The Benefits of Teacher Blogs

If you are a teacher, let me reassure you that teacher blogs need not involve you in more work!

In fact, teacher blogs may actually save you time. Here are a few ideas about how you might use teacher blogs:

• create a blog page around a topic area. For instance, if you teach English and are covering Shakespeare, write a few words yourself then add:
• a link to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s website
• a video of a performance – lots free on YouTube – or use last year’s school production
• images (from Google images) or from last year’s school production
• a few questions for the class to consider
• you can even produce videos yourself – very easy to do – have a look at this article on How to Create Videos for YouTube (you don’t have to put them onto YouTube)
• the students read your blog entry then add their comments or create their own blog pages (incorporating any of the elements listed above) as part of their assignments

This approach enables you to complement your class-based teaching with substantial content from the internet and proves the students with an opportunity to be creative.

This will not replace books and written assignments, but it adds variety and a richer learning experience. Students are encouraged to develop their own opinions in their blogs – and to share each others. Naturally there will be issues around plagiarism but these are easily overcome and below you can see an example of a real live teacher’s blog.

A Record of Work and Achievement

Your teacher blog and the blogs of the students provide a record of the work and achievement. This can be made public. It is often hard for people to understand what goes on in a school. The school blogs can keep parents updated on progress throughout the year – and offer a great opportunity to showcase the school to a wider audience.

Student Revision

Students can use your blog and their own blogs as revision resources – and how much more vivid will their recollection be when it encompasses so many different types of media.

An Example Teacher’s Blog

Use this link to view a Teacher’s Blog.