Blogger: Elementary Learning Management System

Last February, I began compiling resources for teachers in my school district to begin moving over to Blogger as their teacher website. I'm excited for the opportunity as it will build communication between teachers, parents, and students at the elementary level. 

Elementary teachers, especially primary, need a site that allows them to conveniently post chronologically so that parents can see what is happening each week. It also needs to be convenient, fast, and easy to use. I pushed Blogger because it works across multiple platforms and is extremely user-friendly.

I'm continuing to build my materials on Blogger as I believe it will also provide a great way for teachers of primary elementary students to distribute content to their students. Prior to this point, teachers in my school district focused heavily upon using email. Sending emails for students is easy enough because most apps have an export feature that directly attaches to email. However, if you attempt to send them multiple emails to students, they sometimes get confused with all the taps they have to do to access the content on an iOS device. One could utilize a Learning Management System (Edmodo, Canvas, My Big Campus, and Schoology), but I have found them to not be as user friendly as I would like for primary students even though they are excellent products.

By using a "Page" on blogger, you can dump text, pictures, video, and links all on one convenient site. It is as simple as writing in a word processor as the writing tools that Blogger provides are easy to use. Adding pictures can be done by copying the link address. Youtube videos can be added by searching directly in Blogger. You can even preview the Youtube videos from Blogger before inserting them. Thus removing any need to even visit the actual Youtube website. 

The ultimate goal here is to utilize Blogger as a teacher's central hub for parent communication and distribution of student content. That way it simplifies it for everyone by having all your content located in one place. 

For more detailed information, please view this tutorial: 

Feel free to comment if you have found a resource that works well for primary students. I personally like Pocket and Padlet as other alternatives as well. However, students cannot download pictures from Pocket.