Thing #3... Using blogs as fun learning tools for students

   And the blogger returns  It appears this can be addictive, or it is just me writing that strange, semi-comical novel I never got around to.  
Which is about where I left off, saying Hay! No, hey! What a great project this would be for my students!
    My children often tell me they just draw a blank when it comes to writing prompts. We all remember that back to school prompt we all had, year after year, write about what you did last Summer. Wouldn't it be so much more fun to get creative with that prompt, allow each student to set up a blog and throw in some crazy pictures if you have them...

Like this poor kid who could say, I did nothing this summer because I had to go to my Dad's lousy pizza place every day. I ate lots of pizza. I got bored. It was 525 degrees next to that oven. If I wanted to go someplace that was that hot I would have traveled to Venus or something, or Australia, even. I got sick of pizza. I fought with my brother and my mean sisters. I colored and the stupid radio played the same 6 songs over and over, all day. Don't make me eat pizza or I will puke!      -Olivia N.

    As a teacher, you can set up a classroom blog, and allow each of your students to report classroom news from their own perspective. Kids could get creative. Sometimes we really don't know what to write. Wouldn't it be fun to see how much they could  stretch their imaginations by allowing them to make the news up, rather than reporting the dull truth?


   A new student joined our class this week. Her name is Fiona but she likes to be called FiFi. Her breath smells like fish. She doesn't talk much, but sometimes she growls. We are not sure where she comes from, but it must be a foreign country or something... Katmandu? She doesn't seem interested in learning anything so we're not sure why she's here. She showed up on Tuesday. I  don't know if she's staying.       -Arielle

Then there is the concept of the school newspaper, which, back in the day, was published just like a real newspaper and available for all to peruse. What do Journalism students do these days?

Can anybody tell me what has become of this? Have schools decided that no news is good news?

   Why not blog it, in true newspaper form?

 Blogs in the classroom can have so many applications. Teachers can use them as newsletters, or places for their students to find their assignments. I will likely use one or more blogs in my classroom.

Fun, fun, fun!

Fosters learning, learning, and more learning :)