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Why Blog? Why Not?

By Zipporah Porton
Senior Editor, Online Content

According to Pingdom.com there were 126 million blogs on the Internet in 2009. Just imagine how much that number has increased in the last couple of years. Many educators have jumped on board this tech-train and are moving full speed ahead, while others don’t see the point. If you started a blog and abandoned it months ago, or if you simply don’t understand the fuss, here are some reasons why maybe you should enter, or return, to the blogosphere.

1. Understand how it’s done. Whether or not you have a passion for blogging, your students either already have a blog or are going to want one in the future. Blogging could be a great lesson for your students, and it’s a perfect way to get them interested in writing, or focused on whatever their passions might be. How can you help them get started if you don’t know anything about blogging? If nothing else, do it so that you can be prepared to further your students’ technological education.
2. Express yourself! Blogging is a great way to simply express yourself and what you’re thinking and feeling at that moment. You don’t necessarily have to blog about teaching, you can write about whatever moves you. Writing about teaching and your experiences could be helpful to other educators, but the beauty of the blog is that it can be about whatever you’d like. Write about your own passions, be it teaching, technology, travel or reality TV. Regardless of whether you find an audience you’ll be able to let the world know your thoughts, and let off some creative steam.
3. Who cares what I have to say? Some people don’t want to blog because they think they have nothing to say. I don’t believe it! Everyone has something to say, and no time like the present to actually be heard. If you’re already visiting other teacher or educator blogs, jump in and join the conversation.  Let your favorite bloggers know you’ve started writing yourself and would love to hear their thoughts and comments.
4. Keep friends updated. You might think that you don’t have any time to blog, but how much time do you spend e-mailing all of your friends and family to tell them that you got a new puppy or that one of your favorite students finally “got” algebra? Rather than e-mailing everyone individual, have your friends and family follow your blog and tell everyone your exciting news at one time.
5. Request ideas. You’re stumped on what to do in next month’s lesson on sow bugs? Blog about your classroom and what gets them going and put a call out for suggestions. You’d be surprised how many other teachers are happy to dive in and help a fellow teacher in need.
6. Share the wealth. One of the great things about teaching is that you have a community of teachers out there that understand what you’re going through on a day-to-day basis and could benefit from your pearls of wisdom. You can blog about a great tech tool you discovered, or you can let teachers know about a lesson plan that your students enjoyed and actually helped them absorb information. It’s not fair to keep all your discoveries to yourself! Help other teachers out there by giving them your hints and tips, and then they’ll return the favor in their comments, and will most likely follow your blog regularly.

Now that you see the benefits of blogging, go ahead and get started! There are a number of free platforms available that can help you start blogging today, and soon we’ll go into the details of which are the best for your needs.

As you move forward, remember that blogs are public! This may seem obvious, but one high school English teacher in Pennsylvania recently got into trouble for griping about her students in her blog, and she is now dealing with the consequences. While the accused claimed that she was blogging anonymously, parents figured out her identity and were livid about what her commenting regarding the children in her class, including saying that they are “rude, lazy, disengaged whiners.”

It’s tempting to let loose and say all you want on your blog, but you must remember that everyone can read what you’re saying, and you have a professional responsibility as a teacher to keep some of your feelings in check. If you need to gripe about a bad student or a bad day, perhaps it’s a better idea to keep those thoughts in a private diary, and save the blog for more appropriate topics. Aside from that, the sky is the limit as to what you can blog about, so get started now!