Blogging

I am doing my Masters in the Science of Education with an emphasis on Integrating technology in the classroom. I am currently learning about blogging. I have kind of already taken a course in technology in my undergraduate work that taught me how to blog. But in this course we will be covering more than just blogging. So anyways my assignment is to:
       1. Spend some time playing with your blog space to see what is possible and familiarize yourself with the features available. Consider what types of activities that you could use your blog for that are specific to the subject and grade level that you currently teach.
       2. Post an idea for how you might use a blog in your classroom. What purpose would the blog serve? Is it a place for students to interact about content? Is it a showcase for their work? Is it a place to share learning with the larger community? How does using a blog enhance the lesson? Include your grade level, content area, and your rationale as to why a blog is a good tool for the instructional context.
In thinking about the task I have been given I feel a blog is a place to showcase your thoughts and express yourself.  I would use it primarily as a tool to communicate with parents and to showcase students work or things that my students are learning or have done. I would almost treat it as a Newsletter. As far as instructional context I can easily assign homework and have students go to the blog to access links that I have set up for them to practice addition on a math link or have the list o vocab words that my students will be responsible for writing and using in a sentence for Language Arts homework. There is so many things I can do. In doing this assignment I have really got myself to really see endless possibilities of what I can do to enhance my teaching practices.
Here is a link to a blog I commented on...this is one of my classmates blog:http://kheinemann.edublogs.org/2011/05/10/blogs-in-the-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-6