U.S. School Blogs

In 2005 at Pinellas Park Elementary School in St. Petersburg, Florida, a fifth grade teacher came up with a solution to assist in communicating with his student's parents about the students' daily assignments and announcements. Fred Roemer is his name. Roemer noticed that his students were not constructively discussing anything with their parents involving school. He decided to create a class Website.
Roemer's students would write about what they learned each day in an online Web journal. "Blogs have long been popular among teenagers and young adults, who often use them at home as virtual diaries and write about their personal lives." Roemer figured the students would probably enjoy blogging about academic subjects as well and to his surprise, he was right. All the students created individual blog which they could check and receive assignments. They could all comment and question their teacher about any homework assignment. Parents reap the benefits from this project too. Parents are able to login and check announcements, their child's grades, and even take a virtual peek inside their child's classroom.
Blogs can help parents stay involved, teachers be more responsive and students develop a sense of community, all while enhancing classroom lessons, Roemer said. However, teacher-run blogs can also be instructive about the use of technology.

In 2003, some of the teachers in Goochland County Schools began publishing their blog systems. In 2005, Goochland's schools launched a division-wide intiative for teacher blogging. That same year, they introduced student blogging behind their network. For the 2008-09 school year, they will take another leap ahead with "Teacher Blogs 2.0." You can find links to each teacher's blog by grade level and subject area listed on each school's website. The school in this distinct I chose to view was Goochland High School. They utilize their blogging program in the same manner as Pinellas Park Elementary School.