Blogging in Education

Blogging for me as an educator is very much about reflection and growth as I continue to learn more about myself, students, and teaching as a profession.  More than blogging myself, I love to read other educator blogs, and I have had some amazing conversations and gained alot of insight from connecting with other teachers from all over the world.  I must admit I was once a blog junkie, but I have cut down now, and  only read and comment occasionally on other blogs because I could spend hours on them.  Here are a couple of my favorite blogs to read (besides Matzat's of course:))
A Year of Reading- because I love to read children's literature
Practical Theory- because I love to stretch my brain sometimes

Blogging with my students is, I believe,  one of the things that will link the past with the future.  Being able to embed and include tools that students naturally want to use is bringing thier real world into the classroom.  Synthesis of classroom instruction and real life skills is a way to empower our students to be creators of content and dialogue in the real world. I love to blog with my students because they tell me things on the blog that they might not say out loud to me.  I love that the students can comment to each other and read other students' thoughts and be able to respond to those.  I also encourage my parents to blog, and my students think that is so cool when their parents comment on a post.  It is another way to be transparent between school and home.  Here is one of my favorite classroom blogs:
Mr. Yolli's 3rd Grade