Teacher’s First: Gated Blogs is a tool specifically made to teach children about blogging and the fun of writing in a safe blog environment.This tool is a wonderful way for parents to learn about safety issues surrounding student blogs. It also offers tips, information and ideas for students. In general, a blog can be a wonderful tool for a child. It can be used in a variety of different subject areas–creative writing, persuasive writing, as a journal, for class assignments, science experiments, history content, and even math discussions.

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Jennifer Bolton is married with two boys, both special needs. She is the owner of the Special Needs in Homeschooling.  Jennifer uses free resources for teaching whenever she can, to keep her boys’ interests and to tailor their learning experiences to their individual learning styles and special needs.

Name of Product: Teacher’s First: Gated Blogs

Link to Product/website: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm

Description of Product: “TeachersFirst encourages you to consider using a “gated blog”* (*term coined by TeachersFirst) to protect your students and yourself from unnecessary stress and outside lurkers.”

Jennifer’s Description of Product: Teacher’s First: Gated Blogs is a tool specifically made to teach children about blogging and the fun of writing in a safe blog environment. The site starts out with questions and when you roll over it with your mouse, the answer is given. The questions are: So what’s a blog and what do I do with it? Who blogs? What kind of writing do they use? How do I use a blog?

Then the site goes into writing prompts and fun blogging ideas.  When you feel your child has grasped the information, the site will walk you through the process of setting up a child’s blog in a safe way.

Here are some examples of classroom blogs so you and your child can get some ideas of what to write about:

• Kindergarten blog - with videos and quotes from kids
• 1st grade classroom shares what they do, including video and pictures
• 6 to 7 year-old class blog - including video and voicethread for AUDIO comments
• 3rd grade class blog - includes podcasts
• 4th grade classroom writes on curriculum topics
• Fictional history blog on Harriet Tubman by elementary students
• 7th grade blog as a class organizer and daily “scribe” space for students
• 8th grade U.S. History class blog and link to class podcasts
• 8th grade math blog - includes whiteboard slides
• 9th grade English blog
• Geometry Class with “Posting for Points” options
• IB English 1A - high school students write and comment on literature
• HS biology blog - interesting prompts on bio related issues
• College physics student blogs from a summer research project

Content and Safety: Teacher’s First: Gated Blogs gives tips and information on how to ensure that a blog is a safe way for your child to express himself.  Each blogging platform is different, but each one can be made private so only specific users can see it.  The Gated Blog website recommends several free blogging platforms to choose from.

How the Product can be used for Homeschooling: This tool is a wonderful way for parents to learn about safety issues surrounding student blogs.  It also offers tips, information and ideas for students.

In general, a blog can be a wonderful tool for a child.  It can be used in a variety of different subject areas - creative writing, persuasive writing, as a journal, for class assignments, science experiments, history content, and even math discussions.

Students can share their blog with family and friends (only those approved by parents!) or they could participate in a group project where parents set up a blog with multiple student authors.

Jennifer’s Experience Using the Product: After exploring the resources on the Teacher’s First: Gated Blogs website, I set up blogs for my two sons.  When creating these blogs, I set them up as public blogs so you all could take a look.  My eldest made a social issue blog to Protect The Wolves and my youngest made a Newspaper blog called Tewspaper.

Please note that for safety reasons, these blogs do not contain any identifying information.  They do not include our contact information or even my children’s names.  I set them up so that anytime someone leaves a comment on one of the blogs, I am notified via email.  I can then choose whether to approve the comment and have it appear on the blog or disapprove it and have the comment deleted.  I am also set as an author on each of their blogs, so I can log in any time I would like and see what they have written or are working on.

I am a blogger at heart. I love to blog and have been blogging for the last 3 or 4 years.  I am excited to see where their blogs will take them!

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: The product is a tutorial.  It introduces blogging to parents, teachers, and children. It is easy to read and can be done on any computer.

For more information on blogging and homeschooling, read Homeschool Blogging on ChoosyHomeschooler’s PURLS of Wisdom.