So can blogging benefit Kindergarten students?

So after exploring blogging in the early childhood classroom, particularly Kindergarten, I have found that this is a process that can be done with younger students. While researching for articles and ideas on whether blogging in Kindergarten is effective and appropriate, I came across a blog website called Kidblog. Many of the articles I read were written by teachers who have found success with using blogs with their Kindergarten students and families. I found that the common thread in these articles were that blogging created an open environment between students and their families as a means to see what they are exploring in the classroom and the ideas and feedback people have for them. Furthermore, students are able to communicate with one another on their work and the activities they are producing in the classroom.

My initial feeling towards blogging was that it would be inappropriate because:
1. Not every student has access to a computer outside the classroom
2. Students may not be reading yet
3. Students do not know how to use a keyboard and mouse
4. Students will not have proper netiquette

I realized after reading articles about blogging in Kindergarten and watching my own students on the computer that my thoughts were really assumptions. All of the things I believed these students couldn't do because of their age aren't always true when you TEACH them the proper way of completing tasks and using software. I was amazed at how well my students knew how to use the computer and mouse when doing activities on the computer. I think that blogging can be done as long as expectations and modeling are done for the students and they understand the purpose of why they are blogging. I would love to do a Kindergarten blog sometime in the near future. I do believe that it can be somewhat time consuming, so a person with a busy life (like me) might not be able to put as much effort and time into maintaining a blog and that's why when I start one I want to be able to make sure I am able to be consistent with my students, families, and other audience that use the blog.

These are the articles I found that talked about the usability of blogging in Kindergarten and how a teacher can go about using a blog in the classroom.

http://teach.com/education-technology/social-media-and-blogging-in-kindergarten

http://mattbgomez.com/blogging-in-kindergarten/

http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/328-blogging-in-kindergarten

I hope you're able to take as much from these articles as I was!

Blogging in Kindergarten...Where do I start? What do I do?

Since I am focusing on blogging in the early childhood classroom, I decided that I would post about how to create a Kindergarten blog. I currently teach Kindergarten and have taught third grade (which is considered early childhood in my state) as well. A third grade blog would be more focused on the students typing and producing the material on the blog, whereas, a Kindergarten blog would be mostly managed by the teacher. I never though of a blog in Kindergarten being appropriate or even possible, but after doing some research on Kindergarten blogs I found that they are possible and can be appropriate (for various reasons). First I came across an article on www.scholastic.com where a Kindergarten teacher named Sharon Taylor wrote a "tips" article on creating a kindergarten blog. She provided suggestions on how teachers can go about deciding what their blog will focus on, who the audience will be, and what content they will place on the blog; among other areas of consideration. One of the suggestions the Mrs. Taylor made that I liked was using the blog to document classroom activity, communicate with parents, provide important information, and place pictures of students engaged in their learning. I think these are excellent suggestions for a Kindergarten blog, especially, placing pictures of students work and students completing work in the classroom.

The following is a link to Sharon Taylor's blog on scholastic.com"

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/sharon-taylor

The following two links are excellent Kindergarten blogs I came across:

1. http://kinder-pond.blogspot.com/

2. http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com/

I found that these two Kindergarten blogs to exemplify what type of blog I would love to create (some day soon) for my Kindergarten classes. They are very well organize, eye catching, and serve different purposes related to their students, parents, other educators, and any person visiting their blogs.

Kindergarten Blogging