Learning Doesn’t Stop At 3 O’Clock: Four Reasons Teachers and Students Need a Class Blog

Last March I received an email from my superintendent thanking me for my outstanding work. At first I was a bit confused. It was spring break and class was not in session. I wondered what he was referring to until I saw the forwarded message attached to his email. It was from a parent of one of the students in my ELA class. She wanted the superintendent to be “aware of the lengths your staff is willing to go to help their students.”  The pleased parent went on to describe a Quizlet (online flash cards) I had created of literary terms in order to assist my students in completing a reading comprehension practice packet. She felt that my “dedication should be noted.” As I smiled with pride, I realized that I owed it all to my newly created CLASS BLOG.

Four Reasons Teachers

Need a Class Blog

1. “We’re open all night.” – With a classroom blog and an excellent notification app like Remind, students have 24/7 access to learning. Teachers can upload lesson materials so that students can access them at home and send Remind text notifications announcing their posts. Study guides, class lesson notes, Quizlets with key vocabulary words, project description sheets are just a few examples of materials that can be quickly and easily uploaded to a class blog. Virtually anything handed out in class can be accessed through your class blog. In fact, I just put a link to my RAFT Short Response Writing Strategy PowerPoint on my blog last week so students can view the presentation from the comfort of their own homes. Say goodbye to the days of students using the excuse that they left the sheet in their locker or that they lost it and couldn’t complete the assignment at home. And you can even assign new learning activities on Snow Days! 2. “That’s not the way the teacher wants me to do it, Mommy.” Learning expectations are clarified for students AND parents with a class blog. Teachers can post lessons on their class blogs using a wide variety of free web-based applications. Educreations is an awesome app that allows teachers to create and share amazing video lessons using an iPad, tablet or desktop computer. Instead of struggling with argumentative children during HW, parents can direct children to check the class blog in order to see EXACTLY how the skill was taught in class. Click this link:  Dividing Fractions to see the lesson I posted on my class blog last Thursday. 3. “Every Day is Earth Day” – Class blogs are environmentally friendly. Teachers can save reems of paper by posting important documents like homework packets, project description handouts and other important lesson materials on their class blogs. With budgets being cut nationwide, many school districts have begun to limit the amount of paper teachers can use. A class blog allows teachers to drastically cut down on the amount of paper used for unnecessary copying. Save a tree…start a class blog 🙂 4. “There are so many choices!” – There are a number of free, web-based blogging applications the new blogger has to choose from. WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and LiveJournal are just a few of the more popular options available to teachers. It has become easier than ever to start and maintain your own class blog. One of my favorite and FREE blogging applications is Kidblog, a blogging application  built by teachers, for teachers. They offer “safe and simple” blogs for teachers and students. I easily created my own class blog in minutes using this tool. The user interface is extremely easy to use and I was able to upload pictures, files and links quickly. Students can be added without the need for emails and they can start blogging as well. I highly recommend giving Kidblog  a try. You can visit my class blog by clicking here: Mr. Araoz’s Class

Click this link to access the Pearltrees collection of tools introduced in this post.