Pictures

Best Practices for Blogging

A lot of the different websites I found mentioned some of the same practices for blogging and because of that I have chosen a few that I would not have usually chosen. One of the practices that I would not have even considered twice without it being mentioned on many different sites was links. I did not feel this was all that important but it was on multiple sites. http://www.echoditto.com/blogging, This site said that it is good because it creates a blogging community and helps expand the conversations.

Another practice that I thought was less important was posting pictures. If I had a blog I would post lost of pictures, I would love for people to see what is going on and the best way is to post actual pictures. On one of the sites (http://socialmediab2b.com/2009/06/business-blogging-best-practices/) said that one reason to create a blog is to create a human face with those you are trying to reach and what better way to show that is by actually using a human face, as in pictures. I think that in a classroom, before you post pictures of you students you would definitely need to get permission from parents first to make this safe and more secure for the students.

From that same site, (http://socialmediab2b.com/2009/06/business-blogging-best-practices/) they presented a good practice that I fully agree with, that of posting on a regular schedule. I feel in a classroom this is best because whether is it for the students or the parents if you are spacey and not on top of your posting then it may become obsolete. If you are posting once a week, or everyday they will know when they need to check it and then it will become more beneificial to you and your audience.

 

Blogging Pedagogy

I feel that blogging can be a great tool for me as a teacher and to use for my classroom, depending on what grade and my students development. I found many different blogs that could be very useful for new ideas in the classroom. The few that I chose were blogs that as a teacher I could go to for help. The one I was most impressed with was "Art Lessons for Kids" at http://artlessonsforkids.wordpress.com/. This is a blog for teachers, giving them many different ideas for art lessons. It was great because it gave you different lessons specific for different grades. These ideas were so creative and would be very engaging for the students in the classroom. The most recent post was an art project for textured cities specifically for second graders. She gives great instructions as how to go about these projects and shows lots of pictures which I thought was great to help you further understand her meaning. 

I also feel that these blogs can be used to inform parents and others of what is happening in your classroom as well as homework and what parents can do to help their student in school. I feel with this you need to be careful though, if it is too long and wordy then parents will lose interest and it can become less informative. Although I also feel you need to share enough information that it is worth your time to write as well as the parents time to check it. There is a major balance in achieving this. There were a lot of examples of this that I found. One I liked was Mr. O'Brien's 4th Grade Blog at http://classroom209.blogspot.com/. It was very directed towards the families of his students but had information for the students as well. 

I also feel that these blogs can be used for the students in the classroom. Many of the examples that were provided for this assignment were just that. They were for the students to participate in different assignments and to post their own things. I feel this would need to be for the right age group of students, you could not do this with a goup of preschoolers, but it would definitely work with a classroom of 4th graders. Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337 is a great example of this. I know this is an example that was on our assignment but I was very impressed with this blog. I felt that it really gave the students in the classroom a lot of credit. It had the students videos as well as each of their projects on there and a space for each of their names.