Welcome, New Blogger!

Wow, we have our first new blogger from the session. Bridget has created her third grade blog at spcsthirdgrade.blogspot.com
Is anyone else planning to try it? Nancy, are you joining us?

Welcome to "The Power of Blog."

You just attended the session on using blogs in education. Now you are considering setting up your own blogging experience. Before you do that, you may want to try blogging with others who are also considering blogging or who have used blogs in their classroom.

This blog will serve as a forum for:

• questions,
  
• discussions,
  
• sharing ideas,
• and for posting your blog's URL and purpose, so others may join you.

Also note the resources and links listed in the sidebar.

My First Blog

About a year ago, I decided to create a blog as a way for my first grade students to communicate with author, Ron Hirschi, who had begun sending us sea creature mysteries. You can see this blog at http://authorvisit.blogspot.com.

What began as a simple communication tool soon developed into so much more.The blog served as documentation of our adventures and eventually became a basis of a book the students wrote. Students were eager to research by reading expository texts and then writing drafts for their blogging times at the computer, even during their recess time. The blog had participation from students, teachers, parents, and grandparents in our own town and in other parts of the world as close as Ohio and as far away as Australia. A highlight for us was when David Sharos, a reporter, from the Chicago Tribune called because he had heard about our blog. He interviewed me about our blogging efforts and a photographer came to take photos of the students in action. But the capstone was the school visit made by Ron Hirschi!