Creating a Blog

 Although, I am a person of few words and share only minimum information with others, the idea of having my own blog is quite exciting.

  I decided to use Blogger because it is user friendly. It took me a few minutes to set up my page. I went ahead and added my own clipart to personalize my page. I read through Bloggers Quick Tutorial and it was very helpful. In this tutorial I found that you can control who reads and writes on your blog. Blogs can have single authors or multiple authors. Blogs with multiple authors are used as a communication tool for families, friends, or teams. I also learned that you can read and post to your blog from your mobile device. You can upload pictures to your blog from your mobile device as well.

  As I am reading through the tutorial I can’t help but think of ways in which I can use blogs in an elementary school. I actually thought of a few. I can create a blog where the students are the authors. Using Access Controls, I can control who views and comments on the blog. This blog can be used for book reviews and recommendations. Students can also use blogs as journals. Instead of responding to writing prompts in a notebook, students can blog their response and comment on each other’s work. Many teachers assign reading logs. How about allowing the students to blog about what they’ve read? They can share their thoughts on a book with their entire class or school instead of writing it on a sheet of paper only the teacher will see. I think students will be more likely to keep a reading log if they know that other students are going to read their work. Who knows, their log may even motivate someone to read!

  Creating this blog was interesting and fairly easy to do. I am actually considering maintaining it after the semester is over so that I may use it with my students. I chose "Treasure Tales" as the title because the PAC Pirates believe the Treasure is in the Books. I figure my students and I can post reviews about the books we read throughout the year. I can think of a few teachers who will be up and ready for the challenge!