Kidblog: Starting Kidblog for the 1st time

I
recently came across Kidblog just a few months ago and I AM IN LOVE! There are so many ideas for this
awesome website!

It isa FREE and safe way to enhance the writing process in your classroom. It allows students to blog in a way secured by the classroom teacher. Blogs can be private (just viewable by students and teacher) or teacher can optfor it to be public and share with others. This is GREAT for sharing withparents.

Teachers can create password protected parent and guest accounts to the community if they wish.

I began by starting it just for my early finishers to use to enhance their writing. I can instantly see a difference in their computer skills. I like to have my kids plan for what they are going to write. However, as months progressed I started using it for reading comprehension. When kids read books I had them write a text to self/book/world in a thread.

I also let my students, “Free Blog” and write whatever they want. These kids LOVE to write because they feel cool blogging. They love that they can share their ideas. I have had kids become friends because they read each others blog posts and realized they had more in common than they first thought!

I really like that I can opt to control everything. A student can write a post or comment, but it is not viewable until I approve the posting. I can easily tell a student, “you made some grammatical errors so check the post again and then I’ll approve it”.

All of the third grade teachers at my school use Kidblog. We have shared each other’s

What are some ideas that you use Kidblog in your classroom?

Do you take a grade on anything that they write on Kidblog?

How do you deal with kids wanting to “Text Type” (LOL, OMG, etc) ?If you would like to reinforce quality student commenting, I recommend my posters and bookmarks. Click the picture to see them in detail.

Student Blog Post Commenting Etiquette [Kidblog]

Written by

Amber Calderon

Amber is veteran teacher that built a successful TPT business before being recruited to lead social media and content marketing strategy for two Ed-Tech brands. She loves using her unique knowledge of the teacher marketing space to help teachers grow and scale their business with the right digital marketing strategies.

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5 Comment

Reply
*S.Udy*
May 28, 2014 at 5:42 am

This sounds like a great site! It looks like from the pictures that it works on tablets/iPads too! This is going on my list to share with our Library/Tech teacher. Thanks!

Steph
Simple Insights
Reply
Amber Calderon
May 31, 2014 at 5:13 pm

Hello Steph!

Thanks so much for stopping by! There is a free Kidblog App that you can download to your iPads that makes the program easy to use. Students can also access the website from home. You just give them the link and it will have a drop down menu for the your classes names.I didn't expand that far but am hoping to next year. They also have their own passwords to access their personal blog (I just used their library numbers). Students can blog and add pictures to their writing! It's amazing how many features Kidblog has. I am so happy that you are sharing this with your library/tech teacher. Can't wait to read how it works for you next year!

Amber
Reply
Nicole Jenkins
June 4, 2014 at 3:48 am

I can't wait to use KidBlog with my kiddos. Our school is pretty tech savvy and sometimes I get overwhelmed with all of the different tech options out there. KidBlog seems a little less intimidating than some of the other options! Plut it's a fun way to get kids writing (I'm 4th grade… BIG writing grade!). I am excited to try it out!

Nicole
Going Places in Fourth Grade
Reply
Shelby
August 8, 2016 at 10:21 pm

Can’t get your links to work on bookmarks and posters .

Reply
Amber Calderon
August 9, 2016 at 4:40 pm

Hey Shelby!
Thanks you so much for letting me know! I recently switched from blogger to WordPress so my links may not have all transferred over. It’s fixed!