024: A Beginner's Guide to Student Blogging

In this episode, I'll share five fabulous ways to empower your student writers in ELA through blogging. 

OK, a quick update. When I first created this podcast, Blogger was an easy and awesome option for a free student blog. But now they’ve closed their doors to kids under 18. Many teachers are turning to Edublogs, though Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress also offer free versions.

Whatever you choose, make sure it is is allowed by your school, and get parent permission if needed. OK, I’m about to share SO MANY fabulous ways you can empower your students to channel their voice and creativity into blogging. But first, one quick word of warning and one quick word of comfort.

The Warning: Don’t let your students put any personal or school information on their blogs! Nothing beyond first names. This is an important security measure for you to stress with them.

The Comfort: Students can handle the tech. Remind them they can always Google or Youtube questions like “how to embed sound clips in Squarespace,” ” how to speed up an iMovie video,” etc. I first assigned students to create podcasts eight years before I learned to record one myself, and it was fine. Really. Let students go farther than you with technology if they want to. When they ask if they can add the new things they find and discover  they can make to their blogs, just say yes!

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