I love the idea of using blogs in the classroom to enhance lessons and increase student engagement and learning. However, I’m having a difficult time thinking of ways that I might utilize a blog with my group of kindergarten students. Children at this level are only learning computer basics and cannot read and write well enough to use blogging. I would love some ideas and suggestions!
My only thought for using blogs in my classroom is I might partner up with my fifth grade reading buddies and sixth grade science buddies to use a blog to respond to one another and the lessons we work on together. I would work with my students as a class to post a blog topic based on our unit themes, and our buddies would respond by giving information or sharing stories to help expand the learning of my students on specific topics based on our state standards. I would hope that my students would be able to pick up more knowledge than I would otherwise be able to teach alone, and our older buddies would gain a sense of ownership and expertise on our topics through teaching concepts themselves.
I already have a plan in place to do this type of activity with paper and pencil, but I believe that a blog might be a better tool for allowing “anytime, anywhere learning.” Plus, with paper and pencil, students will only collaborate with one or two other students. Through the use of a blog, the entire class would be able to collaborate with one another at all times.
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Erin, I also think blogging would be a challenge to incorporate into a kindergarten classroom. However, I think it would be a great tool not only for the fifth graders to assist them with, but also for parents to get involved. Have you thought about inviting parents in to help you guide a blog lesson? I think that parents would be a great help and would not try to influence the students in anyway. This would also help parents get involved with using technology in the classroom. I know at the school that I teach at, about fifty percent of the students have computers at home. If I gave parents the opportunity to come in and sit through a guided lesson they would jump at the chance. Good luck and keep us posted if you use blogging with your kindergartners.
ReplyDeleteMichelle M.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI can understand how blogging with Kindergarteners could be very challenging. I imagine it is a struggle just getting ALL students logged onto the system. I think that using your 5th grade buddies would be an excellent idea, but how do you plan on making sure that your students are not influenced by their buddy and responding with their own thoughts and ideas? Do you have a specific topic you plan to blog with? I suggest you enter the computer lab with an open mind and a lot of patience. I wish you luck!:)
You could have your kindergarten students record their voices talking about their favorite stories or characters and port their audio thoughts on the blog. Kids love to hear themselves talk.
ReplyDeleteYou could use Microsoft Photo story and incorporate that into your blog.
ReplyDeleteI can see how blogging in Kindergarten would be a challenge. Instead of using blogging in a traditional way by reading and writing, could you scan some of their work or pictures they have done throughout the week into the computer then post them into a blog. My mother in law is a kindergarten teacher, and she does portfolios for the students each year, but she was thinking of starting to do this digitally. Is this something kindergarten students could do.....such as picking items to "showcase" and posting them to a blog? I give you all the credit in the world to teach kindergarten! You must have a ton of patience!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great ideas, everyone. Being new to blogging, I didn't even consider getting "outside of the box" of the whole thing by using photos, their work, or voice recordings into the blog. Kelly, John, and Brianna, those are awesome ideas! I think I'll need more practice with the technologies we're learning in our Master's course before I can incorporate those things into my classroom blog.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Michelle's idea about involving parents. You're right, Michelle, I think my parents would also jump at the chance to help with this.
Suzie, I had thought about the challenge of keeping my buddies from influencing the younger students. I think my solution to this would be that the 5th grade teacher and I would need to keep a close eye on the blog. I think it will be fairly obvious to tell whether an idea is coming from a 5 year old or an 11 year old. I also plan to use the blog as a starting point for discussions after posts. That way, I can learn about my students' ideas firsthand and explore what new ideas they got from their buddies.
Thanks again for the ideas everyone! I'll keep you posted on how it goes!
Erin,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have been thinking some more about the "reading buddy"/blogging idea. I believe that anything is possible, especially if you and the 5th grade teacher have a great working relationship. Good luck!
There is a website, www.pixton.com where you can blog using comic format. This might be a good suggestion for your 3rd grade students. When I visited it it appeared that there was a 14 day free trial for 30 users. It is a site specifically for educators. I would be interested to know if anyone tries this site and how it works.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I think I'll look into it. At this point, I'll take any suggestions!
ReplyDelete