Student blogs

Several years ago I had a pupil who kept losing her work. She would leave it on the train, at a rehearsal, at her other parent’s house – I’m sure you’ve heard all the excuses. I suggested as a solution that she put her work online, somewhere she couldn’t forget it. Initially I was doubtful it would make a difference, but within a couple of weeks the turnaround in her work was clear. It was all together, complete, I’d seen it and had an opportunity to give feedback quickly, even when she wasn’t in school or lessons.

I wondered if these benefits could be general to my other students, so I started to set my sixth form students a project to build their own chemistry website. The results were so positive that this is now a core part of my A-level classes.

Peter Banks discusses how to use blogs to support students and shares some personal pointers