iPaddling through Fourth Grade-Encourage...Engage...Enlighten...Empower: 4th Graders Share the Importance of Blogging

As I reflect upon my teaching, often it is other teachers' blogs that I turn to for ideas and inspiration. My one year anniversary for my blog is this December, and I am still not 100% comfortable posting, and yes, I still get nervous when I push the button to publish. I am so proud of my students because they are definitely the complete opposite and LOVE to publish their posts.

In this post, I decided to turn it over to my fourth graders. We have all read a lot of posts about the importance of student blogging from an educator's point of view, so I decided to put a twist on it. I shared a Google Doc with my students and had them write their top five reasons they like to blog. It did not take them long to share their ideas and comments. As a team, they had so many reasons that we decided it would be best to work together and narrow it down to ten that they all agreed upon.

Jerry Blumengarten

I have also included many of the quotes they created on Glogster and Canva about blogging. Their quotes are a true inspiration.

I went back and reread what each student wrote prior to posting this and LOVED something one of my student's shared. So to start their post here a quote from Eme.
Eme S. - "I like to blog because it's the next best thing to writing a best-selling book."

Here are the fourth graders thoughts and

rationales about the importance of blogging.

Lessons Learned about Blogging

Teaching Others

When we blog, we teach others about what we are learning, and we may even teach them new information. What we write might inspire someone else. Our writing can give other student's ideas. We also learn a lot from reading other kids' blog posts.

Global Connections

Blogging is fun because we get to blog with kids from all around the world. We are creating global connections, and we learn from each other. Last year, our class had the opportunity to blog with author Ms. Jena Ball. This year, we have made friends with classrooms throughout the United States, from Shekou, China, and Canada. We develop friendships with others from around the world when we blog.

Here is a comment one of my students received from China.
Personal connections are made when student's blog.

Kaitlyn's Kidblog post from Below

Worthy of the Web

Blogging is important because it makes us a better writer. Our class always talk about keeping it "Worthy of the Web". We are able to show our writing skills with others. Also, we become better writers when we read other kid's blogs. Since we know lots of people will read our post, we have to proofread and check over our writing carefully before we publish. Sometimes my friend's in my classroom check over my post before I share it. We love how other people read our work besides just our teacher or parents.

Student Voice

When blogging we get to express our ideas, thoughts, and feelings. We have our own voice when we write. It is great that we get to share our voice with the world! Everyone can share their own voice. Also, we love sharing our creativity!

Questioning

You get to talk with people from all over the world and ask questions about their blogs. We can also ask questions about where they live. When you ask others questions, you are really learning. A lot of people ask questions about our blogs and what we are learning about.

No Right or Wrong Answer

Blogging is great because there are no right or wrong answers. I can share my ideas and feelings with the world, and I am proud to write.

Commenting

We love to have people comment on our blog posts. It tells us different people love our writing and care about what we have to say. We always write back to the person who comments. Getting comments is one of our favorite things and we are always checking our blog posts. Sometimes we get suggestions on things we need to improve in our writing. There are a lot of things we learned about commenting. You need to write something positive about the person's blog. We can also share a personal connection. You always want to try to ask a question. Remember to sign your first name to the comment you are done.

Sharing our Passion

We can share what we love with others. We make people happy by letting them read our blogs. I get to share my stories and what is important to me.

Blogging Buddies

We make friends with other classrooms by blogging. This year we participated in the Global Read Aloud. We are blogging buddies with a class from California. We have been sharing our ideas and thoughts about the book our class read together. We are able to comment on each other's blogs. This year, we not only have blogging buddies from the United States, but also from Shekou, China and Canada.

Classroom Curriculum

Our class loves creating presentations to put in our blog posts. It gives others a better understanding of what we are learning and writing about. We can app smash when using Kidblog. We like to add videos and what we wrote in Pages. We write in all subject areas. Each week we have a different writing genre. We always post our final draft to Kidblog.

Powerful quote by Fourth Grader Natalie M. to sum up the Importance of Student Blogging

A thought turns into an idea, an idea turns into a sentence, a sentence turns into a blog, and the blog grows and turns into success, as does the brain of the author.