On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of observing as a group of sixth graders, together with their teacher, problem-solved their way to creating their own blogs using Kidblog. The kids were entirely undaunted by initial challenges as they tried to get started. Although I have been blogging for a while, Kidblog was a new platform to me and has changed since I first experimented with it two years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed learning side-by-side with the students. At Family Reading Night at our school on Tuesday evening, the topic of blogging was buzzing among the kids. In less than two days, they mastered blogging tricks that took me weeks to figure out on my own. Their engagement during this process has been intense. The quality of their first posts was higher than I expected. As they continue to post and comment, it will be revealing to see how their writing and writing process changes. I'm itching to hear their reflections.
I'm not familiar with the platform. If I had a class right now, I'd definitely want to learn it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe those kids will be slicing next year! :)
That's what I was thinking too. :)They are sixth graders and will move on to middle school but I'm hoping the teacher will find the experience powerful enough to get started with her new class of students right away next year.
DeleteI have been thinking about getting kids to blog because of my own experience thus far this month. I will check out Kidblog.
ReplyDeleteI taught in the computer lab before retirement. Students loved creating their own blogs and never complained when blogging was their writing assignment!
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of KidBlogs! My first graders love having the opportunity to have their own space for sharing their learning with the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad your students are blogging! It is truly a wonderful experience! My students are using Kidblog and we really like it. It's so easy to use (for me to manage and for them to write on)! You'll have to post the link to your student blogs so we can leave them some comments! Mine are at http://kidblog.org/WritingOurOwnWords/ :-)
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