The Class Blog Challenge Overview
The class blog challenge is going to be a regular feature of the Creative Education Blog which aims to help first time class bloggers to get their class blog established, and to help develop the blogs of those teachers and classes who have some experience already.
Before we get started
Some of you will already have set up a class blog and may even have been blogging for quite some time others will be brand new, but whatever stage you’re at I think it’s important to bear in mind your reasons for blogging.
So why are you here?
I know that there are plenty of people who just have a kind of gut feeling that ‘class blogging is a good thing’ and that they want to be involved but they haven’t necessarily evolved their ideas on specifically why they want to get started. Others meander along for weeks on end giving class blogging a go, but without clear aims and objectives it can sometimes sputter and fail.
10 reasons why class blogging may benefit your class
I’ve written before about why I think class blogging is a great idea. I’ve summarised the headlines here just to get you thinking about the aims of YOUR class blog;
- Kids Love it!
- It’s great for improving literacy skills
- You can easily showcase pupils work
- It can help you embrace the wider community
- Parents can get involved with the class
- It teaches independence
- Learning to comment is an exciting way to learn to form fill
- It’s great for collaborative projects
- It’s accessible to kids of all abilities
- Everyone is learning and everyone is teaching
Set some objectives for your class blog
So bearing in mind some of the benefits that class blogging can bring to your pupils, and your own ideas and hopes about your class blog for this year, your challenge this week is to think about the objectives of your class blog. And if you’re an established class blogger, think about what your objectives are for this class/blog / year specifically. By having a clear idea about WHY you’re here, you’ll be in a far better position to ensure your blog is a useful addition to your teaching armoury rather than simply a time-filling exercise.
This Week’s Challenge:
So as I’ve said, this week’s challenge is to set the objectives for your class blog this year. Bear in mind the specific pupils you will be working with and adapt your objectives to meet their needs.
Try to think of at least 3 clear objectives for your class blog and share them by commenting below (or share a link to your personal blog if you’d like to blog about it). When setting your objectives think too about what success will look like – will you be able to measure it and how?
It can always be tempting to skip these initial steps, but in my humble opinion, this is one of the most important steps in setting up a successful class blog so please take time to think about it and share your ideas. I will also be using your objectives to help determine what some of the future Class Blog Challenges will be so there’s an extra incentive!
Get the conversation started on Twitter
If you’re also on Twitter please tweet about your objectives using the hashtag #classblogchallenge or tweet me @creativeedu with your ideas and I’ll retweet them.
I haven’t yet got a class blog as I will be starting my NQT year in September, but I am looking forward to setting one up! I’ve just started blogging myself and have outlined my objectives on my blog. I am hoping to use a class blog as an assessment for learning tool, encouraging children to reflect on their own and others work.
Here is the link to Lucy’s objectives for anyone who is interested: http://learningsinteaching.posterous.com/welcome-and-objectives
“Class blog objective: To use the blog as a tool that children can use to improve their learning. In the topic based blog I set up on my school placement, the posts that I was proudest of were the ones where the children asked questions about things they did not understand that had other children responding with answers, and those where the posts were queried that caused the original poster to think further on the topic. In this way, I hope the blog will almost work like an assessment for learning tool.”
Good luck Lucy with both blogs and thanks for joining in!
Objectives by @LearningSpy – David Didau (shared via Twitter):
students to reflect on their learning;
to promote collaboration & cross-fertilization;
less paper to lose
main objective is to make hwk more meaningful & fun and less easy to lose
Okay so here are my 3 objectives for my class blog challenge:
1) Enable pupils to demonstrate what they have learnt.
2) Provide pupils with practise of writing extended prose in preparation for the new longer questions which will be coming in to the new GCSEs.
3) Provide pupils an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their ability to be independent learners…
Looking forward to getting started
Great set of objectives Doug – they sound stretching but achievable. It sounds like your pupils will have a lot to get out of blogging. I particularly look forward to tackling objective three!
Objectives by @KnikiDavies (Nikki Davies)
I want to extend,enhance and share learning – engage children and parents – get kids talking to parents about learning
—
Objectives by simcloughlin
I want to promote independent writing, self-assessment and peer assessment skills & to allow kids to show off great work
I have 4 class blogs (since I teach four separate classes, and I wanted to separate out each class – I’m trying to figure out BuddyPress for next year so that I’ll only have one blog with multiple groups). For each one, I generated the same post for objectives for the blog. Here are the objectives I outlined:
“Why a class blog?” you ask.
1. I want to get you all writing a bit more than I have had in the past. But instead of writing on pieces of paper that only I can see and comment on (then you throw in your binder or the trash), I wanted to gather your thoughts in a place that’s permanent.
2. I want you all to know that your thoughts are not just important to me, but there is a wider audience that wants to hear what you have to say. That audience includes your parents, other teachers, other students around the world (yes, around the world).
3. Everyone becomes a teacher, and we all become learners. It is crucial for my students to understand that I acknowledge that you have an important voice from which we can all learn.
4. I want you all to learn to manage your own web presence, your own brand. Schools and employers search you out on the world-wide-web, and you don’t want the stuff they see coming strictly from Facebook. These entities want to see evidence of serious reflection, so I want to help you do that. While you will blog here for this class, I encourage you to start your own (if you haven’t done so already). And if you like, I’ll put a link on this blog and my personal blog to your site (I’d love to do this).
I’m looking forward to this!
I am completely new to blogging. I would like to blog with my students and/or with my parents. I can think of many reasons why. Most important to me would be:
encouraging students to reflect on their own learning
encouraging collaboration among my students (and their parents), yet at the same time to be independent learners
that everyone can now both be learners and teachers as a community
these sound like really compelling reasons – Good Luck! Hopefully the class blog challenge will help you get started. Whilst it can seem a little alien at first, blogging soon becomes second nature and a can be a really valuable tool for learning – both yours and the kids’!
1 – to help boys with their writing by making it meaningful
2 – to create and strengthen parent links
3 – to develop ICT and literacy skills