Blog of Dreams

“If you build it, he will come.” A famous quote from one of my favorite movies about a farmer who becomes convinced he is supposed to build a baseball diamond out of his cornfield. That quote may have held true for Kevin Costner’s character in the 1980’s, but how true is that for today’s learners? The students in my fifth grade class have grown up playing video games, listening to iPods, and surfing the internet. They communicate with their friends via IM, cell phones, PSPs, and email. So, my challenge as a 21st Century teacher is to figure out how to engage and motivate these technologically advanced learners. This is why I propose introducing a Class Blog to my students this year to provide my students with an authentic and relevant learning experience that will tap into their needs to create, contribute, and connect with their peers, parents, and the world.

My primary audience is my students, but I also plan to include parents and possibly students from other schools in our district or beyond. My students have an ample amount of experience using technology outside of the classroom but very little inside. Their technology experience in school has been limited to using Microsoft Word as a word processor and the internet as a research tool. Few if any have any experience with blogs and introducing them to blogs (and later wikis) will help empower them to use such tools in a creative and meaningful way. Parents are always interested in knowing what their children are doing and learning in school and fifth grade is about the time that most students stop sharing that information. Students would rather have their peers help them with homework than their parents. The Class Blog, however, will allow parents to see what their children are contributing to the class and provides them an opportunity to contribute their own thoughts and ideas to help the entire class.

Students will see this, not as extra work, but as a fun way to do the work they would be doing anyway, but with paper and pencil. I will use the Class Blog to deliver content such as poetry responses, book reviews, math problems, science questions, and much more. Most of the assignments will be mandatory, but I will also provide enough flexibility for students to be creative and original. I will also encourage my students to come up creative ways to use the class blog to deliver content that we are covering in class. Chances are they will come up with far better ideas than I will.

The class blog will not only be a place to deliver new content, it will also be used as a reference tool. Links to curriculum websites for math, science, social studies, etc. will be provided along with other helpful links (SpellBee and WebQuests). There will also be pictures of and links to books we recommend and a place to share student work through pictures or podcasts. I also plan to provide a calendar of events to inform students and parents of upcoming tests and school activities. Our district is making it mandatory for all teachers to provide student grades online through software called GradeQuick in conjunction with Edline. I will hope to incorporate these two programs into the blog as well.

Ideally I hope that every student takes group and personal ownership of the class blog and he or she feels as though her contributions are validated, encouraged, and reinforced. I hope parents take advantage of being able to see their student’s progress and take time to contribute in a positive way. Many of my students’ parents are doctors and engineers and it would be great if they could interact with the class in their areas of expertise. Realistically, however, I know that not every student and parent is going to get as excited about the Class Blog as I am. I also do not know the time it will take for me to plan and check assignments delivered on the blog as well as the amount of time students will need in the computer lab or on the three computers in my room.

In conclusion, I think it is a powerful thing when students realize that that our fifth grade classroom in a relatively small city in West Virginia has the same publishing power and potential audience as the New York Times editorial blogs. It immediately builds relevance to an assignment when students know their comments could be read by other students, the principal, parents, relatives from other towns, and beyond. If I build it correctly and utilize it effectively, I think all my students will come.