Blogs for class?

I must admit that I'm a sceptic - I don't think I'll ever require blogs in any classes I teach. I've looked at several teacher's blogs, and I'm simply not impressed enough to want to go back. I think websites are useful, but the way posts, comments on the posts, and links to other sites are arranged simply doesn't appeal to me. The blogs I skimmed simply don't met my "guiding principles". That is, they don't help me in an organized way, won't help my students because they would be inaccessible during much of the day, and aren't thought provoking enough to be worth checking regularly. I would rather read "The Science Teacher" and "The Mathematics teacher" and check on those websites regularly.

I have found several blogs on Discover Blogs and ScienceBlogs to be quite useful. I've used content from several of these in my Biology, Chemistry and Math classes. Mostly I use the postings as discussion starters, or ways to interest students in a new topic.

I also think that blogging as a way to interact with other teachers has real potential. I very much enjoy following blogs of several friends who teach in a variety of school settings around the province. I can empathize with their struggles, laugh at the comic mishaps which inevitably occur in classrooms, rejoice when one of their students "get it", and mourn for the occasional tragedy. I need that social interaction, which is very difficult to arrange in real time.