It's magic when students don't know they're working

The goal of the classroom blog- at least for me right now - is to lure kids in to an activity that they like, something that looks fun (maybe even is) but ends up accomplishing a greater goal: kids reading, writing about their reading, discussing, exchanging ideas, researching, building community. I'd love for kids to see the blog as theirs (ours)- so there is the challenge. What sort of guidelines will steer the ship without wrecking it? Just playing around with the idea, at the start of first quarter we invited my students to blog if they chose to, and I asked them to discuss books they were reading, issues that popped up in class about the literature or assignments. The truth is I gave them very little direction other than to make it classroom appropriate. In fact, as I entered in the email addresses, we were surprised at the immediate responses that appeared at our site. Kids discussed classroom dynamics, papers they were writing, reading parts in Romeo and Juliet, poetry, crushes, social plans and so forth. As the first quarter of "play time" ended, I passed out suggested guidelines for kids to earn credit for blogging, a parent permission letter, and suddenly blogging seemed to become "work." Not that there's anything wrong with work or that everything in class has to be fun, but I have to admit that I missed reading their opinions about the writing topics kids chose and questions and comments they had about reading Shakespeare. I also missed their enthusiasm when I'd hear them say, "Hey, did you read my blog?" or "When are we going to have a poetry posting day?" Looking back on that first quarter experience, I am wondering if they sensed my fear when I read (twice) inappropriate not-for-school blogging from one of my more talented students. I think she was so comfortable with the medium that she forgot what was appropriate in terms of language and content. I think she wrote things she would never say in a class discussion ("f" words, sexual content), but she saw this as common in her online writings, which were very extensive. I read an article about the legalities of student blogging and whether a school posted blog is considered a public forum - not subject to censorship. The article mentioned principals handing out discipline referrals to kids based on their online comments (reference to facebook.com). I think we can avoid some of this in the future through mini lessons at the beginning of the semester. I'm not sure that we could have avoided the two incidents with my uncensored talented student, but maybe it was good that this happened for all of us. It does make for good classroom discussion, and maybe with some steering from me, the kids and I can create our guidelines together. The other huge issue for me right now is how to make the blog pay off. It somehow needs to be seen as user friendly, more fun than the traditional pen/paper assignment,and I'd love it to be a rich experience. I have enjoyed watching as kids connect to each other online, but I'd also love to see them have an opportunity to connect outside our classroom - guest bloggers, authors, citizens in other walks of life who are experts in topics from our readings. I also realize that posted prompts from me are vital. On a more practical note, not only does my teaching need to adapt, so does the physical layout of my classroom. The desks I have won't even accommodate the laptops we have, so I have to find tables. So much to do, but what fun.