Dear Diary

If you came to my house and looked through my bookshelfs and my bedside table and my desk, you would find myriad journals.  You would find journals of handmade paper, journals with Big Bird on the cover, and gorgeous leather journals.  If you looked inside those journals, you would find that many are themed journals.  I have journals of favorite books I have read, travel journals, and personal journals.  The problem is few of the journals have much in the way of entries.  Oh, I have the best of intentions.  In fact, I really want to be a faithful journaler.  But life always seems to get in the way or I forget or I feel I have nothing to say to my journal on a particular day.  It’s a sad reality…I am bad at journaling.

Interestingly, I was very intrigued with blogging as it is really just an opportunity to journal online.  Maybe I would be better at this, I pondered.  I mean its right there on my computer, right?  I just have to journal when I sit down to check my email.  How difficult can that be?  Sadly, the statistics tell me it is going to be pretty darn difficult.  In 2006, the Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated that the US “blog population has grown to about 12 million adults.”  That’s impressive, right?  Unfortunately, according to Caslon Analytics (caslon.com), “60% to 80% of blogs are abandoned within a month.”  What?  You mean other people have the same problem as I do with journaling? 

After reading this I was a little less enthusiastic about the classroom blog I had intended to start with my senior English students.  If the statistics are so overwhelming that I will fail, why even begin?  Well, shame on me for even thinking that way!  There are a plethora of reasons to begin, the main one being that it will allow my students another way to experience language arts.  So, how do I make it successful? I think it comes down to having a plan and then carrying through on the plan. 

Blogs can be used in the classroom in so many ways and it is a wonderful opportunity for students to “publish” their voice or for teachers to communicate with students or parents.  The trick to success, I believe, is having a very definitive plan about what you want to do with your blog and then setting specific goals about when you or your students will post.  Having a vague notion to post a new blog whenever you think of it is like trying to remember to call your mother.  It just doesn’t happen as often as it should.

So it would seem that a calendar is a good idea or at least a day of the week that you will commit to blogging.  Like most things in life, having things written down gives us a much better chance of being successful at it.  So whether it is your own personal or professional blog, or your student’s blogs, set a date as to when each blog is due.  Then stick to it.

If you are using blogs with your students, you may want to have them blog about a specific topic like poetry.  For example, if you hand out a poem on Monday for them to consider, their blog about that poem is due on Friday.  This will give them time to consider the poem, ruminate on it, and then spend a little time blogging about it.  Knowing that the poetry is the focus will remind students that every time they receive a new poem in class, they should be thinking about a blog.

Success in any endeavor almost always comes down to having a plan and a way to stick to that plan.  The same is true with blogging.  We should not be discouraged by the statistics—we are better than that.  We will not be one of the millions who begin a blog and then leave it abandoned.  As teachers we understand the value of integrating all types of technology into our classroom and blogging allows us yet another creative way to do that.  Stay focused, have fun, and I’ll see you on the web!