Blogging in the Classroom

In the last month since Tammy Lind introduced Kidblog, several 4th and 5th grade teachers have introduced blogging in the classroom.  With that some teachers are raising some things to consider, such as:

Is there a theme for class blogging that should be considered?
What about Digital Citizenship and blogging?
How do I address student commenting?
How do I get students to write quality blog posts?

I have collaborated with a few teachers to address Digital Citizenship, particularly our Digital Footprint and appropriate commenting online.  In addition to teaching Digital Citizenship in a real world setting, I have been reading tips from Vicki Davis The Cool Cat Teacher blog, 12 Reasons to Blog With Your Students and Pernille Ripp's blog post titled, 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging.   A few things in these blog posts that stand out to me address the encouragement of student voice, supporting student online conversation, student discovering of themselves.  If you are interested in blogging in your classroom, I would love to collaborate on any aspects of this terrific way to integrate technology into your classroom and promote authentic student writing.