Students Excited to Blog in the New School Year!

This past summer I blogged with a sampling of fifth grade students that I have taught or have a connection with over the years.  It all began when I started to blog about my photography and one of my former students was interested in reading my blogs and began asking their teacher if they could go to the library every day during center time and read my blog.  My audience suddenly changed from a photography group and people who were interested in taking pictures, to this child.  This former student.  This 10 year old who was interested in reading my blog.

I asked myself, is this about my photography or about staying connected with me?  Hmmmm, it got me really thinking.  So, I asked her.  She said she liked the idea of being able to sit down and read about something I was doing and feeling like she was still connected to me in some way.  As a teacher, this is a dream come true.  Don't we all strive to stay connected with our students through the years?  I know I do.

So, this student got me thinking...(again with the thinking) What if there were other students out there who would like to stay connected and blog WITH me.  Not just read my blogs but I could read THEIR blogs!  That night I tore home from work like a mad women (good thing there were no cops that ticketed me for speeding because I was definitely on a mission to get home and fast)  and contacted several students about this idea.  They were all excited about it but we had to get permission from parents, find a safe blogger site, yadda, yadda, yadda....

Finally, we were all online and blogging like professional writers.  We were also commenting on one another's blogs and making suggestions when people were going on similar vacations or places we had been before.  We all blogged about where we could meet up and decided on a park in Broomfield and had a picnic and just talked (in person) about all we had learned about one another.  It was fantastic!  Then, that same brilliant little girl who inspired all of this asked if we could do this during the school year, maybe even IN school!  Another incredible idea.  However, I was going to be in three different schools working this year and how could I ever get alllllllllll those students and alllllllllllllll those teachers organized and get this great idea off the ground.  Summer ended....school started and then the fun began.

About a week into school, I started meeting with teachers and as we were talking we shared ideas about writing and low and behold, the idea of blogging came up!  Imagine that!  A fifth grade group of teachers at Skyview Elementary, in Adams 12 School District, wanted to blog with their students.  I contacted the district tech staff and asked for a safe place to blog and she got back to me that day with tons of great information about how to safely set up a blog with students.

Now, Skyview 5th graders are blogging.  Well, they are learning how to blog.  Blogging IS writing and writing for an audience is hard work.  You have to choose the correct words (I have backspaced many, many times and have re-read, many, many times to get this blog ready to publish).  My favorite part about blogging is when I get to hit the big button on the bottom of my blog that says, Publish Post!  How rewarding to know that many, many people might read my blog and respond to it.  I always love when I get comments and great feedback. I get excited when I get comments that are specific and don't just say, great job or nice writing.  I want details people!!!!

So, if you want to know how to blog and think you're up for the challenges and rewards of blogging give us a shout!  Read our blogs, they are awesome and you'll learn a lot about writing and a lot about the 5th graders at Skyview Elementary School and there amazing teachers who are teaching students how to live as a writer in the 21st Century.  An extra bonus is that you might just reconnect with someone you knew from the past.  For me it was a former student I taught when she was in kindergarten named Nayomi and another student I taught when she was in third grade named Shianne.  Writing keeps people connected in this big, wide world.  See you out in cyper space...