This is part 1 of a 13 part series, 13 Ways Teachers Can Hack Their Learning.

Why blog?

There are several reasons to blog, but we seem to get caught up in the reasons to not blog. To overcome this friction, we have to not only see the benefits of blogging, but to also try to make the process as easy and seamless as possible.

Sharing

I love to share stuff I find on the internet. That’s probably the main reason why I blog. Along the same lines, I also like to hack technology, both software and hardware, to help me work more efficiently. Sharing these hacks are also a reason I like to blog. As a classroom teacher, you find stuff all the time to share with students and other teachers, you just need an outlet. Sharing on a blog is a great way to do that.

Reflection

I will write to clear my head, get my thoughts out there and see where they go. Not everything I do works well, but by reflecting on a blog, I have a chance to gather input from others and see what I can do better the next time.

Public Relations

Parents will sometimes view their children’s classroom through their own experiences in the classroom. This can make it difficult for them to understand how your classroom works. By posting about your classroom, your successes and failures, it will give parents an inside look at how their children learn.

How to get started?

To get started, use one of the various blogging platforms out there, such as WordPress or Google’s Blogger. Once you sign in, creating a post looks a lot like creating an email.

Your post gets a title, and then in the message area you write the post. Blogging platforms usually will have a toolbar with the tools you can use to format your post. And the best part? You don’t have to know any HTML, Javascript, or CSS to publish your post to the web.