Blogging in the Classroom

Since we have been blogging for TPTE 486, I have been thinking a lot about whether or not I will create a teacher's blog for my future classroom. Personally, I think there are many benefits to blogging but I am a little worried that keeping up with a blog will be very time consuming the first few years of my teaching career. On the one hand, I think a blog would be a great way for me to communicate with parents and students. If I end up working in a school where the majority of the families have internet access, I would like to set up a blog where I could update parents on the different activities and assignments we are working on in our class. I think a blog would be a great way for me to keep track of my classes and lessons from year to year, and I think parents would enjoy seeing what their students are learning about while they are at school. I also think a blog would be a great way for me to provide extension activities for students who want to continue learning about a topic or extra support for students who are struggling. For example, instead of sending home optional math worksheets that students can complete for extra practice, I could put a few review problems on the blog each week and tell parents that they are free to work through the problems with their children at home if they would like to.

While I think there are many benefits to having a classroom blog, I am concerned that blogging will be a little time consuming. Although I think blogging would be a great way for me to stay in touch with parents and students, I am worried I will get too preoccupied in the day-to-day life of school to consistently write blog entries. If I have a few free minutes during my planning time or after school, I think I would rather spend that time planning exceptional lessons or working on improving my teaching methods than blogging about the activities we did in class that day. I think the first two or three years of my teaching career will be some of the busiest years in my life, and I worry I may be too busy teaching to keep up with a blog. Even if my blogs only have occasional posts once or twice a month, I would still like to attempt to keep a classroom blog each year I teach. Hopefully as I gain teaching experience and become more comfortable in my role as a teacher, I will find additional time in which to write a consistent blog where I can communicate with parents. If after teaching for a few years, I feel like I have good advice or resources that I would like to share with other teachers, I would definitely consider starting a teacher's blog in which I write about my personal experiences as a teacher and pass along helpful hints to my fellow co-workers. I think blogs are a great resource for all classroom teachers, and I hope to start my own classroom blog one day in the near future.

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