Two Hats

Actually I have about 10 hats. And just as many voices. I have two places online that I use two of those voices. My classroom website and my professional blog. I have not combined these two for several reasons. The first goes back to when websites and blogs were originally introduced. A website was considered to be a one way portal of information and a blog was a chance for a two-way (or more) conversation. As such the website has continued to be a place for resources of information in the form of links and topic specific pages. It is also a showcase for completed student work. It shares out facts, opinions and accomplishments but does not presume to have responses. While some websites offer built in news feeds or comment sections, primarily I treat class websites as a place to go for information. My target audience is primarily my students and their families. That's also the reason I have never shared it in this blog. You are not the audience for it. There are other more technical differences between the two. I take many liberties with font and formatting on my website! I use the homepage as a place for current links or tasks for my students and when a new one is posted it gets large font and centre of the page location. I don't want anyone to miss it! I also add in as much visual prompting as I can. It can change quite frequently. I like to change up the themes of the website once in a while too. Perhaps to match a unit or make reference to a world event. After a few weeks I usually transfer any home page links to a secondary page for reference. On a blog, archiving takes care of that organization and I rarely change the theme or layout.
Finally the biggest difference for me is the audience I picture as I write. I see all my student's faces as I add items to the website and I try to use my teacher voice (be clear, concise and fair). For the professional blog, I picture my online course mates, instructor, and colleagues. My voice says to be scholarly, opinionated, challenging, and try very hard not to make any spelling mistakes!