Welcome to Blogging!

Fourth Graders, Welcome to Blogging!  This site will be a place where we will express our faith, discuss what we've done in class, explore further learning opportunities, and display some of our accomplishments.   We will visit this blog in class from time to time, but you are strongly encouraged to visit often while at home as well.  Please take time to read the posts and comments, and think about the thoughts shared here.  Then follow that up with sharing your own thoughts in the comments portion of the appropriate post.  If you have an idea for a new post, please see me and we will talk about the possibilities.

We invite all of our members, regular readers and guests to comment regularly and share thoughts, encouragement, and constructive criticism when necessary.  

Parents, this blog is designed to assimilate technology into the 4th graders' lives in a way that will enhance—not eclipse—skills like sustained thinking and connecting to fellow humans.  Please visit often with your child, engage in discussion about the posts, and either comment yourself, or allow your child to post a comment.  In the event that a particular student has an idea or thought they would like to write a post about, please contact me as I will be more than happy to discuss that with them and then allow them access to do so.  The aim here is collaborative learning, not teacher directed learning.  Any and all student contributions are valuable.  We are also looking to expand our link library, so any links you can offer us to pertinent websites are encouraged!  


Commenting specifics - If you have a Google account set up already, you will automatically be identified on your comment.  If you do not have a Google account, click the drop down menu under the comment box that says "Comment as" and pick "Name/URL" from the list.  Type your name in the name box, and you can leave the URL blank.  Click "Continue," and then "Post Comment" once you have typed your comment.  If you would like to set up a Google account and therefore eliminate adding your name each time, you can do so here (click on the word "here").  These same instructions are true for the students as well.  However, most of them do not have their own e-mail addresses so to set up their account they would need to use your e-mail.  Please know that comments will not be available for immediate viewing.  They will first be sent to me for approval and I will then publish then.  This step is to alleviate vandals from posting inappropriate material for our students to view.

Staying updated -  Bookmark this blog now!  One way to keep up with the blog is to check back often, which means that is one more thing for you to remember, and if you are like me, your brain is probably already full! :)  Another option is to subscribe to the RSS feed in whatever reader you typically use (I use Google reader).  A reader will allow you to enter the web addresses of sites you wish to keep up with all in one place and you just need to check that one place each day to see if any of your favorite sites has updated (Click Add Subscription near the top and type in the address of this blog and any other sites you wish).  You still need to check the reader every day, but all the separate sites you regularly check will be in that one place.  If you already have a reader set up, subscribe to this blog by clicking the link at the right (you can subscribe to the posts and to the comments separately).  A third option is to subscribe via e-mail using the link on the top at the right.  If none of these are working for you, you may ask me to put your e-mail address into my settings and every time I publish you will get an e-mail.  However, with the particular host I am using, I am only allowed 10 e-mail addresses I can send it to every time there is an update.  So please use this option only if the others don't work for you.

I am excited about the possibilities this blog will allow us!  The benefits I foresee include:

• reflection
• conversation
• engaging readers to think and respond
• interaction (even the quiet students will have a voice here!)
• collaboration
• purposeful writing opportunities
• read critically
• analyze
• build relationships
• links to other pertinent information
• publishing
• including a larger body of participants in our class discussions and course work
• parent awareness of class happenings
• visual media
• archive our learning from this year
• learning from each other
• class lessons are never really finished and discussions can go on as long as there are things to say

In summary, blogging can teach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills.  It can help students become much more media and information literate by clarifying the choices they make about the content they write about, it can teach them about how networks function - both human and computer - and it can teach the essential skill of collaboration.   (Will Richardson, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms -3rd Edition, 2010)

I trust you will find it a valuable learning tool too!