Welcome to Blogging

Writing in math is not really a new concept. Unfortunately, many of my students have not been made to write in math class before this time. As a math teacher, I understand the frustration of the student, "Why do I have to write my math?" as well as the frustration of the teacher, "If I wanted to read student writing, I would teach English." In my search for a way to ease the frustration on both ends, I discovered blogging. I began having my students blog the answers their thoughts on various math concepts and problems and was amazed at the results. My students were actually thinking about and articulating their thoughts in written form. Since the medium used was electronic, I was not receiving negative feedback about the writing. In addition, I did not have to decipher student handwriting or take home bundles of papers to grade. Instead, I could review the legible (although not always spelled correctly) work from anywhere I took my laptop or tablet. As a beginning point this year, I would like to know your thoughts about using blogging to write your math. Please comment on this post and answer some of the following questions in your response:

• Have you ever written your own blog?
• Have you ever commented on someone else's blog?
• What are your thoughts about blogging on math topics?
• What benefits do you feel blogging has?
• What drawbacks could blogging have?