Parkade has a Blog!

I’ll admit it right now… I have a problem. I’m addicted to blogs.  I love checking my blog feed at night.  I read blogs about parenting, teaching, faith, technology; you name it.  I think I love them so much because they are full of insight and information related to things I want to learn about.  Gone are my days of flipping through a monthly magazine.  My daily blog updates are now favorited above flipping the shiny magazine pages.

According to New York magazine, the first recorded blogger was college sophomore Justin Hall.  He created an internet journal in 1994.  A decade later, the word blog was the Webster’s word of the year and was later added to the dictionary.  Since then, blogging has become a valuable social media tool for businesses, personalities, and individual web users.  Because a blog can include a comments section which allows an online community to be built through topic discussions and questions, bloggers have been able to grow their followers.  Writers have also use blogs to develop their craft and to get noticed by publishers and writing agents. 

A Blog is actually short for web log.  It is something like a diary on the internet.  A blog is organized in reverse chronological order so that the newest information is at the top of the page.  Each entry or post can be categorized by using tag words that will allow a user to search for information by topics.

At school, we know that it is important to develop strong lines of communication between teachers, students, and parents to keep our community strong.  A blog will allow is to inform one another on topics that are important at our school but might require more than a small amount of information that can be included in a newsletter.  A blog can also be a window into our school and allow our families to see the strength in our learning community.

Blogs can also be used in classes as an authentic learning platform.  A blog is one way for a 21^st century learner to learn composing and editing directly on a device.  One kid safe blogging site is called Kid Blog.  One benefit of this site is that it allows teachers to view and approve all post and comments to create teachable moments for both writing and netiquette.

As we grow as school bloggers, we hope to create a bank of information that will both inform and engage our community. As we develop blog posts it is important to remember a few things.  A blog post doesn’t need to be just text.  We know that information can come in many forms.  Videos and pictures can also be added.  Next, a blog post can also be used to connect readers to other important information sources.  This can be accomplished with web links.  Finally, write about what is interesting to you or something you would love for our community to know more about.

-Mrs. Lentz
Library Media Specialist