Website+and+Blog

Many of us are familiar with the use of the classroom website, blog, and wiki. But what exact purposes do each of these serve as for learning tools?

 * __**Classroom Website:**__ allows parents and students to form a classroom community. This use of a classroom community helps to bridge the gap between home and school. Parents can see what is their children are doing in school and become more engaged in their child's learning.
 * __**Classroom Blog:**__ Helps the students form their ideas and thoughts into written words. It can serve for many purposes. Personally I would use as a tool to help engage my students in critical thinking questions and have them form a written response. Not only would they create a post, but they would be asked to comment on their fellow classmates posts as well. This also can serve as a way for parents to see the use of technology being used positively in the classroom.
 * __**The Wiki:**__ This is another great tool to help students become active in their learning. You can ask the students to create their very own Wiki Space or you could create one for your students and parents to "get to know you". There are many other different ways that this can be used effectively in the classroom.

How to get started:
There are so many fantastic resources and "how to" videos. Here is a few that I found helpful when I created my very own.
 * **[|How to create a classroom blog:]** An instructional video to help get you started. This is a tool that shows you "the ropes" to creating your own classroom blog. Take some time to check it out!
 * **[|How to create your own classroom website:]** A formal approach to creating an effective classroom website. It is a "must read", pointing out the essentials.

Check out my Classroom Blog and Website:

 * **[|Classroom Blog]** For my blog I chose create it using Blogger.com
 * **[|Classroom Website]** For my website I chose to create it using Weebly.com

How to use a Classroom Blog:

 * **[|Using Blogs:]**This article explains the important ways that blogs can make students better writers by the powerful learning techniques.
 * **[|10 great ways to use a classroom blog:]** This website gives a great list of different ways to incorporate the use of blogs in a classroom setting.

Real Classroom Website:

 * **[|Mr. Coley's Website:]** Awesome website with a lot of educational content. I liked that he incorporated educational games in his classroom website. Kids love games and what better way to learn that to learn through fun games? Something that I didn't care for was the clip art, it was a bit distracting. Other than that this is a great learning tool and a good guide to what a classroom website should look like.