1. Blogging 101
By Maureen Cohen
Assistant Principal
Grafton High School
#GHSAPrincipal
cohenm@grafton.k12.ma.us
October 5, 2012
2. Objectives
Introduce types and various purposes of blogs
Identify goals and take-aways for today
Share benefits of student blogging for student
learning
Review good blogging techniques
Explore blogging sites
3.
4. Warm-Up
GO TO:
Why are you here? Top take-away
http://todaysmeet.com/Nipmucblog
5. What is a blog?
“A Web site containing the
writer's or group of writers' own
experiences, observations,
opinions, etc., and often
having images and links to
other Web sites.”—
(dictionary.com)
6. What are the various types of blogs?
Class portal to communicate info
E-portfolio of student work
Collaborative Space
Journaling
Microblogs (Twitter)
Videoblogs
Extended study and reflection on topics
Reflective, metacognitive writing on practice with links (complex
blogging)
Extended analysis and synthesis over time that builds on posts
(complex blogging)
9. Why should your STUDENTS blog?
1. What needs to change about our curriculum when our
students have the ability to reach audiences far
beyond our classroom walls?
2. What changes must we make in our teaching as it
becomes easier to bring primary sources to our
students?
3. How do we need to rethink our ideas of literacy when
we must prepare our students to become not only
readers and writers, but editors, collaborators, and
publishers as well?
Will Richardson talks about blogs part 1
10. Participant-
Centered
Encourages
Improves writing
critical thinking
Promotes Benefits of Gets better
creativity reflection
Blogging
Archives Anytime-
learning that anywhere
takes place learning
Invites
collaboration
11. What makes a good student blog?
Student Ownership
Up-to-date
Visuals
Purpose
Layout
Conversations
Creative
Original
Informative
12. Classroom uses of weblogs
Post prompts for writing
Provide examples of classwork
Provide online readings to react to
Publish examples of good student writing
Post assignments based on literature
readings
Create online book club
Link to another class in the world
Students write about news items
Students express opinions on topics
Complete group projects
13. GHS Classroom Examples
English: Post comments and questions on a digital
story project
World Language: Travel Blog
Math: Daily Scribe of Activities
History: Debates
Art: Criticism and reflection on work
English: Reflection on literature and provocative
questions
Environmental Science: Reflection on biodiversity
in town
Music: Analysis of variations in music style
14. Teach students proper blogging skills.
Write the comment like a letter
(greeting, body, closing, signature)
Use correct spelling, punctuation
and spacing
Read over the comment and
editing before submitting
Compliment the writer in a specific
way, asking a question and/or
adding new information to the post
Write a relevant comment that is
related to the post
Do not reveal personal information
in your comment
Include links to relevant websites
Cite information
