Tech Thursday

Hi Friends!

It's Tech Thursday!

Today I want to share KIDBLOG with you!

I love using this site to host my student's blogs. Yep! We blog in first grade! (Many do, I know...but it's just me and a kindergarten teacher who are using it at my school...so it's kind of a big deal and my kids love it!) When I first started blogging with my first graders, I used it as an intervention tool for my top students only. I wanted something that would offer them the opportunity to read and write but also throw in a bit of technology. This was before we became a Mac school, so they would hop on my Dell and blog away and I would then comment on their posts. We used it as an online journal of what was happening in our classroom. It worked perfectly because I would occasionally use their posts as editing lessons with the rest of the class, or I would even let others comment on their posts as they finished their work. As I saw improvements in grammar usage and spelling, etc. with my top kiddos, I knew blogging could benefit my whole class. So I searched and found KIDBLOG!

I totally recommend checking it out! It's very easy to set up and once you guide your children through it a few times, they'll get it. I especially love the safety of it! Anytime someone wants to post a comment or start a new blog I receive an email to let me know and then I can approve, edit, trash, etc. I also share the link with the parents and extended family of my students. We have a lot of comments from grandparents, aunts, uncles, moms and dads, sisters and brothers! It's so cool to watch their faces light up when they see a comment on their post. You're also able to add images, videos and links into the blog posts. I've used those, but I haven't taught my friends how to do that yet, but we will!

The only thing I wish KIDBLOG would do is to somehow alert the kiddos when they log in that they have new comments to read. (Maybe there's a way, but I haven't found it yet.) We've gotten into the habit of scrolling back to reread our comments and because I have to approve each post, I usually remember and can give them a heads up if I know someone posted a comment on their blog.

I'm not going to tell you the step-by-step process of setting up your blogs because you can find all of that information on the website (linked above)....and in no way am I a guru of KIDBLOG but if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to help. Their customer service is great too...so don't hesitate to shoot them an email directly.

Here's the link to our KIDBLOG site:

Yesterday we blogged about Chinese New Year and learning Chinese with Mr. Wu! So fun!

Have a great day!

Jenn