As art educators, we already know the importance of our online presence. Whether its creating classroom webpages, writing blogs, tweeting, pinning you name it – we’re engaging in the process and reflectiveness that comes from our experiences with technology. It has only been just recently, however, that I really digging into the question of how should my students be participating in this same experience? I’ve seen many classrooms and examples of students’ blogs, classroom Facebook pages, but I finally realized that I was hitting a wall of fear and doubt of how to control it in my own classroom. After convincing myself to let go of that fear, I have found that the benefits of students’ blogging have created a whole new level to my classroom and helped strengthen my students’ involvement with their artistic process.
Here are some quick tips for getting started;
– I had all students type & link their website address on a document that I keep on my laptop and iPads. This makes organizing all of the sites very easy to go through and grade, I just click and it pops up.
– Technology is a tool! Make sure to make that an important part of talking about devices and how they look in your classroom.
– When looking through student blogs, leave comments on their posts! It shows them you’re actually reading their posts and a cool surprise when they log into their blogs.
– Encourage students to use this blog for any type of art post other then what’s assigned.
So my question now. How are you documenting the creative process in your classroom? Any more tips? Leave your comments below.
the #nerdy art teacher 