Creating a blog for your classroom can be helpful for many different reasons. While communicating with parents is one, and a great one at that, it goes much deeper than this. Students are also able to check the classroom blog to check in on upcoming events and assignments in the classroom. They are also being opened to a new and different way of interacting with their teachers and with their peers. An article tiled, "9 Reasons Why Teachers Should Blog," listed "Showcase Student Work" as one of those reasons, and I could not agree more. Students deserve praise and recognition for their handwork and they will feel noticed and important when they see their handwork showcased on their teachers blogs. It will also be a great resource for other teachers to be able to see how different classrooms tackle assignments with various approaches. To read more about that article and the other reasons why teacher should blog, click here. 

Having students create their own blog could be beneficial in multiple different ways. Giving them the freedom to write about a topic that they choose will allow them to let their creative minds flow. Allowing them to put their thoughts and feelings down and share them for the world to see in an appropriate manner is a great skill to have. They will carry those skills with them as they grow throughout schooling and into adulthood. We need to encourage our students more often to run with what they are passionate about, and something as simple as having them create their own blog is planting the seeds for those creative minds to run. 

Palmer, Tsisana. "9 Reasons Why Teachers Should Blog." Edutopia. Edutopia , 30 Mar. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.