There are so many uses for Web 2.0 technology in the classroom.  Blogs are a simple way to allow students to experience online communication in a protected environment.  Though I have not yet used a blog in my class, I believe there are several uses for them. 

In my classroom, my students are required to participate in an author study.  Within that study, they are required review and reflect on a number of his books, study his biography, and write comparisons of his methods of writing.  This is supposed to be done in a “reader’s notebook” with a table of contents and entries throughout the study.  This could easily be done in a blog.  Students would not only be able to share their own ideas with their fellow classmates, but would be able to comment and participate in diolague and questioning to further their interest. 

Also, in our reading curriculum, students are required to read at least 25 chapter books for the year.  They are supposed to record their summaries and opinions of these books in a notebook.  Other students rarely look at these summaries and opinions and students are not very motivated to complete these entries.  However, a blog would not only encourage students to be more diligent in their entries, but would actually create a forum for students to discuss the books they are reading.  This would give a more authentic purpose to their entries and would, hopefully, get all students involved in reading a variety of books.

I do have a few questions about the practical management of blogging in the classroom, and I would love some input.  First, with limited number of classroom computers, how do you structure your students’ blogging time?  Are they allowed to blog during board work time, free time, or is it best set up as a required center?  Second, if you get a number of students blogging on a number of subjects, it seems like it would be difficult to manage all the posts and comments.  Does anyone have experience with this?  Is it easier and less time consuming than it seems?

This week is my students first week back from holidays.  I had painstakingly prepared literacy rich lesson plans to engage my students in the reading process.  After these plans were prepared, we were told we would have a mock MCT2 (Mississippi Curriculum Test) test on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. In addition to this being frustrating for me as a teacher, there are several problems with the test itself. 

First, the test format prepared by our district is not at all comparable to the MCT2 test.  On top of which, my students are still on vacation mentally and I needed at least a week to bring them (and me) back to reality.

Of course, as a teacher I understand the need for accountability testing, but my district is constantly requiring us to test leaving teachers with the feeling that we are so busy testing that we have no time to teach.  Are we alone, or are there other teachers out there who feel the same way?