A blog is a web site on which an individual or a group of users can record and share information, opinions etc. If you are not familiar with the concept of a blog, Common Craft have created a video explanation called Blogs in Plain English. There are many different types of blog platforms (software) which have been designed in order for people to set up their blogs. I don’t want to go through the various blog platforms in this post, instead I would like to share some creative ways of using blogs with your class.

I have a class blog that I share with my co-teacher, Jo Szegedi. We upload general information and electronic copies of all class notes. Rarely do we send home any paper notes (with the exception of notes that require a parental signature). We also upload curriculum related material, student support material and work samples. In addition we blog things that happen during the week. Our class blog is live for all to view.

Students in our class have just completed an online Paul Jennings Author Study though a blog website. Linking blogs to an author studies is great. I never have any difficulties trying to get students to read because they need to read before they blog and they love to blog!

I created a Year 3 history blog web site last year which consists of 2 units of work (Community/Remembrance and the History of the Sisters of Mercy). I uploaded all all activities and blogging tasks. This year, we simply deleted last year students’ blog posts, chose a new theme and gave the blog a whole new look! We did the same thing with our Science blog.

One the best things I like about blogs is that students are able to share and comment on each other’s work. They also take pride in their work, I guess it makes it more authentic when they see it published live.  From my experience, parents also like blogs because they are able to check, monitor and support their child’s progress. In addition, from a teacher’s perspective they actually make marking easier, you don’t need to carry books home with you at night time to mark, you can simply log into your blog.