Blogging Experience

So far, I have enjoyed the creation of my blog. I have wanted to start a blog for a couple of years now, but wasn't sure that I could keep it updated enough to make it interesting enough for my audience to continue following. That truly was my biggest fear- to start a blog and get a following and then not be able to keep it updated and people not come back to the blog because they weren't finding the information they wanted. I have set aside a chunk of time to dedicate to updating my blog. I had to dedicate time to blog or it would not get done. Between my teaching, coaching, and family responsibilities, there is little time for anything else. I figure if I can dedicate a slot of time to blog each week, it will become easier to blog more regularly as this becomes habit.

My blog provides a simple way for the parents of my students to keep informed of what we are doing. My goal is to make this the main information page for students and parents to come to when they need to find information about my classes. Currently, I send out a weekly email to my parents. Once I have my blog rolling with current information on a weekly basis, I hope to eliminate the weekly email. One of the widgets I added allows parents to subscribe to my blog and receive email notification of when there is a new post. I want to constantly reference the blog so that it becomes second nature to students and parents to go to the blog when they need to find something out.

I really like the capabilities that the widgets bring to the table. As my students finish projects, I will be able to post them so that they have an audience other than their classmates. I see myself using the YouTube gadget to showcase my students' video projects from the Geometry Project that they have been working so diligently on. I also hope to have the Picasa feed up and running soon. I left my camera at school, as I had planned to have that up and running to show off some of the things we are doing in class. These are great opportunities for parents to see what we are doing as students do not always share what is going on at school.