Blogging with Students

This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for.

You’ve always imagined students fully engaged after assigning a writing piece.

But then... reality.

You want to engage every student while incorporating technology effectively and covering all the standards. A tall order to fill each day.

You’ve tried making essays connect to students. You’ve tried reading logs to keep them accountable.

You’re starting to feel like you’re spinning your wheels.

Like maybe the way things are right now, maybe that’s your new reality.

I know the feeling, in fact, it wasn’t long ago that I was drowning in reading log papers. I was spending my lunch period begging kids for a single paragraph.

I tried making writing fun. I tried 18 different kinds of reading logs.

I felt frustrated. I felt like I was trying every strategy. Every best practice. At the end of the day kids (and some parents) lied to fill out a reading log. Plagiarism became more of a problem and students seemed to have lost any creativity.

Honestly, I needed things to change. I needed to engage students with authentic learning. I needed to walk in the school building cross the threshold of my classroom and know without a doubt that my kids enjoyed being here and learned something.

It’s time to engage your students with authentic learning without feeling defeated.

I decided that I was going to give it another shot. I wasn’t just going to show up every day and hope for the best from the plans I spent hours coordinating.

I knew that spending countless hours planning lessons, researching ideas, and going it alone was not working.

I knew that engaging students meant utilizing technology and getting student buy-in. I couldn’t show up every day with a new tech tool and expect them to love it as much as I did. I couldn’t expect students to buy-in without giving them some freedom to make their own choices.

So I went to the source: teachers. How were other teachers engaging students without complaint? That’s when I discovered blogging. First, there were teacher blogs. So many teachers are sharing their success stories from the classroom through blogs. Who better to learn from than teachers just like me? Some had similar classrooms and some have very different classrooms. But all of them had great ideas to share.

Then I discovered how blogs could be used in the classroom. I began to realize how blogging enhances the reading experience, how easy it was to assign a writing piece that students didn’t complain about producing.

Maybe you've been feeling the same way?

Hours spent reading books, blogs, and scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest for the next great idea.

Teaching students to blog will not take you hours of research. All the lessons and video tutorials are done for you. All the details are taken care of, all you have to do it teach.

Seeing a great idea, but having no idea how to start.

The Blogging with Students course will give you step-by-step directions in both text and video. After my own time spent through trial and error I have created a sequence of lessons for skills kids can use to blog. Kids can keep it basic or take it to the next level. All the differentiation is built in for you.

Here's the hard truth:

If you're not providing students with authentic learning experiences they are going to move along in school without the skills necessary to make it in their future job market. Blogging in the classroom not only fulfills your duty to teach specific standards it gives students a chance to practice real writing. The truth is blogging add an element to my classroom that other best practices were not producing. Students enjoy writing. They feel empowered to create a space that shares their voice and creative ideas. Blogging showed students they had interests they didn't know existed. It gave them ideas for possible future careers that they didn't know existed.

I'm here to tell you that blogging with students is much easier than you think. Let me help you get stated and keep the momentum going through the school year.

Let's do this together!

Imagine a classroom where students excitedly open their Chromebook ready to start your assignment. Blogging can do this.

Imagine a classroom filled with lively, on-task conversation. Blogging can teach students how to collaborate.

Imagine a classroom where students are reading comments from aunts and uncles giving them positive feedback on a recent blog post.

Imagine a classroom where students feel heard, comfortable, and cared for by their teacher. Blogging gives you student insight and an opportunity to foster positive relationships.

Introducing Blogging with Students