Blogging in the Classroom

We like our Blogging Buddies: the write Stuff with Blogging Mentors is a video about a first grade teacher and a professor who got together to see if it would be beneficial for their students to be blogging buddies. Kathy Cassity, who is a first grade teacher in Canada wanted to incorporate technology with writing to see if it would help her students improve their writing abilities. Patrick Lewis, who is a professor at the University or Regina wanted his students to see the levels of first grade writers and allow them to edit and motivate the first grade writers.

The video We like our Blogging Buddies was very interesting, the students really seemed to like the idea of blogging to their buddies. Every student that was interviewed said they really liked to blog. It gives the students a reason to write and an audience to read what they write about. Cassity claims that her students where much more motivated to write because they knew that in a few days their buddies would read their blogs and respond. I think the take-away here is that technology is an important aspect of our lives and that we need to experiment with it in our classroom because it may motivate our students.

I remember when I was young i had a pen pal, and I remember looking forward to reading her letters and writing her back as well. Back then we mailed things with a stamp and waited for a mail man to come pick it up so, I only got a letter every couple of weeks. But I remember going to work with my mom and being so excited to receive a letter that I wouldn't even let her read it to me, I sat down and read every word on the page, even if it took half an hour to sound out the words. I didn't think of it as being "stupid" homework it was fun, I was talking to my friend.

I think it is a great idea to have blogging buddies in the classroom, whether its with someone older and wiser or even someone your own age. It motivates the students to get practice in spelling, constructing sentences, constructing paragraphs, penmanship, and even communicating their ideas. If implementing blogging in my classroom would help my students I most certainly will.