What Blogs Mean To Me--As An Educator

I have mix reviews about whole idea of sharing your thoughts to the world though a blog.  While I understand why some people blog, I myself, often struggle to find time to even check my email once a day!  I feel it is important to share your thoughts with the world, but how far do you go?  I was raised to always be mindful about what you say and who you say it to--and it didn't help that my father worked for the government.  Even now, he is always telling me to watch out for what I put and share on the internet--it is never really deleted.  It also doesn't help that my job, like many others, involves be directly working within a very sensitive community--a school community.  Do I really want my student's parents knowing everything about me?  And how would parents react if they knew their students were writing on blogs even if it was not open to the public and they were responding to curriculum based questions?  Knowing all that I know about the importance of technology would I trust someone else with the online security of my future children?

As far as implementing blogs in schools, the jury is still out in my court.  Pros: students and teachers/students and students/teacher and teachers are able to have a collaborative conversation in and out of school hours. Students get to learn how to use a popular tool within the context of learning while improving their communication skills needed for life.  Cons: students will use it inappropriately--there is always one who does (even after teacher's lesson on Internet safely and anti-bulling) and what if parents and administrators don't see the benefits?  

Hopefully with my personal experience in blogging and research, I will learn how to successfully implement this into my own practices as a teacher.  I am willing to try anything once!  :)