Apparently my post earlier this week sharing Jessica Winstanley’s ideas for student blogging was rather popular. So I’m going for broke, and sharing a tool that I created last week to help new teachers start blogging. Again, we’re going to focus on “why blog“, not on the mechanics of blogging. Why? Because it’s far easier to fail by just setting up a blogging space and telling yourself that you’re going to blog, then develop an actual plan for using it as an important piece of your blended learning environment.
I’ve been helping teachers in my district get started with blogging for a few years now, and some kick butt right out of the gate thanks to a healthy background of previous blogging experience. However, many are new to both the concept of openly sharing thoughts on the web, and the dedication it takes to blog regularly with or for students. Usually I’ll get a blog setup with a teacher, visit a classroom, and help the students work through the creation of shared expectations for their blogging space, and then hand things over to the teacher. I’ve been poor at following up, and giving teachers a simple tool to have them think through a few simple steps before they begin the blogging journey.
Until last week. I decided to take my collected notes, thoughts, and scribbles from across my digital and analog writing spaces, and boiled them all down to a few simple questions and placed them in a Google Doc to serve as a template. Now every time a teacher asks me about blogging, I have a quick “go to” document to walk through with them, and hopefully provide enough of a game plan for them to blog successfully.
Click here for a Google Doc Template of “Blogging for Success.”
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