The Learning Network - New York Times

The Learning Network blog is a great site put together by the New York Times.  Each day they have a lesson plan, student opinion question, news quiz, CMT style question of the day, word of the day and more. One of the more popular sections of the site is their student opinion comments where any student over the age of 13 (younger than 25) can leave a comment on a news related article.  This is a great way to incorporate reading and writing in your classroom each and every day.  Recently, they unveiled over 160 of their student opinion questions from the 2011-2012 school year.  The NYT reports that teachers use these questions "to help students practice writing persuasively, as inspiration for lessons, as jumping-off points for class discussions and debates — or just to encourage engagement with current events and with students from classrooms around the world".  These questions and related news articles are a great way to address the CCSS for reading informational texts (non-fiction) and writing arguments.  If you are worried about your students being online, the Times does not allow last names and each comment is moderated by a person before it is posted.

Now What?

With the school year wrapping up, teachers are looking forward to next year.  I remember I was always looking to incorporate something new the next year to challenge my students and keep class engaging.  The Learning Network blog and the student opinion questions would be a great class activity to include next year.

Top 3 Educational Blogging Sites

I hope that everyone had a nice relaxing holiday break and is energized and ready to take on the winter ahead.  After a week off, I decided that this week will be a series of "best of" posts.  To start, let's look at the top three blogging websites for teachers and students:

1.  Kidblog

Kidblog is a very simple blogging site which has grown up quite a bit over the past year.  On  Kidblog you have complete control over your students and the content that is posted.  I really like Kidblog because it eliminates all of the extra "stuff" from the equation and just focuses on student blogging.  Kidblog is free to use and does not have any advertisements.

2.  Edublogs

Edublogs is like Kidblog in that it was created for the sole purpose of classroom blogging.  This means that your class blog will be completely separate from anything else happening within the Edublogs community.  Edublogs seems to be more customizable than other educational blogging sites and is advertisement free.  I have never used  Edublogs but I have read a lot about it and have seen many positive reviews.

3.  Edline

For those of you who are using Edline as your LMS (learning management system), you can be blogging right from within your classroom website.  Edline's blogging feature is very simple to use and because your students are already on Edline, you do not have to setup a class or create user accounts.  As soon as you decide to get started, you could have your students blogging that same day.

It is important to note that these are my top three educational blogging sites and do not include other blogging applications that are not exclusively set up for educational blogging such as Blogger and Wordpress.

Now What?

Get blogging!!!  Before you get started, it is important to think about how you will use your blog in your classroom and also your expectations for students.  You will also want to talk with your classes about blogging etiquette and responsible use.

Classroom Blogging

I was recently invited into Mrs. Lindgren's 7th grade science class to setup a KidBlog account for her students and she has already posted her first entry!  It's worth noting that Mrs. Lindgren is not a stranger to blogging as her classes used KidBlog in the past.  Moving forward, she has posted a video and is having the students respond within the private community of her "Blue Team Science Class" blog.

If you are currently blogging in the classroom...share a comment below and let us know what you are using and how you are using it.  The best way to learn is to hear about the successes of a peer.

Now What?

If you are interested in setting up blogging in your classroom, let me know!  I was able to create a class account for Mrs. Lindgren as well as upload all of her students and even demonstrate how to use KidBlog to all of her classes.

Voki

Is your blog or class webpage (Edline) looking a little boring?  Add some excitement to your page with your very own Voki. A Voki is a computer generated avatar that you can put onto your blog, wiki, website, etc.  You can even have your Voki speak if you provide text!  Even if you don't plan on using a Voki on your page, it's just plain fun to experiment.  Enjoy!