Blogging for 4th Graders

 What is blogging?

To us, blogging is...

Personal reflections
Mini-memoirs
Essays
But mostly...blogs are stories, feelings, and opinions.

            Bloggers write about stories dealing with wisdom, lessons, joys and sorrows of everyday life. Mostly Real-life stories and experiences of life. Whether it be two sentences or two paragraphs, it is writing.  As we all know, everyone has a story to tell or an opinion about something.  When we share our stories with others, we realize how connected we really are and we sometimes find compassion about the topic of interest.  We can learn from each other, challenge each other, question each other and receive feedback about our life stories. 

             Students struggle with finding voice in their writing.  Blogging allows students the opportunity to research topics without feeling the stress of traditional writing practices.  I created a web page and I have a section for blogging.  What I have discovered is that kids really like it.  1/4 of my class have independently blogged while they were at home.  I did not direct them to do so, I simply told them about the blog and showed them where to post. I also surveyed my students to see how many students had a computer at home with internet.  Over half of my class did not.  This also told me that I would need to include blogging into my daily or weekly lesson plans for these students to benefit.  Bottom line, kids are definitely interested in blogging.  I see this as an opportunity to engage my students interest in learning.  What ideas can you offer or suggest to help?

You can visit my webpage to view the blogging at:

www.oliverwcis.weebly.com

Finding Technology with a Tight Budget

I simply cannot give my students enough time to use technology.  I have four computers in my classroom and students will do just about anything to get time on them.  Whether it be researching projects or simply making a powerpoint for a particular interest, let's face it, technology is one sure way to get students interested in learning. The problem is that my computers are very old.  Sometimes they work and sometimes, they do not.  Moreover, computers are only one simple piece of technology in the classroom.  Smart boards, I Pads, Inter Write Pads, etc. are just a few examples of technology that teachers can use to obtain students interest.  I hope this site will serve as a starting place to help me to find innovative ways to obtain resources in our growing technology world.