Post #3 Reflections about Blogging (Thing 4)

    I love blogging!!! Okay, I mean I love the idea of blogging ( I am still learning what it means!) It was so interesting to read the blogs of other educators out there because I realized that there are so many different types of blogs, and so many different ways to blog!!! I could really get lost in blog world, and I can think of a dozen different subjects I’d love to research and read. One of the things I really like about the Web course is that I have a focus and a task. Those of you who know me know that I can easily (and innocently) get off track and momentarily forget what I am supposed to be doing.  Blogging is meant to be conversational; that is, it is reading someone’s thoughts and ideas then being able to to have a conversation about those thoughts and ideas. What’s really cool is that you get to read the thoughts, reflect on them,  and then come back and respond in a thoughtful way.   I am particularly interested in  how people use blogs with younger elementary students. I  teach five and six year olds and while the range of their writing skills varies, they are all at the beginning stages of writing. That’s why I loved the dead words blog, because it allowed kids to write exactly the way they write, inventive spellings and all. How exciting! I was impressed with the WATER CONSERVATION BLOG because I can see how using blogs helps kids to formulate and share their opinions and I loved the way the teacher, Ms. Baker acted as a facilitator to the students. Blog writing is immediate. You can publish your work instantaneously. Because it’s published, I think it makes you a lot more accountable for what you write. It also frees you up to share your ideas which, for teachers, is invaluable. I think we learn by communicating with each other, and blogging is a great way to do that.  

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