Blogging in International Classrooms

Mrs. Cassidy's class

Blogging in Canada

A first grade class in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada has a web page along with a classroom blog. Mrs. Kathy Cassidy's class at Westmount Elementary uses the blog to help invite the world into their classroom. The teacher posts assignments and reinforcements for learning along with what they did that day. The children also post to the blog on a particular topic. Mrs. Cassidy will type in after what the children were trying to say (since they are just learning to write). There are many pictures and videos of the children. This blog is a great way to introduce children to the concept of blogging. Check out this blog for some great ideas in setting up a blog for younger students.


Mrs. M's Class

Blogging in Australia

I was really impressed with the class blog title "2mGems" which is the blog of a class of Year 2's (6 & 7 year old) students in Brisbane, Australia. Their teacher, Mrs. M, has set up a blog folio for each child to post to with some posting prompts. She is introducing the world of blogging to her class. There are also news events with related tie-ins and upcoming important dates. Did you know that today is Father's Day in Australia? This class in Australia has blogging buddies, which are other classes that blog, in Canada (Mrs. Cassidy's class), New Hampshire and New York. There is also a map on the blog that tells where visitors to the blog are from. There are quite a few hits from the U.S. There is also a class wiki to which everyone can contribute. This sounds like something I would like to try in an elementary classroom.

Check out another great blog of a class of ten and eleven-year-olds (5th grade) in New Zealand called "Navigators"

Side note: most of the great blogs I found were international. I'm wondering why the concept of classroom blogging isn't catching on as much in the U.S.