- Allow or disallow comments.
- Post daily or weekly.
Why bother?
- Parents and students have 24/7 access to what is going on in the classroom.
- Students and parents don't have to wait until the next class to find out what was missed during a sick day.
- You can provide interesting links for supplemental learning. Where this page displays ads, you could include a list of links to interesting sites such as the Library of Congress or Project Gutenberg.
- You can utilize free hosting services and post links to your handouts amd worksheets.
- Rubrics and rules can be posted for easy review.
- Frequent updates keep students on task.
- It's great PR! Parents, coworkers, students, administrators, and the community at large will know that you are committed and doing a great job.
Warnings:
- Check with your school administration before starting a blog. Try putting up a sample page and submitting it to your principal before giving students the link.
- Remember--if you allow comments, some students might get a bit frisky.
- If you promise to update the blog daily with assignments, etc., UPDATE DAILY. It will reflect very badly on you if a parent checks the site in November to get the homework for his/her sick child only to find that you haven't updated since September.
- Be careful if your educational blogging account links to another more personal account. Think carefully about how much personal information you want your students to know.
- Respect students' privacy and do not describe any student by last name. Get explicit permission before posting any classroom photos.
- Determine a simple purpose for your blog--in this example, giving a lesson recap and the homework assignment--and then keep it simple.
- Know your audience. Students will be clicking on the blog to get missed assignments, not to read your opinions on NCLB.
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