Why should we integrate blogs into our teaching?

The answer seems simple; to give our students more exposure to the target language, to give them more opportunities to participate through a medium that is 'natural' -and hence, meaningful- for them... to improve communicative skills, either writing or speaking, as blogs admit any kind of tool, from notes and podcasts to videos; to make them share relevant issues about their lives, to comment supportively in each other's blogs... in other words, blogs seem to have so many advantages that it's impossible at least not to try, isn't it

So how do we start?
Alicia Zuliani gave me the answer :) it's terribly useful to take a look at other teacher's blogs, so that we have a sort of 'guide' to follow and, the, we spice it here and there with our touch. We can also find a lot of food for thought in our colleagues' blogs ;)


You know, this looks wonderful, but... will my students get engaged with this??
As far as I could see, yes! you can take a look at this incredible blogs to see how the students contribute:
http://kellycilc.wordpress.com/author/kellissima/ she is a Brazilian teacher who uses her blog to interact with her students of every level. I was just wondering if you had to have a blog for each course! it's worth taking a look at it, it has plenty of photos and material. Excellent!
Another one that is starting and getting feedback as well:
http://missstaken.blogspot.com/ she is a Mexican teacher who is starting, like me :), and she's just launched a project for her students.

Here is a blog from Iran, yes! http://www.iransessions.blogspot.com/ he's inviting teachers to participate in a global project. Take a look!

Saro Rosales, from Canarias, posts assingnments and other activities in http://sarorosales.blogspot.com/ but I don't know what his students do, as I found no comments in it.

Here is Rita Zeinstejer's blog, it's really good, she's been working with technology in her lessons and offered a series of workshops and conferences about the topic, the difference here is that everyone posts in her blog, I see students and other people from other countries! http://ritamz.ning.com/profiles/blog/list

Wow! a lot to do, a lot to see and learn!! a great challenge, what do you think? ;)