Teddy Bears

As I was reading this article, the first thing that came to mind was how I created my first blog at age 29, yesterday, and how second graders are doing this from a much younger age. Blogging is never something I understood, both from a personal and professional standpoint. I never appreciate someone taking the time to sit down and chronicle and event or daily events in their lives; why wouldn't they just talk to someone about it? Also, because of not fully understanding blogs, I never really saw a purpose of them academically either.  That is beginning to change. 

This was an interesting article to read. As a counselor who has worked at both the high school, and now middle school level, I have never truly gotten the chance to experience what elementary school teachers plan and do to facilitate their students learning.  This seems to be a great way to incorporate a lot of very important themes and topics into one exercise. I love how the teddy bears write home to their owner/student, letting them know how things are going in that particular part of the world. Having children understand cultural differences and embrace them instead of being afraid of them is so incredibly vital at a young age. Having worked in both very diverse districts (Norwalk, Yonkers NY) and not so diverse districts (Darien, Eastchester NY), having real world experiences and being exposed to people of different ages, races, genders, and cultures is the key to truly thinking globally and being able to function in todays (and tomorrow's) world.  This exercise accomplishes that is such a benign, fun way, that it almost seems like its more fun than educational; that is truly remarkable!

The one point I would make is I would be curious to see how this works in a urban district, where literacy, language and socio-economic status might hinder use of the blogs effectively. If the child does not have a computer at home, odds are that they might have a harder time picking this up. Also, in more urban districts, all of the 2nd graders might not necessarily reading at grade level. Lastly, how would something like this work for English Language Learners? I would think that this would be a great way to continue introducing them to English in a fun, casual way, but I not sure how gaps would be bridged. When all is said and done, however, I think this is a great use of technology.