Blogging- a beginner's point of view

Blogging, for me, has always seemed to be an easy way to communicate with those around me to share my ideas and interact with others. Setting up my new blog has so far been a very easy experience. Blogger.com appears to be a very straight forward program, and though starting out I have tried to keep things very basic, I am sure that I will continue to modify and improve as time goes on. I'm looking forward to the practice working with this application so that I feel more comfortable introducing it to my students later on. I am currently set to begin maternity in the middle of May and would love to have a blog set up by then to stay in contact with my students and give them an opportunity to keep me up to date with how they are performing and working in my absence. I think this will give me a great chance to have a presence in the classroom without actually being present on a daily basis in the building!

In developing my first entry, I searched for available internet resources to provide me with ways that others are incorporating this technology into their world language classrooms. I found two sites that gave me some great inspiration.

http://journal.jaltcall.org/articles/1_1_Pinkman.pdf

A great journal article detailing the strengths of using blogs and giving student learners more responsibility and independence in the classroom. One of my main focuses this year has been working towards releasing some of my control during instruction and requiring students to take on a more active role in the class. Blogging is a very effective way of handing this responsibility over to them, while encouraging them to take ownership of their use of the language. Blogging requires students to communicate with other another and forces them to express themselves in the target language. Practice brings proficiency and keep students excited about learning!

http://mmeduckworth.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-use-social-media-in-foreign.html

Great tips from a Canadian French teacher currently integrating social media in a variety of formats into her language classroom. An excellent introduction to providing students with the chance to develop new technology and language skills!

Both provide ways that language teachers can begin to plan for applying the development of a blog into their instruction.  They've lead me to a lot of reflection about ways that I, too, can bring together a plan for my students.  What are the best ways to provide students with valuable opportunities in the classroom?  Leave your comments below and I hope to explore more as this project moves forward.