Blog assignment?

My timing for starting this blog is a little odd – this is the time of year when many professors (at least the ones interested in teaching) are swamped with grading and end-of-the-semester chaos, not starting new projects that require any amount of time investment. But I’m not actually teaching this semester, so the usual semester schedule doesn’t apply. I just hope people will want to procrastinate from their grading by reading this! Although my mini-leave is not teaching-related, I’m using this as an opportunity to get a jump-start on my fall classes; hence, this blog, since one of my fall classes is this Economics for Teachers course. I have been considering making it mandatory for my students in that class to read, and comment, on this blog. I hesitate to do so since a) I’m not sure how to grade such an ‘assignment’ and b) I worry that will put a lot of pressure on me to come up with blog entries that are actually worth their time. I’m hoping that by beginning this blog now, and making entries as I go about prepping the class, I will get a better idea whether this is a feasible assignment. Would love to hear from anyone out there who has tried a similar assignment!