Thing 3 - Blogging

While reading some of the blogs, I noticed several things. First, blog writing is so much different than paper writing. Paper writing (and reading) feels so formal. Many of the blogs I visited didn't have that, "I'm reading this because I have to" feel, but it was like I was reading something a friend was telling me. I also noticed that blog writing is more interactive with it's readers. A great example of this was in the blog, Why I Don't Assign Homework, the author posed his argument on why he doesn't assign homework in his math classes, however when he read a comment from a reader, he changed. The author was able to take in his readers argument on giving homework, and apply it to his classroom. If this was not a blog, this interaction would have never happened, and the author would have never found a new way to give homework to meet all the needs of his students!
I also noticed how reading a blog is so different than reading a book or article. Like I said earlier, it's not as cumbersome as some reading can be. Most of the blogs I read were fairly short, and they got their point across. But even more important, with reading a blog, links are provided to other articles or information that you might need or be interested in. In the Cool Cat Teacher blog, the author was writing about cell phone use, and how it has changed education. The author of this blog provided several links to articles and videos of interest to the reader. If we were reading a book we would not be able to quickly click and get to another article or video related to what we are reading.
Writing blogs are different than other types of writing, because with a blog, you are allowed to be brief, and just write a few sentences in order to get your point across. Also, with reading, writing blogs you can use links to help get your point across. In the blog, Why Can't We Do This? the author (who also wrote our textbook!) using quotes from news articles to really get his point across. He may have written 3-4 sentences, but using the quotes, you really understood exactly what he was trying to say. By the way, I think if we started charging 33 cents for plastic bags, more and more people will be bringing their cloth bags to the grocery store! I know I would! :-) I would even if they charged 5 cents! That can really add up!
One of the blogs I read that I really liked was 2nd Graders Write About Our Missing Duck. One of the reasons I really liked this blog was because the students did most of the work, by commenting on the blog! The students commented on where they think the Duck may be. This is a great way to show how commenting can contribute to writing. I also really liked this blog, because it is a great example of how elementary school teachers can use blogs in their classroom!
I do think there is a "blogging literacy". What we did for Thing #3 was to read blogs, and that is blogging literacy, reading blogs, writing blogs, and commenting on blogs. When I read Is This SSR, 2.0 I was reminded of "blogging literacy". Instead of having SSR in their seats with a book, that they may not be even that interested in, students can now use blogs for their SSR time. The students can choose a blog they are interested in, and read away! This would also be something great to do before the students begin writing their own blogs! I enjoyed reading many of the blogs, and I have found that they have given me some great ideas for my own classroom!