The One Activity I Recommend for Every Teacher

The only technology-related activity that I recommend to every teacher is blogging. A blog can be used for a lot of things in your classroom and outside of your classroom. I have three general categories for blogging activities; distribution of information, discussion of information, or demonstration of knowledge.

Distribution: this is the most basic use of a blog. As the teacher you can use your blog to post assignments, reminders, and general information about what is happening in your classroom and school. Think of this as a digital replacement for a classroom newsletter. If you don't think that you can post updates daily, start out with a schedule of posting updates on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. That schedule will allow you to start the week with a look-ahead and end the week with a review.

Discussion: this is when you post information that you want your students to respond to. You could post a "question of the week" or post an interesting article you've recently read. My favorite discussion activity asks students to write their own posts to reflect on what they've learned and ask questions that they have about the recent lessons.

Demonstration: this is when you have students create their own blogs to use as digital portfolios to showcase what they've learned and what've created.

To help teachers get started on the road to blogging I created a free 90 page guide to using Blogger in school. The guide is embedded below. You can also find it here (clicking the link with initiate a PDF download).