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Wow, what a refreshing crop of reactions and reflections to read at the end of a long watch at the wheel (or the keyboard, as the case may be). It’s long after sunset, and on deck a sharp, cold wind still sears cheeks and ears.
After viewing the video last weekend, and letting it rest for a while, I returned looking for themes, and took a one-word cue from the title of the video, “own.” Using that keyword as a springboard, I’d like to try to encapsulate two themes I felt resonating in what is now a long list of comments on the stimulating video serving as a springboard into week two of Bloggin for Educators (B4E). After all, the focus of this week is on B4E workshop participants’ own blogs – new, refreshed, or reoriented – where we can make our own connections.
Connections
Li-Lee weighs anchor early with the comment that “what’s missing [in course management systems] is the link to the outside world” (Comment 2: January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm). That reflects sentiments expressed both by students in the video and by you, fellow B4E commentators’ here, about the importance of making connections. For example: Nina follows up quite concisely, “Blogging is a very good opportunity to communicate and collaborate and exchange ideas around the world” (Comment 3: January 14th, 2008 at 1:36 pm); and later on Patricia asks, rhetorically I believe, “is there anything more meaningful than connecting with the rest of the world?” (Comment 29: January 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm). Maybe…
Ownership
As many of the students pointed out in the video, and you also have here, blogging presents virtually limitless opportunities not only to remove learning from the classroom, but also to extrapolate from class-based learning and teacher-centered modes of instruction to more inter-personal, discovery-oriented, arguably collaborative learning processes. In Lena’s words, for example, “Autonomous learning is very actual today, so students need to work much on their own (Comment 11: January 21st, 2008 at 1:58 pm).
I believe that, given both opportunity and guidance, students, through blogging either in the fishbowl or outside, can amplify autonomous, self-directed aspects of learning. Perhaps looking backwards and inwards, Mary expresses an educator’s profound pleasure in observing such learning processes: “I just loved hearing from them [students that she observes] how they could learn from each other and develop and share their own thoughts and opinions through reading, reflecting, and responding via the blog” (Comment 17: January 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am). It take that to mean that her students work (primarily) on a class blog, but nevertheless share what they learn by and among themselves, very much to her satisfaction.
Well, once a teacher, always a pirate, says I. So, with the seas of the blogosphere roiling with connections and ownership around us, perhaps I’d better steer towards home to keep an eye on my treasures. Elena says she has made a start with her own blog, and is preparing to call at all ports, “and steal any ideas” (Comment 31: January 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am).
Cheers, Paul
aka: ltdproject, pabeaufait…
January 25th, 2008 at 7:25 am
I loved watching the video because I could see how excited the students were about the outside classroom discussions, how they can teach temselves and help each other .
I think the biggest advantage , for us teachers, is the level of accessment and interaction ,as the blog gives opportunities to students who are ussualy quiet in class to participate, it’s a way to hear them.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Dear Paul,
Your summary of the conversations going on here with some thoughts “jewels” from the participants is what makes blogging so stimulating. I’m always waiting for the next comment to add to my own learning process through this experience. I’d love to see you blogging just like the way you commented here, for I always feel you’re more into the practical aspects of the Web2.0 world rather than expressing yourself as you did here. You’re just so talented in writing. In fact, I’d die to see your OWN post having the same tone as in your comment here. Inspiring!
You really grasped the whole meaning of blogging: ownership. Ownership of our ideas, our space, our directions, our voice. Thanks for such a deep and elaborated comment-jewel.
Dear Luciana,
It’s interesting to notice how very shy students can be avid bloggers. In fact, you’d never imagine that they are shy in the classroom by what they blog about and how they do it. You’ve also grasped one of the essential elements of blogging, giving VOICE to learners. It’s their OWN voices being echoed to an audience other than the teacher. Take a look at this interaction:
Emerson’s conversation with Dennis Oliver
Let me just say that Emerson was a very quiet student in class! And Dennis never believed it!
Cheers! Let’s keep blogging and sharing.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
It is always a pleasure to get responses to comments and posts. I thank Carla for getting back to me from her time zone, even though it is long after I should have gone to bed. Since I anticipated responses, I stayed up late.
I wonder: As global educators:
Should we wish upon our students this same expectation of responses? – Yes!
Should we expect of them a similar commitment? – No!
Carla wrote:
“I’d love to see you [whatever my current alias is] blogging just like the way you commented here, for I always feel you’re more into the practical aspects of the Web2.0 world rather than expressing yourself as you did…” (Comment 37: January 25January 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am).
Well, I fail to distinguish commenting from blogging, and would argue that commenting on blogs is the heart of blogging. This is my voice (commenting now); if you read it, you hear it. However, what I would like to distinguish is ownership and control.
For example, if I post a comment on someone else’s Blogger blog (and most other types, I suppose), my control diminishes. I may be able to delete (and replace) a comment, but I cannot revise it.
Whether you view that blog engine deficiency as tradition or necessity, I consider it pitiful. I feel that comments should afford the same editing privileges as any other post on a blog.
When I comment here, please understand that I may quote comments that I’ve made here, and responses to them, in recasts on my own blogs. If you disagree to such quotations, please reflect before you reply.
Cheers, Paul
January 25th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Apologies, again:
In a previous post, I failed to provide direct links to the blogs to which I was referring. On second thought, I won’t post them here because I have yet to discern, and cannot control, publicity levels on this blog.
Never the fewer, here are (some of) my blogs:
pab’s potpourri (Blogger)
The Language Teacher Development Project Blog (Edublog);
The Writing Studio Blog (Blogger, unlisted)
pab’s vox blog (Vox, variable)
If you would like to browse unlisted blogs: Please respond privately, and explain your interests.
Cheers, Paul
January 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
What a wonderful thread of comments, reactions, good ideas!
I am really impressed with the flow of feelings and collaborative mood of the blog!
With warmest regards,
Nina Lyulkun
January 26th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Dear Paul,
Yes, I agree with you that “Well, I fail to distinguish commenting from blogging, and would argue that commenting on blogs is the heart of blogging. This is my voice (commenting now); if you read it, you hear it. However, what I would like to distinguish is ownership and control.” You’re right. When we comment in other people’s blogs we are blogging, indeed. What I just meant is that I’d love to read some of your own reflective posts, for you always have interesting views and approaches to a topic. Just like you, I’d love to edit my own comments not really to change what I have said, but sometimes, just after I hit the submit button, I can find a typo, a wrong punctuation or a better word or sentence to express myself…Well, it’s not a big issue for me.
Thanks for your contribution to the flow of this thread.
January 26th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Wow. I liked both the video and the replies! I found it interesting to see how students get interested in engaging in discussions outside the classroom environment. The possibility of recording posts and comments seem to attract students, as they are able to see other people’s feelings about a given subject, and not only their own.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Thank you Carla A! Good idea to start by reflecting on healthy blogging habits with teens.
I´ve read carefully Paul´s comments and your replies. I realise that reading comments is helping me develop new concepts. “Commenting is blogging”, comments help us build our own voices. As a newbie I sometimes feel I don´t have much to say. However, I realise that it´s good to say “Thank you” and aknowledege how much we learn from others. It´s refreshing for teachers, isn´t it?
January 26th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Hi Edita!
Thanks a lot for your comment. You’ve pointed out an essential aspect of our learning process online: becoming aware that we can find our own voice, that our comments matter and, most importantly, that we are not alone!
It’s a pleasure to have you in our session.
Your online neighbor in Rosario.
Carla R.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
After watching the videos, listening to teacher’s and student’s opinions and reading previous posts I just want ot say that blogging is a great way to learn! The ongoing interaction makes all the difference! Thanks so much for expanding my ideas on blogging!
PS1: I must confess I’m also guilty as charge! I’ve just used my first blog to post pictures of work done in class. As a primary English teacher I thought that was the best I could do.
PS2: and yes, in a smaller scale, I belive young learners will react positively to real blogging!
PatSoares
January 27th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I finally got here. I know I will have to ask again how to make a comment. I will try to get thru week 2 tasks tomorrow (that begins week 3)! About the video “In their own words”: I am wondering how teachers make the explicit connection between the content of blogs and class work. I am wondering how assessments measure the content learning mediated by blogging.
It is instructive to read all the comments.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
My students at the moment are teachers who also teach English. I think some of them would be very keen to learn more and integrate it into their language teaching experience — but they need to know more. There are others, though, who have ’suffered’ from so many changes in educational policy, that they have become allergic (!) to learning more that they would be expected to achieve.
JoTex
February 1st, 2008 at 1:31 am
I also use with my students this mini video clip about blogging:
February 1st, 2008 at 1:32 am
Sorry, the link for “Are you blogging this”?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Kki_WJJRA
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I loved the video. I want to show it to several teachers that I am trying to get to consider the use of blogs in class, especially my son’s American Lit teacher. My son is one of the quieter students in the class and is frequently marked down for lack of class participation. However, if he had the opportunity to participate by way of a blog, he would more easily be able to express his ideas. I can’t wait to finish the class and to start using blogs in my classroom.
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Karen,
In fact, my best student bloggers are the shy ones. Through blogging you see them blossom, you give them voice that they didn’t even realize they had! It’s just an amazing means for the quiet ones to express themselves. Blogging in literature can be explored in many interesting ways. I do hope you can engage your colleagues in this new world of connections.