"While You Were Out" Blog

I've been trying to think of ways to use blogs in my classroom that will benefit the students and get them writing more. I've already set up my English 12 class with two sets of blogs: a class blog and individual blogs. It will take a bit of time, but I plan on giving each student their own individual Blackboard blog where they can blog for specific assignments as well as for themselves. The class blog would be a bit more collaborative, with one of the collaborations being a "While You Were Out" blog.

Many teachers keep "While You Were Out" notebooks that will inform students what they missed while they were absent. To keep it from being more work for the teacher, assign one student per class period to write the "While You Were Out" blog post. When a kid is absent, instead of making them wait until the next day in class to catch up, they can read a blog post one of their classmates wrote and get the student perspective.

This would also be a cool record of funny things that happened in class, unplanned teachable moments, and/or a way for students to reflect on what they learned. Plus they would be WRITING!

I'm going to give it a shot - I hope it works!!