It was exciting yesterday to watch 17 Summer Tech Institute teachers delve into the blogosphere! Please take a moment to share some of your thoughts on how blogs and blogging will expand your teaching toolkit.
Because Writing Matters...
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Exploring writing in an electronic age
It was exciting yesterday to watch 17 Summer Tech Institute teachers delve into the blogosphere! Please take a moment to share some of your thoughts on how blogs and blogging will expand your teaching toolkit.
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Although I’m still excited about setting up a blog, there is a tremendous amount of specific things I still don’t know. Hopefully, I can get it set up before Sept!
I am very excited to start my own classroom blog. I know that for many of my parents, it will be a very easy way for them to keep in contact with me about what is going on in the classroom as well as with their child. I am also excited to give those students that are ready, the opportunity to use the technology that they love to do so much.
It was great to see Pat’s 4th grade classroom blog. It has pages to access the assignments for the week, spelling word lists, and writing assignments that the kids have posted to the blog. Pat told me that his kids were even more motivated to write when they realized that their writing would be posted.
This is how I envision using my blog in a similar manner. I also created pages so that I can and classroom info. I plan to distribute at Back to School Night.
I can already see how blogging can give my kids a voice that goes beyond not only the regular curriculum but outside the walls of the classroom. It can provide a safe alternative to some of the social networking sites that students are usually exposed to. Students can also have an expanded sense of audience when they realize that they are writing to someone more than just the teacher.
I loved learning and setting up a blog yesterday. I plan to have my 7th grade students use my site to respond to posting and information I have on my teacher blog. I’m thinking that my 8th graders will probably set-up their own blog (which I’ll manage) and give them the experience of learning blogging to a greater depth. Thanks for contributing to such a wonderful web 2.0 experience.
I plan on using the blogosphere to communicate with my students and their parents on a daily basis. I will post homework, my calendar, and my weekly newsletter on my blogspot for them to access. I can’t believe how easy it is!
For a long time, teachers have long taught persuasion, and have included a research component. This research component has tended to be “old school,” teaching students how to write bibliographies and footnotes, and how to take secondary source information to synthesize into “their own words.”
Clearly, while these skills are clearly important, blogging can make research a bit more “real.” Students can do primary source research, posing questions and possibilities to a public long screened from students. This can make research more interactive, more demanding: some students will find that their opinions and insights will be challenged, and they will need to substantiate them in ways and for an audience that they’ve never considered before.
Blogging will be a great addition to our efforts to help students learn persuasion, critical thinking, research, and citizenship.
K
Mmm I get how to make it, change and adapt it, give it bells and whistles but am not sure yet how to use it with both my 5th grade and my Genyes class. Will need to look for what other teacher have done. Most of my students will not have access to a computer at home. In class we will have 1-2 computers with a computer lab maybe once a week.
The possibilities of blogging with a school connection seem like a magical present….waiting to be unwrapped. I can see various uses - school community forum, school newspaper, announcements from the “Leaders of the Pack.” I’m not quite sure how to incorporate this into specific language arts/history lessons as yet.
This is so exciting! The Blog has given me a quick and easy tool to post student work, I was attempting to get this to work within my district web page and had not been able to accomplish this.
This will be a tool to encourage students to dialogue about great books to inspire one another to read and of course to respond to their reading!!!!
Though I was a little overwhelmed yesterday with my first hands-on experience with blogging, I was very excited to set up my own classroom blog! I can’t wait to introduce my students to using this new technology when the school year begins. Thanks for helping to bring me into the 21st century!!!
To be honest, I’m really not sure.
What I am sure of, is that blogging and blogs are a great tool to use in the classroom. I am excited about discovering ways to use blogs. I will be ‘enlisting’ the advice of my 6th grade students for their input.
I can see that it is a great way create discussion opportunities for all curricular areas. I like the idea that kids will be writing their discussions. This will be a great way for kids to see writing in a different way and to become better writers.
I’m sold!!
Blogs and blogging can open up a whole new realm of communication for educators. Blogs allow you to share information with teachers around the world. Blogging is also an exciting way to motivate students to read and write about things that are meaningful to them. Richer communication with families is another wonderful benefit from blogging. Learning is expanded for everyone through blogs.
Blogging and Edublog will allow me to have an organized place with all my interests and links to my educational world. Technology Education is a demanding field with tons of information and sites to remember. Last year I established a foothold in the blogisphere. This year I feel like I am off and running. Now I have begun to use the fine tuning tools I was overwhelmed with before.
Thanks Gail and Pat
Glenn
Since I am a guest teacher, come on “substitute” implies that the person taking over is less skilled or adequate, I will currently use blogging as a tool to post my thoughts on adventures in a variety of classrooms.
Eventually, blogs will be a great way for parents, teachers, and students to communicate. I would like my blog to be a center of communication where students can ask questions, make comments, retrieve homework. Parents will also be able to ask questions and make comments. Everyone will be able to find links to other valuable websites and possibly view videos of classroom or school events.
I am so excited to now be a “blogger”! I am constantly thinking of applications in my classroom. I think that its uses will only be limited by me.
Welcome all of you to the blogosphere. I have only been doing this since January 2008 and with my grade 6/7 students since March 2008. They are loving it, but first remember to teach them about being internet safe and savvy in what they say and do in the blogs. Feel free to visit my blog and my class blog in Tasmania, Australia.