Blogging & Me

I have read many blogs but have never posted on one. I am surprised at how common blogs are. When searching for an answer to a question on google, a lot of pages that come up are blog pages. So I have read more blogs than I thought! Just like any searching on the internet, you have to consider the source when reading blogs for information. Reading blogs about silly stuff, news, or entertainment news can be quite entertaining! Blogging is a great way for anyone to say how they feel or what they think.
As far as using them in my classroom, I think having a classroom blog would be a great tool. It would be another great communication piece for the parents. I would worry about negative or inappropriate comments made on the blog, but hopefully that wouldn't ruin it. I would also worry about keeping up with it. Keeping up with parent daily phone calls and emails can be time consuming -- I'm guessing a blog could be too.
I don't think my students (1st graders) could individually blog but it would be fun and a good introduction to technology to share the classroom blog to the entire class during a morning meeting time. Perhaps one student, like the helper of the day could write and post a sentence for parents to read and comment on, and then we could read any comments as a class the next day. Parents could enjoy interacting with the class, without having to come to the classroom! As many articles and other class members have said, I would want to inform the parents of the blog and get their permission for their child to use it. But since it's a class blog, we could just use the name of "1st grader." Just an idea for early elementary use!
~Adler~