The final topic of my online course talks about how to expand your blog and use it as a tool for communicating with parents and students. Unfortunately, I'm not very welcoming to this idea. For one, if I start doing this there will be some expectation to post regular updates with good information for parents to read. I say parents, because I definitely don't think 2nd graders would ever want to read my blog! Sometimes I'm just too busy and wouldn't want to post on my blog (which still isn't really growing on me, by the way). Then I feel like the blog could be seen as a negative by parents. Even though it's optional, I'm afraid some parents would see it as me not doing my job if I didn't keep it updated regularly with quality information. This article was shared with me to explain the benefits.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/stenhouse/classroom-communication-social-media-tips.shtml
I especially don't like the part about using Facebook as a communication tool. I am friends with a few of my classroom parents, but I see things going south if I created a Facebook group to communicate with all parents on. Some parents can just be downright nasty, even stooping as low as making threats to other students, and I think giving them the ability to post comments on there could just end badly. Some people just have no filter and find it hard to differentiate between private/public matters. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the majority of my parents, but it just takes one stinker to ruin it for everybody. I would also be afraid that if I discussed any type of classroom activities, some parents might take it the wrong way and feel that I'm criticizing their children. I think for now I'll stick with good old-fashioned communication and personal emails for now.
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