This week, I spent a lot of time playing with edublogger.  There are tons of resources for teachers on the site.  Literacy is my passion and blogging has many links to literacy skills beyond just basic writing.  

I've always felt that every student has the potential to be a writer, it just takes a patient and possibly very creative, or at least resourceful at finding creative ideas, teacher helping to tap into that skill.  My son is one of the most creative people I know, but getting him to put his thoughts on paper was absolute torture for both of us when he was learning to write.  This was 15 years ago so not as many technical tools were available, especially to ordinary consumers. We were homeschooling and most of the ed tech options were only available to schools.  After a lot of trial and error I figured out that his biggest obstacles to getting words on the paper were that he didn't like the sound of the pencil scratching his paper and if there was a mistake that needed to be erased...there would be tears for sure! Blogging would have been perfect for him. I think writing is such a personal thing and when that writing gets covered with the teacher's red ink, it hurts! The blog allows the teacher to comment, off to the side in a much less intrusive way.  

One of the resources talked about how to incorporate video into a blog.

3 Ways You Can Use Video In Your Blog Posts

Since I love TEDTalks, I thought I'd try that out here.

This is a TED Talk I watched about blogging with students. It's short and the speaker has a lovely British accent, check it out.

 

Here is one about networking from TedEd.  

If you have not explored the teacher resources on edublogger I would encourage you to put that in your planner for the week.  The writing prompts, picture prompts, and ideas for blog entries will keep students engaged for a whole year.  Edublogger Ideas