Blog, Baby, Blog!

Two and a half years ago, I started my high school students with blogging.  I started simple - It would often be something like a quote or a hot news topic and the students would need to post a response to it.  Once a week.  That's not asking much... so I thought.  We quickly abandoned blogging.

The following year, I tried again.  Same idea, same results.  Same abandonment.

A few weeks ago, presenters at MACUL passed along some great ideas for blogging, things as simple as having the students blog about what we do in class everyday.  Brilliant.


So, today, my students did that.  They were introduced to blogging, the created their first blog posts, and posted responses to what I posted.  They LOVED it. 

I'm not sure what the difference is.  Maybe for high schoolers it was just another thing to do.  Maybe there wasn't enough purpose for them to really want to do it.  Maybe my middle schoolers are just more social media savvy.  Either way it was a hit.  And it made me feel like a hit!

I'm looking forward to having more opportunities for them to blog... class notes, sure, but real, authentic reasons to share their opinions in a written format, for others to read and respond to.