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THE COMOX VALLEY RECORD
VA L L E Y L I V I N G
Tuesday, MAY 14, 2013
BROOKLYN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Grade 3 teacher CATHY BULGER teaches her students HOWTO BLOG as they practise their writing skills. Bulger's class has an edublog called Climb High, at
www.climbhigh.edublogs.org, which students regularly write for and post to as part of their class work. All correspondence and student posts must be approved by Bulger before it shows up on the blog for safety reasons. People all over the world read the class' work and provide comment, which Bulger says is her favourite thing about the tool. "This is an avenue for them to write for a real purpose," she says. "That's one of the biggest things that I use the blog for is rather than just writing and putting it in a book or in a file, they are writing for a purpose, knowing that people in the world are reading their writing." The 24 kids in Bulger's class must comment back when a reader comments on their post, which they enjoy doing, adds Bulger. "When the kids get comments from other people, it's just such a thrill," she says. "They absolutely love it. Every day or two they're looking to see if anyone has commented back to them." Students write about various topics as part of their class exercises but they also take part in a Student Blogging Challenge. The challenges goes out to various class blogs around the world and pose certain questions or subjects for students to respond to. Though it's called a 'challenge,' Bulger says the activity is designed more to allow students to see how other students respond than to compete. Her class can see what students
from another class in another part of the world wrote and compare it to their responses, giving them a glimpse into other cultures. According to Bulger, class blogging is becoming popular in many countries, particularly Australia, New Zealand and England.
She says the students, aged eight and nine, develop a sense of global awareness via blogging. "It's a wonderful way for them to look at the world and see how far away it really is," says Bulger. "So getting that idea of how global we are and how we can attach a real meaning to somebody around the world."
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