Blogs are not only for teenagers and food lovers anymore. Welcome to the world of Edublogging where educators have a platform to share with the world what they have discovered in and out of the classroom. I have worked in a public high school, community college, and am currently working for Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, VA and I’ve turned to edublogs for fresh ideas and to keep up with the current education topics in every position I’ve held.
What I’ve found by using edublogs is that you shouldn’t ignore a blog just because it’s not exactly the same thing that you teach. Some of my best lesson ideas have sprung from reading a blog by someone who teaches something completely different. So, even though a particular blogger may focus on elementary school tools and you teach high school, or they’re a music teacher and you teach math, keep an open mind and think outside the box about how you can use what you find. Now, how do you track down all of these wonderful ideas?
Surprisingly, Twitter is a great way to find education bloggers. When I peruse the many edublogs available, I am particularly interested in finding new tools and ways to use educational technology and have found no shortage of real teachers who want to share what they’ve used in their classrooms. If you don’t follow anyone currently, places like ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), Discovery Education, PBS Teachers, or Edutopia are great places to start. These are just a few of the MANY places that can help you start your Edublogging journey. Once you start exploring, you’ll be amazed what you can find.
No longer are we confined to the geographic region in which we live. We now have a way to reach out to the world and not only share, but receive ideas and tools to make our classrooms engaging and perhaps relieve some of the grading burden.