My Experience Creating a Blog and Blogging

Learning How To Blog

Welcome to my very first blog! I have been curious in the past about what goes into creating a blog but had never really thought to make one. Through graduate classes, friends, and social media, I have read others' blogs and have posted an occasional comment, but that was it. As I have been learning and growing in my new role as a librarian, I have kept up more with a few blogs and have gotten great insight into ideas to implement in my library.  I've realized too, that blogs can be a great place to share and celebrate the great things that are going on. With all of this in mind and the help of my current Applications of Technology class assignment to create a blog, I realize this is my chance to jump right in.

Before creating my blog, the first thing I decided to do was to look at a few articles about blogging to see what others know about the different platforms to use. I knew that I wanted to find a tool that was free, easy to create and use, and share with others. What I wasn't sure about were the other features blogs have and which sites were the best ones to use. I was also curious about other ways blogs could be used. After reading two articles by Jessica Knapp called  How To Start a Blog- Beginner's Guide for 2018 and  Choosing the Best Blogging Platform- Comparison 2018 I not only got a information and ideas about blogging but also a list of the most popular platforms and a list of their pros and cons. This was great for me to look at since it helped me to focus on those sites that fit with what I was looking for.

The next step was to select the platform I wanted to use. Using the information I had uncovered about the platforms that fit with what I was looking for, these are the sites that I looked into:

• Edublogs https://edublogs.org/
• SightBuilder https://www.sitebuilder.com/start/blog
• Website Builder https://www.websitebuilder.com/start/blog
• WordPress.com https://wordpress.com/
• Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/
• Blogger https://www.blogger.com/home

It took some time, to look at each site to determine if the different platforms were what I was really looking for. I actually had narrowed down my search to two sites, WordPress.com and Blogger. WordPress was a site that I liked initially because it seemed easy and I liked the different templates. I actually created an account and started to create my blog, however, I still wasn't sold, so I decided to look at Blogger. I was trying to give other sites a chance before coming to Blogger because I was trying not to limit myself to using only Google products for this tech class. (In case I haven't told you, I love Google and use many of their products on a daily basis.) I thought too about what I had read about Blogger, being one of the first blogging sites and that it didn't have many bells and whistles, but was a good site for beginners. Well, knowing I am a beginner, I wandered to Blogger. I started to create a blog to help familiarize myself with the platform and literally played around, to create what you now see. Ultimately I chose to stay with Blogger, and not go back to WordPress, because I want to learn how to use more Google products. Not just because they are user-friendly, but because I want to use what I have learned to help my work colleagues learn about other Google resources that are available to them.  Alief ISD, the district I work in uses Google.  

With that in mind, now that I have a blog, I now think back to another article I read about how blogging is good to use with students. The article, 3 Reasons Your Students Should Be Blogging by Jeff Herb, gave me some things to think about not only to share with teachers, that they can do with their students, but also has gotten me thinking about how I would like to start a blog for the library. Herb's three reasons (2018) include: 

1. Blogging enables reflection
2. Develop an authentic audience
3. Archive learning and create digital footprints

What I thought was so cool was Herb's suggestion for teachers with reason #1, to reflect on what happens during lessons into a blog. Blogs keep a running record of events, so this is a great way for teachers to write down things to help them remember how a lesson went. They could reflect and comment on what students did, the learning involved, what the final product was, and even think about what might need to be tweaked or changed.  All of this made me think of my library and gave me some ideas about how I want to use my blog.

For my library, I am thinking that my blog will be a place where I can share with teachers lesson ideas for books, highlight different web tools that can be used with their students and what I have done with different classes or grade levels. My blog can also be a place to share new books to the library, have students post book recommendations or reviews, and share what things are happening in the library (Whether it is focusing on what students are doing in morning library, a library lesson where students created something using technology, or etc.). I am thinking this will be a companion to what I share with my monthly Smore newsletter with staff and parents.  The possibilities are endless.  I am excited to see where this goes!