Blogging is a form of communication in which a group of people can collaborate on a specific topic. It allows people in the group to be a part of an ongoing conversation by commenting and adding their ideas and opinions. A blog can be used for personal or professional use - a tool for communicating information or expressing your opinion. Whatever the purpose for creating a blog, the intended audience must be considered along with what you want your audience to know.
I've been reading several blogs for administrators and there is one that caught my attention. I especially enjoyed reading Melinda Miller's Principal blog for developing teachers and sharing information to parents. She has embedded several videos to share what is happening in her school in a very creative way. The "Lost and Found Fashion Show" was a very creative way to show parents jackets without them having to come sift through the jackets themselves. This is something we could do at my school and I could add a video similar to this for my very own classroom. I have place in my classroom with unclaimed jackets that I know belong to my students, but they can't seem to remember if the jackets belong to them or not, but I believe a video to parents would be very help in identifying their child's belongings.
I would like to create an information blog that list daily, weekly, or monthly updates about learning taking place in our classrooms. As a teacher, I think I would like to replace (or use simultaneously) my current e-mail newsletter with a blog. My newsletters are posted on the schools website, but I think adding one more means of communication would be helpful to parents. In addition to the traditional classroom newsletter, I was thinking about engaging students in creating and producing an live video feed about what they are learning. Students would actually have to create their own script for the video and shoot the video using one of our tablets. During free exploration of our tablets, students are drawn to the video and camera features, so this would give them the opportunity to use those features in a more productive way.
