Blogging Practices

	Community Building Description: Blogging allows you to connect with and build your own personal learning community and also enhance the personal learning networks of others. You become part of the larger community of edubloggers or Science bloggers or research bloggers or teacher bloggers or .... whatever community you choose to join. These communities are not a set thing however. YOU help create them by being one more part of one. Activity: Begin to build the community by: Commentting on one person's blog and reference another person's blog Adding a blog to your blogroll and introducing yourself through email to that blogger Another idea?? Go ahead and do it and then share what your idea was
	Advocating Description: It is important to advocate for the beliefs and goals that align with those important to reform-minded teaching including social justice. This can be done through creating and linking to a blog post that clearly communicate how you think things should be. Many teacher bloggers also use this to advocate for the role of students as both students and as people. Activity: Create a blog post or comment that advocates for something you believe in or feel needs to be recognized in the broader community.
	Resource Sharing Description: A powerful teacher practice is to share resources. This more open approach to professional practice can be facilitated on your blog. Some teachers actually have weekly posts with a few resources they have found that they know others would find helpful. These resources can be websites, tools, documents you have created, etc. Activity: Use your blog to share a resource. Be sure to clearly outline the benefit of these resources to others.
	Conversing Description: Blogs allow you to hold a conversation within one blog or across multiple blogs. You can do this through the comments and links that you leave. Good bloggers utilize their posts to both start and reference conversations already happening on their blog or others. This encourages ongoing discussions. Activity: Start or enter into a conversation. (remember to return to it later so you are truly part of an ongoing conversation)
	Making a statement Description: Blogs allow you to make a statement and be creative in doing it. Many teachers show that learning is more than just a school activity by making statements about the broader world. This is often the case when wanting to help the broader world understand issues like going green or the importance of life. These are often much more powerful by using media to make your statement. Activity: Make a statement on your blog. Remember to be professional still. If you can be creative and maybe even include media.