The other day, I had a few students come up to me with excited expressions waving a poem in my face. This poem was written and posted on Facebook by a very shy student in my homeroom. This young girl’s work was absolutely amazing – it was very well-written and full of colorful, vibrant language. When I read it, I got a genius idea…
For three years I have tried (very unsuccessfully) to get my students involved in blogging. Every year my students have loathed and hated the idea. I could never understand why. When I was getting my master’s degree, I did an entire year-long capstone project that partially centered around the benefits of blogging. Research indicates that utilizing technology and social media like this engages students, but I have never seen it work within my own classroom walls. My blogging assignments have always been required, and the topics my students had to write about were always chosen by me. Perhaps that was what caused my students to treat the blog as if it were another tedious homework assignment.
The student who posted her poem on Facebook did so because Facebook is a forum where people can “like” and comment. It is an avenue where others can put themselves out there to see what the world has to say. My kids live and breathe for this kind of feedback from their peers. Why can’t I create a similar environment to get them excited about writing? A lot of my students are very creative, but they don’t have a safe avenue to showcase what they can do. My self-proclaimed genius idea is to start a creativity blog. On this blog, students would be able to post their own writing such as poems, stories, song lyrics, and so forth. In addition, I would also give them the opportunity to post about other creative ventures that they might undertake. Many of them are interested in photography. With this blog, they would be able to post their pictures and get their peers to make comments. There would even be a place on the blog where they can do something similar to Pinterest in which they would “pin” different web sites, images, quotes, or song lyrics that inspire them to write. The blog even has an app that can be accessed on smart phones!
When I announced this idea to my students, they seemed to love it. I hope that this will be a healthy outlet for them to brag on what they can do. Feel free to check it out and see what my kids are doing at:
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