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**Blogging in the classroom**
As professionals we are encouraged to get students onto computers and using technology. Well, here is our chance. Blogging is a way to get students communicating using technology. What is [|blogging]? Well essentially it is an online journal of thoughts and reflections. These thoughts and reflections can be read by students in one class, other grades, other buildings or other students around the globe. It gives us the opportunity to share experiences beyond what just happens in our own class of 25 kids. Blogs create a global community within our classrooms and open our students' eyes to the world around them.

**Top 10 Education Blogging Sites**
1. [|How to Start an Education Blog]: This site provides a plethora of knowledge and resources to get a classroom teacher up and running with blogging in the classroom. 2. [|EduBlogs]: This is a site that you would use to set up your own classroom blog. It is free for educational purposes. 3. [|wordpress]: This site allows you to set up a blog for free. It is user-friendly and you do not need any coding experience. 4. [|KidzBlog]: This a free software that is ideal for elementary teachers who want to blog and only has one classroom computer to work with. 5. [|Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators]: This site is designed as a resource for numerous blogging sites as well as many other web 2.0 tools. 6. [|Education World Blogging Basics]: This is a very basic step-by-step tutorial of how to set up a blog for your classroom using blogger and then ideas of how to use it in your classroom. 7.[| Kidslearntoblog]: This is a website geared toward kids under the age of 13. It helps you to set up a safe blog for this age group. 8.[| Teacherlingo]: This homepage has a lot of resources to offer educators from other teachers around the country. This is linked to the pages of the teachers' blogs. There are awesome blogs with great resources available. 9. [|Classroom Blogs and Wikis]: This site as resources and tips for teachers looking to use blogs and wikis for collaboration in their classroom. 10. [|Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom]: This is a resource for teachers to help prepare students for blogging in the classroom.

**Usin****g Blogs in the Classroom- TOP 10 REASONS TO USE A BLOG IN THE CLASSROOM:**
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**Blogging Ideas**

 * **Elementary** || **Middle School** || **High School** ||
 * 1. Have students post an invention they want to create and have others comment on their invention blog post. || 1. A blog could be used as an on-going writing or work portfolio. || 1. Students could blog about a science experiment each day in order to keep a record of results. ||
 * 2. Students can post responses to open-ended language arts questions that correlate with weekly stories. || 2. Students could use blogs as a place to post their writings for peer editing. || 2. Create a blog where students need to make connections of real world applications for the math skill they are learning. ||
 * 3. Classrooms can have [|e-pals] that they blog with on either a weekly or monthly basis that compares the differences and similarities of their classrooms (since from different areas). || 3.Classrooms can use this as a homework helper in the evenings. Train students to log into their blogs at night (hopefully with an [|RSS feed]) and they can post and answer each others questions regarding homework. || 3. Students could blog about current events and their reactions to what is happening in the world. ||
 * 4. Classrooms can use this as an area to recommend and write book reviews based off of their self-selected books in the classroom. || 4. Teachers can use blogs as a way to keep parents informed of what their student in learning. It can also serve as a means for reviews of what was taught in class that day, this would benefit students who are struggling and students who are absent. || 4. Classrooms can use this as a homework helper in the evenings. Train students to log into their blogs at night (hopefully with an [|RSS feed]) and they can post and answer each others questions regarding homework. ||
 * 5. Classrooms can use this as a homework helper in the evenings. Train students to log into their blogs at night (hopefully with an [|RSS feed]) and they can post and answer each others questions regarding homework. || 5. Students could post papers in an English class to a class blog for peer comments and editing. || 5. Each high school club (student council, FFA, SADD) could create a blog to announce upcoming events and cultivate support for their activity. ||

**Examples of Blogging Websites in Education**
[|Huzzah!] - 6th grade class of 10 and 11 year old students. [|The Electric Pencil] - 6th grade writing workshop. [|Write Out Loud] - 7th grade English class blog. [|Learning is Messy]- One teacher blogs about how he uses blogging and other technology in the classroom. [|Audiobook Blog]- An audio book blog created by 1st graders

**Resources**
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More Information Regarding Blogging in the Classroom (GROUP A)