Technology in Your Classroom : How To... :

How To... Blog
By Linda Lindroth

What is a blog – a noun, verb, cyber-community, writing tool or all of the above?

For Reproducible click here. PDF 45KB

school house and computer mouse

The blogspace is an e-communication tool that can help motivate writing. Use these ideas to get started.

No, "blog" is not an attempt by Dr. Seuss to find a rhyming word for fog, log or frog! The term was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2004 (visit www.m-w.com/info/04words.htm for more information), where it is defined as a noun (short for Weblog): "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."

Before blog became the buzzword for 2004 – Merriam-Webster declared it the word of the year in 2004 – two existing examples of this daily or periodic journaling of thoughts come to mind. The AP newswire is an early example of posting thoughts on a given content. Reporters could post "breaking" news to be picked up by news agencies across the country and from around the world. Computer Bulletin Boards might also be considered an early form of our current-day blogging.

A blog in the classroom
My school district's blog, "Fayette's The Point" (https.//edtech.fcps.net/blog has good examples of class blogs. Visit as a guest to see dozens of public blogs and class ideas for writing prompts.

  1. Daily reflection by the teacher. One way to keep a class blog going is to write every morning before students come in or every afternoon when they leave. We all reflect on the completed class day, analyzing skills met and standards addressed in preparation for our modifications to lesson plans for the next day. Blogging becomes an electronic log or journal of our successes and identified needs for re-teaching. If the blog is made public, then parents, students and even colleagues can follow the progression to improve their support for classroom learning.

  2. Student involvement. Another important way to keep your blog going is to involve your students. Many students already maintain a daily journal of personal learning. Increased motivation for these daily logs can be found if students volunteer to contribute their impressions of class learning to be posted on the classroom blog.

    If you are already using class cyber-reporters to write about special events, field trips and news for your class or school website, it's a simple step to edit these stories for the blog. Adding a student perspective also improves student awareness of academic objectives and self-evaluation of their progress toward reaching their goals. They may not know what an AYP is, but their annual yearly progress will improve with a focus on identifying what they have learned and how they feel about that learning.

  3. Parent and community input. There will be opportunities to ask a parent or community leader if you can post their supportive comments or constructive suggestions on your website. These can include a follow-up note from a classroom guest speaker or a talk from a speaker at a PTA/PTO or Board of Education meeting. If there is local newspaper, TV or radio coverage of a school event, you might post on the blog a recap of this news and the reporter's comments. Every visit to or happening in your school or classroom is potentially useful and informative blog material.

Helpful education blogs
There are a number of resources to help you set up and organize a blog.


A new blog in town
I had to add this announcement about a new serialized CAT blog - yes, it does say cat blog. The Amber Baboon is a novel written by Jemima, Apollo and Asta who reside with authors Natasha Wing, Barbara Kerley and Mary Nethery. The story stars a catologist, a philanthropist, and a gumshoe detective who travel to Egypt in search of the tomb of Queen Neferkitti.

The Three Cats Write blog, certainly the first written by "cats", will launch on September 25, 2006. Be sure to join the launch party at http://www.threecatswrite.blogspot.com/ to follow this wonderful tale of three cats.

Teachers of grades 3-6 will definitely want to join the launch party for this delightful adventure novel for the weekly blog will also feature writing tips and discussion by the authors about how the novel was written. Readers can participate in two activities: Name-the-Thug and Submit-a-Story contests. The adventure novel, written from the cats' perspectives, is certain to be a quick hook to motivate student reading and writing.

For Reproducible click here. PDF 45KB

Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.