My Students LOVE Blogging
I was asked to teach a Literacy in Secondary Education summer school course. While I was apprehensive for several reasons–never having taught the course and it being condensed into 3 weeks–I have come to throughly enjoy the students and the content. I chose to integrate the use of a class blog site at 21classes.com. My original intention was to give students a place to “flesh” out what they’re reading and discussing in class. I knew that the amount of content we were having to absorb would be lost if they didn’t have time to reflect. I encouraged students to personalize their space, and spent a lot of time discussing what quality blog posts look like. (Being the organized crazy person that I am, I developed a check list for myself, to keep track of each student’s postings.) I read AND responded to the first night’s posts for each student, giving them feedback on the content and quality of their post. It did not take long for the students to take it over. It has become an extension of our class. Students often say, “I loved your blog.” And within 3 days, students were becoming a very tight-knit group. This is an incredible side effect I had not really expected. The students, used to social networking sites for their personal lives, really took to the use of a blog for professional purposes. They encourage one another, spur discussion, and show amazing reflection on what they’re learning. I’ve overhead students talking before class about how much time they’ll spend reading the posts. One even laughed as he was sharing with some friend that he got to “blog-for homework!” I know many of you out there have been using blogs for a while, and this is old news. But I’m telling you, I have goose bumps as I read these entries. It’s like I’ve hit the jackpot–the jackpot of reflective teachers and its AWESOME!
