Educational blogging is so much more meaningful and rewarding when it occurs within a blogging community.
It takes time and persistence to establish your own blogging community. When I first started blogging with my class in 2008, we received the odd comment from a student or parent but there was no other audience or interaction. Fast forward four years and my students and I are part of a diverse and large educational blogging community. We learn and interact with people from all over the world every day.
Many teachers wonder how you can get parents involved in a class blog. My best advice is that parent involvement cannot be left to chance. It takes ongoing education and encouragement. This is something I have written about before and you can find some posts here, here and here.
Sometimes there are parents who take involvement to the next level. One such parent is Alma (aka AA), who is the mother of Bianca (aka BB), a student I taught in 2010.
2012 is the third year that AA has been extremely committed to commenting on a wide range of student, class and even teacher blogs.
AA has taken commenting to the next level and has established strong friendships with other teachers, students and parents from many schools around the world. She has learnt so much alongside us in the blogging community and she has reaped her own rewards.
AA and BB have generously sent Australian souvenirs, birthday gifts and Christmas presents to students, families and teachers abroad. They even supported Melbourne teacher-librarian, Kim Yeomans, by sending books to restock her school library after recent flooding. They found out about this cause from Seattle teacher-librarian, Julie Hembree.
AA is a role model parent blogger who demonstrates that the more you put in, the more you get out. AA would be the first one to say that blogging and navigating the internet was very new to her but through persistence, she has shown what is possible.
Recently, AA celebrated her 50th birthday and to commemorate the occasion, a number of blogging classes around the world put together a collaborative blog of birthday wishes http://aabday.edublogs.org/
With the new school year recently beginning, I hope to find other parents who are interested in embracing the world of blogging, even to a small extent of what AA has done.
Everything we do comes down to student learning and as the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development states,
” It is well known that students with interested and involved parents do better at school.”
With blogs and other online tools acting as windows into classrooms, the ways parents can be involved in their child’s school have been redefined. The possibilities are expanding rapidly and, with the right structures in place, amazing outcomes can be experienced!
Dear Kathleen,
Thank you for this post but really this post should be more about you.
For I need to thank you for you were the one who introduced me to this wonderful world of blogging.
You have really encouraged me in so many ways and for that I am always grateful and have never forgotten this.
You are amazing with the time and effort you put in by showing us parents just how truly wonderful blogging can be.
I am so glad I am on this train with you.
It is so true the wonderful friendships which are formed and learning which go hand in hand and I hope to be traveling on this blogging train with and my other blogging friends/pals for a very long,long time.
Thank you Kathleen! You are the role model not me
From AA.
Hi AA,
I may have helped, but I really take my hat off to you for the way you’ve taken blogging on board. Everyone gets so much out of your involvement in blogging and BB has certainly benefited from it!
I hope others who read this post see what is possible.
I don’t doubt that you will be a blogger for a long time to come. I think we both know how addictive it can be! 😆
Kathleen
Dear Kathleen,
I agree with your sentence,”It takes time and persistence to establish your own blogging community.” I started in 2010 and it has been a labor of love, but also lots and lots of my own time at home, reading and commenting and persisting in making connections with other bloggers.
The rewards are amazing, and the friendships I am developing through blogging are as real to me as the ones I have in my personal life. They have enriched my world tremendously.
I only wish more parents would jump on the blogging bandwagon and reap the rewards for both themselves and their children like AA and BB! It takes time out of a busy day, but the benefit to the children is a priceless gift.
Julie
Dear Julie,
You’re right. Blogging certainly is a labour of love. Some people don’t believe that online friendships can be real but it is so true! I have got more out of being friends with the teachers in my PLN than I have with many teachers I know in real life. The icing on the cake will be meeting some of those people (like you!) in June!
Let’s hope we see more parents embrace blogging in the future.
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen,
This is a great post. What a fabulous example of an authentic blogging community, and what a wonderful parent blogging role model- AA!
Thanks to following you in the past few months and demonstrating the power of educational blogging I have embarked on this journey with my students this year!
I have learnt so much from reading your posts and appreciate all the hard work you go to with sharing your ideas and encouraging other teachers.
Your friend in blogging,
Bec
Hi Bec,
I’m so glad you’re blogging this year and I really appreciate your kind words.
I look forward to following your work!
Kath
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