Blogging in the Reading Classroom?

This post is a call for help and suggestions!  Some time ago, I stumbled upon a post someone had where they talked about kidblog.org and using it in the classroom.  Below, you can watch a video I found which very nicely explains how it works and what the security features are.

For one, I cannot seem to find that pin, so if anyone remembers seeing a post like that - or if it's yours, even! - and could point me in that direction, I'd really appreciate it.

With the school year just around the corner, I finally decided to forward it on to my school's technology teacher with a short blurb on the security of the site...since that's a huge deal and all, I figured THAT had to be my sell.  I figured I would also have to draft a parent letter, because, well, let's be honest...safe or not, the idea of your child posting on the internet is still ... scary, I think.

Her reply surprised me.  Apparently, my county frowns on blogging in the classroom.  Hmm!!  This makes my idea much more difficult to implement, and also critical that I solidify exactly WHAT I want to do with blogs.  She's willing to go to bat for me, but it means I need to know precisely what my plan is.  Which is where my "for two" comes in.  So...

For two, I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how to implement the blogs in my classroom.  Assuming I get permission.  I was thinking of sticking to a twice-a-week schedule.  It would be a part of my students' rotations twice a week.

I think in the blog, they had mentioned starting off by having the students comment on the teacher's welcome post and introduce themselves.  What they like to read, their reading history, etc.  It's a good way to get them to started into the blogging world.  In googling, I then also found where some people use the comments as a way to link Reading Comprehension Strategies.  For example, you could comment on a classmate's post by making a connection.  "This reminds me of the time..."

So... I think comment-wise, I'm good.  It's just, if they're going to possibly be making connections to a post of their peers... then what guidelines should I implement for their posts?  What exactly should be their purpose for posting to their blogs?  What could their entries be about?

Please help!!!  Any suggestions are widely appreciated.  I'd like to nail this idea down by the time we report back to work on Monday so I can chat with her about how to go about doing this.

In return, I promise I will dedicate an entry to blogging in the Reading classroom without the question mark (again, should permission be granted).  A sort of view into my classroom and how it works, how I use it, how the students are responding to it.