Having never used a blog for a class before, this is another new experience to add to my tool belt in the less than week since classes started. I’m not a stranger to blogs, having had a few for personal use in the past. The idea of using blogs as a way to track my experience in school is new, however, and one that I honestly can say I like. It holds me accountable to reflection and presenting my work consistently. I know I’m not the only one that must have waited until the last minute to begin a large project. With a blog, you can’t do that. The posts are dated. It’s also a really neat way to have something to look back on and reflect on as you grow down the line. I have a friend who went through her practicum four years ago now who has kept up monthly blog posts reflecting on her experience as an educator. She started these when she was doing her practicum, and they’ve been insightful for me, but also for her as she has been able to reflect upon something that has happened in her month and dive deeper into it. It takes up a lot less physical space than a journal, too.

Thinking of ways that a blog can be used at the grade levels I want to teach at has been a challenge, too. I would love to teach elementary music, but blogs and internet use can be difficult to navigate with younger age groups. However, I have seen in the past at a conference that apps have been used to connect the parents to what the students are doing in their classrooms. Having a blog for that purpose would be so cool, but there are a lot of privacy issues surrounding that. I can’t remember at this time what the app was, but I think it was private and the parents had to be invited to be able to view anything on the app. This protected the kids, while still providing a place that their parents could gain insight into what went on when their kids weren’t with them. I think at a middle school level, the students might be able to have their own blogs, or have a collective blog that they contribute to, but I’m not sure about the appropriateness of that for their age. I can see them certainly being applicable at a high school level for reflective, performative, connective purposes surrounding teaching.