Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay
This module is helping me to understand the versatility of blogs. Up until this time, despite my experiences, I have viewed blogs as journals and thoughtful meanderings that are primarily there for people to share their thinking on specific topics with those who have similar interests. What a missed opportunity!
Due to this closed way of thinking, I have never really considered the ways that I can utilise a blog within the context of my school. After reading two online articles by Kathleen Morris, I am excited to experiment. As a TL, I see potential for a library blog that could incorporate or link to profession learning and specialist subject area blogs. As a practicing teacher, I am interested in a class blog that incorporates a specialist subject area blog as well as student blogs and collaboration. Time and current work demands mean that I need to be realistic and strategic in where I start this exploration. My teaching load is predominantly in English and, for this reason, it makes sense to begin here. Spending so much of the past two years teaching remotely has also meant that having an innovative and engaging space for students is something that I am constantly on the look out for.
Ideally I would want to build a blog that expands over time. Knowing that it is not possible to “do it all” forces me to consider the steps to take to make this project more likely to succeed and become a way to support student learning. Morris (2018) refers to blogs as a “sweet spot” that allows the teacher to work with and mentor students as they are building skills and understanding across a wide range of literacies and competencies. This really resonates with me as my own experience would suggest that student growth is highest when they have opportunities to work in collaboration with peers and the teacher on authentic activities.
The steps that I intend to take:
- Set up a class blog for year 9 English (I have two year 9 English classes and I hope that this will lead to cross-class communication and collaboration). Focus on administrative information and advertise to my students and their families.
- Begin to showcase work that is occurring in the classroom and encourage class community comment.
- Incorporate subject area content and use this to support student skill development around finding information
- Incorporate student/student and student/teacher collaboration
- Reflect throughout the process and gather feedback from students and parents. Make adjustments as required.
- Present to staff in the school and offer PD and to work collaboratively to support others in this pursuit.
References
Morris, K. ( 2020, February 11). The top 10 ways blogs and WordPress are used in schools. The Edublogger. https://www.theedublogger.com/blogs-wordpress-schools/
Morris, K. (2018). Why teachers and students should blog: 18 benefits of educational blogging. Primary Tech. http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2013/03/08/the-benefits-of-educational-blogging/