Using Blogs in the Classroom

       I think that bogs could be an extremely useful tool in the classroom for several reasons. First, I think blogs can be used to help shy students open up and really express themselves. I highly value student-led discussion, but sometimes establishing discussions can be difficult because students feel shy, nervous or guarded about sharing their opinions.  I think that a blog can open up avenues for those students that are too shy to speak in front of the class because they can feel much safer expressing those opinons online. By using a blog, students could feel more safe because they don't have to physically voice their opinions in front of 30 students in a classroom, rather, there is a certain distance there that allows students to feel more confident about sharing their responses. Also, when writing on a blog, students have more time to formulate their responses than they usually do when participating in a class discussion. They have the choice to draft, revise and edit their work before putting their response out for the rest of the class to view, so they also have that safety in knowing that they can have a chance to perfect their response first.

        I also believe that using blogs can help to create a strong, safe classroom community, where all members feel that their opinons are important. Although I believe it is necessary to set some ground rules with the students and make it clear that cyber-bullying will not be tolerated, I think that by asking the students to read and respond to each other's ideas and work online, the students can form a closer group, a learning community. By showing the students how to respond to one another's ideas respecfully, the students can learn to interact with their peers and to give constructive criticism, without demeaning their classmates. I think that this is always an important skill to have, but especially in the secondary schools, where socialization is so important to the students.
        Another way that I think blogs could be used is (as Richardson says) a "Class Portal." Richardson describes the "class portal" as a way to help teachers“publish the course curriculum, syllabus, class rules, homework assignments, rubrics, handouts, and presentations.” (Richardson, 21.) I think this could be a significant tool because students would have online access to any information they would need about a class. This way, if a student got home from school and realized that he forgot his homework in his locker, he could log in to the portal and see exactly what he needed to do for homework that night. This could solve a lot of issues in the classroom and it could also help to prevent the "I forgot my homework" excuse (although I'm sure students would come up with something new, like "I forgot my portal password", "I lost my computer", or "my dog ate my blog.")
        Last, but not least, I think that blogs can be a useful tool in the classroom (or outside of the classroom) because it allows for students to extend their discussions outside of the classroom walls. Many times, teachers have so many good ideas and there are so many things that we want to discuss with our students, but there just isn't time. With a blog, you could have some of those discussions outside of class on the class blog so the students are creating meaningful learning at home, just as they would be with an authentic discussion inside the classroom.
     I think that in an English Language Arts classroom, a blog would help teachers to reach all of the NYS standards. The standards are as follows:
Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.
When using a blog, the students will most definitely be working for information and understanding as they create ideas and learning together on the internet. It can also be used to help with literary response and expression because students can be asked to respond to a piece of literature and to express their opinions on the blog. They could also work to analyze a piece of literature and to evaluate their classmates' work so in that way, a blog could help to reach Standard 3. Standard 4 is probably the most likely to be reached with a classroom blog because blogging with classmates is all about social interaction.