Blogging in a classroom setting

Using a blog in my classroom could help with several ways of getting the ideas of the lesson across to my students.  I have a few ideas as to how I want to use this blog.  My first idea is to have all my lessons on the blog step by step so if students are absent or need to understand one of the steps in the lesson they can go and look it up.  I teach eighth grade art so the lessons that the students are working on have several steps or stages and this is just one way they could check to make sure they are doing it the right way.  Another way to use the blog is to post works of my students.  This could be a great way to showcase the great work that is being created in my classroom.  Students could see each other’s work and use that as a motivation tool.  Students would also be able to communicate to each other in different classes using the blog.  One aspect in teaching art that I struggle with is having my students be able to correctly critique each other’s work.  I could have my students create their own blogs.  This could be the first step in expressing what they like about the work of art and what still has some room for improvement.  This would also be a great tool to keep the lines of communication open to the parents.  So many times students just toss out their projects or stick into the lockers to never be seen again.  I always have parents asking what we are working on at parent teacher conferences because their children hardly bring anything home from any subject.  This way the parents can simply look at the blog and find out exactly what their child is creating.