Amplify

Blogging in the classroom provides a wonderful opportunity to promote creativity and amplify student voice. Students can write for themselves and for a larger audience than just the teacher, which in my opinion, makes them feel like their writing matters. I think the key to blogging is to let students take full ownership and to not set too many expectations - just let them relax and write. At times, I do think the teacher needs to provide some prompt ideas, but overall, once students get the feel for blogging and realize it is not meant to be hard but to promote their voice, they will take advantage of the opportunity and use it for a good purpose. In my current classroom, I would love for my students to blog 2-3 times per unit. They would use it for reflections, connections, synthesis, and anything else that catches their interest. I also think it would be a great place to encourage them to be a voice for change. What are they passionate about? What do they think needs to be changed in our class? School? Community? Society? This is step one in showing them that their voice matters...give them a platform to use it. By just writing a blog, students are putting their writing out there for others to see. Similar to mystery Skypes or Hangouts with other classrooms, students could share their blogs with other students around the world and provide a glimpse of their lives. In addition, the power of social media will increase global connections as students can use their social media accounts to share their blog posts with others. The more they share, the more likely their thoughts will be reshared with others. And hopefully...others will be inspired to respond, take action, or whatever else our powerful students can do once their voices are heard.