Reflection on blogging

I've had students who used a blog as part of their writing notebook. I don't have a problem with this, but the district might. Students are not to log into their private e-mail accounts while at school and are never to have anything showing their names online. While I see this as a bit of an overkill on safety, I have to work within the rules, so...

I would like to know if the student sites that are listed on Marcia's blog will work for my students. Do they need to be a certain age? Do they need a parent to sign agreement for starting a blog? I had a very persistent 7th grader working at creating a blog in September, but he never could get it done between parent waivers and his age.

I think blogging could be a great way for students across the three elementaries in our district to communicate about what they are doing in class. If assignments could be posted on a blog, we could do a much better job of having students on the same page, hitting the same mark, reaching for the same version of "A".

Introduction

My name is Ms. Erickson.

I teach 7th and 8th grade communication arts in a K-8 building.

I think blogging can be useful and have had many students use it. I'm interested in learning about sites that will be safe for my 7th and 8th graders to use and that they can sign up for without paying or having an age limit.