Blogging comes to VISS

Some reflections on my students'(14-16yrs) response to the idea of blogging. On first introducing the to the idea of recording their book reviews onto www.blogger.com there was a resounding 'NO'. Eight out of twelve students presented various negatives on the idea ranging from ' nobody is interested in reading about books' to 'we don't have the time' to ' our parents will ask, "What's this-you call this learning?" '. The other 4 were neutral. Now 3 weeks later students can't wait to share their reading with their mates as well as parents. I'm proud to say every single parent has looked at their child's blogging and all were highly appreciative of the innovative learning strategies we are applying in our classrooms. Students have presented this idea to the Middle School assembly and written about it in the Newsletter to parents. The sense of commu nity and pride that blogging has fostered is very, very evident amongst the students in the class.