How to Get Edublogs on Devices

Blogging has become part of our routine in grade 2. Some of you might ask, What is blogging? Good question. It's an online journey which allows you to keep up to date with friends, family (close or far away), global community or write about how you're feeling or just share some of your thoughts. 

I've created this classroom blog, my apologies for not keeping it up, but I can always strive to be better so that I can share what happens in our classroom with all of you. 

I started blogging with my students to help improve their writing and willingness to write. Writer's write for an audience, blogging provides that audience which is you the parent, aunt, uncle or grandparent as well as an engaging platform. The possibilities are endless, images and videos can be added which opens up the opportunity to be creative in other ways. 

This video from Linda Yollis who has been blogging for many years with her grade 2 and 3 students shows a little bit about what the possibilities are with blogging. She uses it for a more global perspective, I'm not quite their yet. 

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that your child should be on their device for hours on end. Devices can be used for creative purposes rather than than just a taking in of information or an escape from boredom. 

I am using a new blogging platform this year called Edublogs. In the past, I've used Kidblogs but I wanted to try something new that allowed the kids to add more content. This is an experiment and we'll see how it goes. 

I know Edublogs has an app that can be downloaded onto your child's device, that way they won't always have to go to the web to have access to it. Here's how to download the app and save it on their home screen so they can use their devices to blog with.

Let's get started:

1. Find the app (Edublogs) in the App Store. It looks like this. Download it. 

2. Open it up and you'll see a screen that looks like this or like this, it will depend which device you are using. 

iPod Screen

iPad screen

3. You want to press "Add blog hosted at Edublogs"  to get access to your child's blog. 

4. You'll then see a screen that looks like this. 

5. Your child can add their username and password. If they don't know it, please email me and I will pass it on. 

6. Then it's time to start blogging. The app is easy to use and I am showing students in class how to use it. I am open to having your child blog on their devices during writer's workshop time. 

Also, here is a nice link to show the reasons why kids start blogging. 

http://kidsblogclub.com/why-do-children-start-blogging/

I hope this helped and we are looking forward to hearing your comments.