June 27, 2014
To whom it
may concern,
This is a letter to express my interest/request
for using a blog in my classroom. There are many benefits to using blogs in
elementary classrooms. Using blogs in the classroom is a great way to involve
students and get them writing, with other ways rather than the traditional pen
and paper way. Blogging helps students become published writers, and it is a
great way for them to showcase their work for their friends, family, and world
to see.
In my classroom I plan on using the blogging
platform called Blogger. This is my top choice because it is a blogging
platform that I am familiar with and have experience using. Another reason why
this is my top choice for blogging in my personal classroom is because it is
easy to use, allows me to monitor comments that are made by viewers, and it
will allow me to have a private blog that only gives certain readers access to
view the blog if I wish to make it private.
Due to the grade level that I
currently teach, Kindergarten, I would want just one classroom blog. Although
it would actually be two separate blogs in my case, one for my morning class
and one for my afternoon class.
The reason I would like to have a
classroom blog for each one of my classes is because I think it is a great way
to keep parents informed about our classroom. We would be able to post either
together as a class or I would be able to post individually as the teacher. The
students and I would decide together what items or topics we would want to post
on our blog. This might be to showcase fun or exciting events that have
been happening in our class, such as cross
age tutoring or a fun Polar Express day. This blog would also be a place for
parents to use as a reference for calendar dates where we would post upcoming
events in our classroom.
I
would use students' real names, but only first names and never last names. In
addition, before I posted any names I would get parent signatures/permission
for their student to be on our classroom blog as part of my disclosure from the
beginning of the year. If a parent wishes to not have their student's name
published as part of our classroom blog I will respect their wishes and not
post their name. I will still have that student be an active participate when
we blog as a class though.
I love taking pictures of my
students, however, we will not be posting the pictures of my students to our
classroom blog. Instead we would post pictures of our classroom work that we
have completed, art projects we have finished, or pictures of our classroom. If
student work is posted to our classroom blog, names would be removed from the
work prior to posting. Also I would make sure in advance that I have not only
parent permission to post student work, but also permission from the student
who completed the work. If they don't feel comfortable sharing their work then
I would value their request and not post it.
Having a classroom blog is also a
great way for me to teach my students about internet safety and netiquette. We would be able to discuss why it is
important to not share certain information online. We would be able to discuss why
it could be dangerous if we were to share too much information on the internet.
This would also be a great start for me to introduce young students to what a
digital footprint is and why it important to have a good digital footprint. I
feel these are important topics that students need to learn and be exposed to at
an early age.
A classroom blog would allow my
students and I to complete a yearlong journal. It would be a great way for us
to reflect on our school year when it comes to a close. We will be able to see
how far we have come during our nine months together, and to see all the enjoyable
learning experiences that took place in our classroom.
I feel that a classroom blog is the
best way to accomplish what I want to accomplish; which is: to inform parents
about our classroom, teaching students about writing and publishing, teaching
students about the importance of internet safety and creating a journal that my
students and I can look back upon at the close of the year.
In closing I am asking you to consider
my request to have a classroom blog for both my morning and afternoon
Kindergarten classes for the educational purposes that have been listed.
Thank you
for your time.
Sincerely,
Stacie
Barker
