Edmodo

Edmodo is a private micro-blogging platform built for use by teachers and students for use in the classroom. I've used Kidblog.org for some time now, but came across another very easy to use blog site. It seems perfect for middle school students and doesn't require students to have an email for their account, which neither does Kidblog.org, which is one reason I like that one so much.
Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files. Teachers also have the ability to send, alerts, events, and assignments to students. Edmodo also has a public component built by allowing at the teachers discretion to post any item to a public timeline at the teacher’s discretion.