Once I became interested in doing this I started looking around to see if there were other teachers doing the same thing. Here are a few I came across in my brief travels to date. If anyone knows of others, especially those working with kids the age of mine, let me know!
- The Fisch Bowl
This is a “staff development blog for Arapahoe High School teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills.” While these are high school teachers, they are incredibly creative in using technology in imaginative ways so I find this blog and the linking ones (the different teachers have class blogs too) very worthwhile. - Tell the Raven
This is a “community writing project for my Grade 4 students in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Raven totem pole stands in the middle of our playground. Our stories go out to the world.” This is one of the fewsites I’ve found where students the age of mine have their own blogs. Their teacher also has a very interesting blog, Borderland. - A Really Different Place
This teacher has also set up individual blogs for her middle school gifted and talented students. “…. Students will learn to be safe and responsible social networkers. They will understand intellectual property and copyright issues. Students will have the opportunity to write real and relevant content which is viewed by an authentic audience. The content may be original thoughts or stories, comments in response to peers or response to reflection questions posted by teachers as blog entries or threaded discussions…” - WatsonCommon
This is the blog of a high school English teacher. In a recent post, he wrote, “Originally, I started this blog as an experiment to figure out how to use blogging tools, where they might fit in an English class, and what it feels like to participate in a collective, ongoing dialogue about education. Now I find myself re-focusing and redirecting.” - 2 Cents Worth David Warlick is clearly a major voice in educational technology these days.
- Bud the Teacher Another really thoughtful high school English teacher.
educating alice 
Thanks for collecting these valuable resources, Alice. I work with teachers, although I don’t teach, myself. That last sentence looks funny, in retrospect. I teach myself, but not others. . . . That’s better. Anyway, this stuff is still so new at our University. It is a great help. Keep up the good work.
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You might check in with Mary Lee and Franki at A Year of Reading (http://readingyear.blogspot.com/). They’re teachers who blog, and I know they’ve been thinking about how to use blogging to further engage their students.
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I’m only on the BRINK of blogging. Can’t get past the district requirement that stuff like that has to live on the district server, no matter how password protected you make it, and then the server can’t seem to be configured to make the experience actually blogging (with all the comments and conversation and linking) and not just electronic journalling. SO…we’re going to dive into podcasting, because we’re pretty sure those can be posted on my school website as long as the kids remember not to use their names in any way, shape, or form.
My class, too, wrote book reviews, but no famous bloggers dropped by to give us tips! I’m so jealous!
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When you get your students set up with blogs to write on, my students would love to hear from them. They get comments from other kids their age, and some of them are commenting back and forth. Good luck with your project. I’m interested in hearing more about it as you go along.
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Well, we don’t have any fourth graders, but maybe we could figure out some kind of “buddy” blog system.
I don’t know if all the links are still accurate, but here are some blogs that I’ve tagged as elementary.
Mark Ahlness would also probably be a good person to contact.
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Hi Ms. Edinger! I love your blog. See you at school!!!!!!
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Hi, I was roaming around and noticed you mentioned A Really Different Place in your post. Thanks! A bit of clarification…our students aren’t middle schoolers, they are 4-6th graders.
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