The Mind-Boggling Abilities of Educational Blogging

Educational blogging provides an outlet for teachers to share their concerns, recommendations, philosophies, and methods inside the classroom with students, parents, and other educators. It can also become a space for self-expression and for teachers to share themselves in contexts outside of school life. Educational blogs have been just one tool that has helped create vital teaching communities in the midst of large turnover rates and teaching burnout, most specifically in recent years.

Three women collaborating while using technology. 
Photo by Christina Morillo.

Hur et. al writes in “Why are they leaving? Understanding Associations between early childhood program policies and teacher turnover rates” that, according to their study, some of the main reasons that teacher turnover is currently so high are the lack of “wage, benefit, and teacher support policies” (1). While blogs are not specifically highlighted as a form of teacher support polices in this article, the article does write that “there is also a strong link between support for teachers’ professional development and teacher retention. Schools that offer more professional development and networking opportunities enjoy lower rates of teacher turnover” (Hur et. al 5).  The availability of teaching theories, strategies, methods, lesson plans, philosophies and more that can (and often are) included in teaching blogs mark many of these ‘boxes’ of professional development and networking, just on a more casual (and thus, more accessible) level. With the stakes lower and teachers more passionate on their own platforms, blogging may provide an even bigger impact that rigid and uber-formal professional development training.

Because educational blogging provides so many opportunities for teachers to learn from each other in terms of available resources, teaching practices, and theories, I myself was able to learn from my peers’ teaching blogs and find content that I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Corinne Kamien’s “Teaching the Whole Child” blog post informed me with more information on how to create an environment where I can teach the ‘whole child’ in my classroom, referencing one of many popular educational psychological theories. According to Kamien, the Whole Child Approach reminds instructors that “students are individuals, and deserve to be treated with respect, understanding, and caring for all aspects of their life (academic and nonacademic).” By providing a “sense of routine coupled with an understanding, comfortable environment,” I can make my classroom a place where are encouraged to be and present their whole selves (Kamien). In Jackson Scott’s “Example #1 of Uses of technology in the Social Studies Classroom: Podcasts,” I was able to learn how other educators are incorporating a fairly new form of media appropriately into their classrooms and the positive impact these new resources can have in a classroom. Scott describes the listening to and making of podcasts by students as a “great and creative way for students to also further their education.” While Scott specifically writes about podcasts in a social studies classroom, his implementations can be spread to many other subjects, including mine with English as a Second Language (ESL). Students can use podcasts to summarize, make content for each other to later be quizzed on, and allow the students to become active participants in each other’s learning. Finally, Eden Marose’s impassioned “The Epidemic of Charter Schools: A Saga, Business and Politics” informs teachers on the downfalls of many charter schools, an issue that has become more apparent in recent years for the teaching sector. Marose warns that charter schools “excessively underserve low-income and black and brown students”, indirectly “run for profit benefit”, and “have only further politicized education.” Marose’s article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of charter schools, a blog post that educators could debate about. More importantly, however, this blog post allows future educator Marose an outlet to express her voice on key issues that affect her and her teaching peers. All of these different yet interesting examples of educational blogging  show just how diverse, informative, inspirational, and effective blogging can be for teachers.

While my experience with blogging myself has been short, I have been engaged with both official and unofficial (for example, blogs based around social media like Instagram) educational and non-educational blogs for years now. I enjoy seeing blogs as a way to express, share resources, and inspire creativity. This is no different for educational blogs, and I support the ability for teachers to safely share their experience with one another and the world. Although I am unsure if I will continue my educational blog, I plan to continue my support of others interested in doing this.