Educational Blogging

 Educational blogging is a way for educators to share their experiences online in the form of writing. They can create a blog to share their experiences and knowledge with a broader audience. Things educators can share on this blog are any topics involving education including teaching strategies, classroom management tips, or resources to help parents and other teachers. They can also add an "All about me" section so their students and parents can get to know them better. The benefits of educational blogging for educators include being able to share their work/content, sharing experiences with one another, getting a better understanding of things that worked and did not work for other teachers, and ways to transform their classroom. Educational blogging can also be a tool for parents to use to learn more about what's going on inside the classroom they are sending their child to. The teacher can also share information with parents about resources and things they could be doing at home to strengthen their child's education. Teachers can also use the blog to address any materials their classroom may need that are not funded by the school. For example, teachers can post on their blog that they need more pencils and if anyone could donate to the classroom it would be so helpful. Overall, educational blogging is a great way to communicate with other educators around the world as well as an opportunity for people to get to know the person as an educator and who they are outside of the classroom. 

Girl typing on her computer.

Personally, I have been able to learn a lot more about topics involving education by reading others' educational blog posts. For example, I read a blog post about school safety written by one of my peers and learned how the safety level inside a school can affect a student's academic performance. Another blog I read talked about parental involvement in classrooms and how that personally affected her experience. The author of this blog, Darby Redding, talks about how she remembers she enjoyed her mom volunteering in the classroom because it made her feel more comfortable. It also have her an opportunity to show her mom what she was learning in the classroom. I had the same experience growing up so it was interesting to hear how someone felt the same as me about when their parents would come to visit the classroom. Her blog also talks about the research involving parents visiting their child's classroom and she found that parents coming to their child's class has positive benefits because it shows the child that the parents value their education which in turn makes the child more confident in the classroom. The last blog I enjoyed reading was by Kate Cofer and she talked about the two most important classroom management strategies. She addressed how the two most important things to consider for classroom management strategies are consistency as well as student contribution to rules and norms. If you have consistent standards and students are involved in creating the standards for the classroom environment, the more likely they are to follow the rules. All of these educational blog posts, plus millions more, are great tools for educators to utilize to benefit their classroom overall.

My experience with blogging has been short but I am glad to have been introduced to a new branch of technology! I used to hear about blogging in Disney shows growing up and I always found it interesting. I honestly thought people who had blogs were super cool and that they were super smart. But I have never created my own blog until this semester! In terms of using blogging for my future classroom, I am interested in implementing it for parents and students. I think it is a great way to share resources, and needs for the classroom, as well as for it to be a way for the parents to get to know me better. I also would enjoy it to showcase students' work, but of course, keep it private for safety purposes. I create the website so only parents and other teachers in the school can view it. Overall,
I do enjoy the aspect of educational blogging as a whole because it is a great way for teachers to stick together and share some tricks or tips they have learned in their time in the classroom.