Blogs in Plain English by www.commoncraft.com

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Blogging in the Classroom:

Reasons to start today!

• Increases student literacy
• Wider audience for student work
• Materials are "published" for parents and others to see
• Proper grammar and spelling are reinforced
• Opens discussion on variety of topics
• Provides students with opportunity to work on reading and writing skills
• Enhances student interaction
• All students are given a voice
• Students can share dialog on a variety of topics
• Collaboration on student projects increased
• Encourages student creativity
• Students can express their thoughts, ideas and visions with wider audiences

Blogging Professionally:

Reasons to have a professional blog;

• Share tips and tricks with other professionals
• Post and seek feedback on a variety of topics
• Express creativity and ideas within your expertise
• Reflect on recently explored topics
• Just for fun!

Websites to Create Blogs:

http://edublogs.org/ - Blogging site for educators and classrooms

http://kidblog.org/ - Safe and simple blogs for students

https://www.gaggle.net/gen?_template=/templates/gaggle/html/blog/index.jsp - Filtered/safe blogs for students

http://classblogmeister.com/ - Blogging site for classrooms

http://wordpress.org/ - Great blogging site with simple interface

http://www.blogger.com/home - Google's blogging service

Resources for Blogging:

Blogs: Webs of Connected Learning - Article by Miguel Guhlin Tech and Learning July 2006.

Blogging in the Classroom - A blog post from Krista's Tech Tidbits.

Blogs on Educational Blogging -  An extensive list of educational bloggers.

Embedit.in - Create embed code for blogs and wikis for files and URLs. 

Student Blogging Guidelines - Great idea before getting students started with blogging!

Great Blogs:

http://kristascott.edublogs.org/ - My blog of course;-) 

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ - Free tips and websites teachers can visit to enhance their classroom.

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/ - David Warlick

http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/ - Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ - Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) Blog

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/ - Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day

http://randyrodgers.edublogs.org/ - Randy Rodgers