Blogging... Who, What, When, Where, Why

I'm just about 2 months away from my one year anniversary of my blog. I started several blogs previous to this one, but I have stuck with this one longer than any other. Of all the ways in which that I try to share out, blogging has been one of the more challenging because writing takes so much more time and forethought. My podcast, Check This Out, does take time but the actual recording is much more organic and it seems much easier (and in many ways more FUN!). But, I will continue this venture in the blogging world and thought why not write a blog post ABOUT my blog? So, here it is.

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First off... how do I read blogs?
This would be Feedly, but I don't really have a pattern down quite yet. I used to love Google Reader and after it was killed (yes, it was KILLED by Google!) I haven't really jumped in and loved any alternatives. So, I need to keep working on cultivating my Feedly content but for now it is the place I go to when I want to spend some time reading blogs.  You can see below what some of my Categories are in Feedly.  Its relatively easy to set up and everytime you find a blog you click on the ADD CONTENT button and then choose which tags you want associated with it. Then when you want to read your feed you open up the Feedly app. I prefer to read on my phone or table and usually at the end of the day. 

I actually just shared this subject of blogging out with the teachers in my district in my weekly newsletter. Oh... I write a newsletter you ask? Well, yes.... here is my blog post all about newsletters! 

In my weekly newsletter, I share tech ideas, resources, strategies, etc to my staff and a few weeks back I did a two part conversation about blogging. Here is a link to my district newsletter and you will notice that in episodes 18 & 17 I talk about blogging plus I give some links to some blogs that my teachers may find interesting. 

This idea of writing online was reinforced for me recently when I was listening to the Wired Educator podcast. In this show the host Kelly Croy is interviewing George Couros and George makes a great point about {and I am paraphrasing here]
"As educators we try to guide our kids about what to post and how to behave online, but how many of us are really doing it ourselves?" This was a great point. I hear from teachers all the time about how WE need to teach kids about how to be online but very few whom I encounter actually are online in a regular fashion, writing and posting as a professional. Here is a link to this interview, but I recommend subscribing to Kelly's podcast for more ed tech awesomeness. 

For those who have heard of blogs but don't really know what they are, check out this YouTube video about an "introduction to blogging"

Also, I recently connected with a passionate educator who blogs named, Jodie Morgenson  @morgetron
Her blog is: Blogging: Metacognition for Deeper Learning

Jodie has a very informational presentation that you'll find interesting all about the subject of blogging in education. Resources the video above and this presentation can help you not just motivate yourself but also can be good resources to pass on to others who may need a little nudge to start their own blog. (Here's an idea... pass this on to your Principal or Superintendent!)

​Secondly, whose bog should I read?

In a recent Twitter  #conntectedTL chat (these are Tuesdays 7:00 PST) the subject of blogging came up. In this chat there we several educators who were interested in sharing and finding education blogs. This group started to put together a list of blogs in a Google Sheet. Others soon shared other crowd sourced blog lists and we started to bring some of those into this document as well. So, here is this spreadsheet. You will notice blogs covering many different grade levels and subjects. This is far from a definitive list! So we are asking you to help crowd source this and add any others which you read or give shout outs to any of those which you find inspiring which are already on the list. 

​Are there examples of classroom and student blogs?
Yep... here are few to check out 

• Bloggin Frogs: http://mrsmckelvey.edublogs.org/  4th grade 
• 20 Something Kids and 1 Kooky Teacher: https://20somethingkidsand1kookyteacher.com/  1st grade
• Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog: http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/
• Mrs. Kriese's 7th ELA:  http://edublogs.eanesisd.net/tkriese/   
• Mr. Miller's Class Blog: http://mrmillersblog.com/  middle school
• My AP World History students' blog: http://rhsapworld.blogspot.com/  10th grade 
  • This is now defunct but what I did was to have students research history in the news stories, like new archaeological findings etc. Then the had to write ONE blog post per quarter and comment on TWO other students posts

Lastly, How do I or my students blog?

Too many tools out there my friend which make is soooo easy

Here is a quick list

https://www.blogger.com/
http://www.weebly.com/
https://edublogs.org/
http://kidblog.org/
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