Activity+5

= Blogs = ===Blogs are an easy tool to use in the classroom if you have a friendly, private blogging site. Blogs allow students to interact with content and other classmates. They can 'talk' to each other. Your final task for our DTE time is to create a class blog using the following website and add a comment telling how you can use this tool in your classroom. ===

KidBlog.org
===This website is secure for educators, and allows you to preview and approve the comments before they are posted on the site. This is an extra step for you, as the teacher, but will provide you an opportunity to oversee what the students are discussing. ===
 * ===First, please set up the blog... ===
 * ===Go to kidblog.org to begin the set-up process. ===
 * Follow the directions on the site to set up your teacher account.
 * Follow the directions on the site to set up your students' accounts. Students do not need email addresses. You can use student's first names as the usernames and even use their names as their passwords.
 * If you feel comfortable, please add me as one of your students...I would love to keep up with your blogs!!
 * Go to the settings tab to ensure you have the site set for posts and comments to need teacher approval.
 * Begin your blog! If you need some assistance, email me and I will run to your campus to help you get set up and comfortable. We can meet before school, after school, or during your planning time-just let me know what works best for you!
 * ===Then, please post a comment (click on the discussion tab) in the wiki explaining how you plan to use the blog in your classroom. My first thought was to use it as a journal entry. Teachers can post a question and students can comment on the answer. If you plan to use the blog this way, please comment on some thought-provoking posts that would interest students in commenting on the blog. ===