I have been a fan of Kathy Cassidy's 1st grade blog for awhile now. As I said in my first entry, I tend to gravitate towards the blogs that show student work. One concern I have with student blogs (especially students this young) is the issue of safety and not having the students identified online. I really like how Kathy addressed this by having the students use Build Your Wild Self to create a creature that represents each particular student....a first grade avatar, if you will. Her blog is very creative. The students can comment on a topic she chooses or they can blog whatever is on their minds. The students use their own spelling conventions when they write. One of the most powerful features of this blog is that others can (and do) comment on the students' blogs. These students are getting communications from classes and people from all over the world. How powerful is that! Their world is not limited by where they live. They also get to see first hand the power of the internet and this type of communication. Their writing can be viewed by people world-wide and they can communicate with people outside of their own community. Their "world" is not limited to those that they know and see every day. Kathy also uses photos and videos a lot on her blog. This also makes it inviting for children (those in her physical classroom as well as her "world wide" classroom) to use. I started a blog with my students (4th graders) this semester. Like this blog, I wanted it to be more about my students' writing than mine. The kids are really thrilled because people from outside our classroom are starting to add comments. They feel as if they are "published authors". The thing that thrills them the most is that their friend in China (a former classmate) or anyone from anywhere in the world can view our blog. I think that Kathy Cassidy's Classroom Blog is an amazing blog and that Kathy's students are lucky to have her as a teacher. They are using a writing tool that many middle school teachers would feel that their students are too young to use effectively.
Visit Kathy Cassidy's blog here: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337&l=1143592742
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