Teaching with Blogs: Guests from the “Old Country”

My school has a sweet combination of townhouses for our K-3 division and a rather more daunting looking 12 storey building that houses our 4-8 middle school and 9-12 high school. To help our 4th graders with this huge transition (from a cozy small place full of little kids to a very big place full of huge kids) we contrast our study of American immigration with their “immigration” from the “old country” of Little Dalton to the “new country” of Big Dalton.

Today, a few weeks after receiving their”Big Dalton Citizenship” in a lovely ceremony, my 4th graders took their first official trip back to that “old country.” There, in addition to visiting old teachers and noticing how small everything suddenly seemed, they did something quite wonderful, I thought. That is, they hosted their 3rd grade buddies on their blogs. Each buddy had prepared a paragraph about a wonderful service learning project they are doing (involving New Orleans) in their class and each 4th grader helped them type it, revise it if necessary, proofread it, and finally post it on their blog. Check them out here. And by all means comment!