Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Joy of Blogging
After you read the article go to the site named escrapbooking. Find an example of a blogging activity that you would consider incorporating inot your future classroom. Tell me what benefit the blogging activity would have for student learning. Tell me one challange you might have in incorrporating blogging into your future classroom.
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An example of a blogging activity that I would consider incorporating into my future classroom is on this website http://www.bradleydicken.blogspot.com/. This blog shows the stories and everything they have done for the day including photos. I think this is a very good idea for the parents to get involved, and to see what their children are doing in the classroom. One challange I might have in incorrporating blogging into my future classroom is if I have a younger class like kindergarten. I am afraid that it will be hard for them to understand the concept of blogging, but it would be a great idea to have one to inform the parents of what their children are doing.
ReplyDeleteOne activity that I would try is The Secret Life of Bees(http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/) blogging activity. I think it's a great idea to incorporate the review of the book into the students postings. I think that by having the students effectively create their own study guide they are much more likely to have a firm grasp of the book. Also by having the students draw a picture of a scene from the book they will most likely retain a stong mental image of the story which will aid in reading comprehension. A challenge I might have incorporating blogging into my future classroom is my field of study(Technology Education) I'm not sure if there will be enough room in the curriculum to be able to include a blogging activity.
ReplyDeleteOne activity on the website, http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/index.htm, is the “Duck Diaries” blog. While a lot of the activities deal with things that the students are learning in class, this one deals with a duck that just happened to build her nest in this school’s playgrounds. The teacher used the student’s interest in this duck as a launch pad for all kinds of learning and writing activities. Children are asked to write poems, stories, and descriptions of their duck friend. They also learned about duck eggs and ducks in general, so that’s a good science activity.
ReplyDeleteI liked Blog Write (http://jhh.blogs.com/blogwrite/). I think that it is great that the teacher made the students do the writting on their web blogs. For instance, she had them write about the 6 traits of writting. They each had to make a story that listed the 6 traits and defined them. I think that this is great for the students because it gives them free rein to develop creative writting skills. On another post she had them interview someone and post teh Q&A they did with the interviewee. THis isgreat because it opens up communication skills. It allows student to go outside of their comfort zone and ask question they may have never gotten the chance to ask. I would love to some type of bloggin in my classroom. Ideas like this are great to use. I think that students should start blogging at an early age. Not only does it help them learn and grow, but it may also be another way for them to express their own feelings and thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things that I think about when it comes to blogging for a classroom is the great opportunity for expressing and discussing ideas. For instance a teacher may post a question about something that was assigned for reading and you must blog what you thought about it. You have the chance to write what you thought, and read what others thought. Once you have read what some of your peers wrote you may have a different way of thinking and change or add to your original thought. I think that blogging is great for reading, writing and communication skills.
ReplyDeleteI think the greatest challenge in incorporating blogging into my future classroom would be to have the permission from the parents to allow their children to write their thoughts on the Internet. When it comes to parents protecting their kids they only think of what harm the internet could do to them, not the educational value.
The best example I found that I know I would use in my classroom 100% would come from Jennifer Corron, "Mrs Corron's First Grade". Jennifer updates this blog with the daily activities going on in her class. She posts what they did for the day along with the kids' responses. She also posts the students' writing and other activities. I believe she blogs about this information mainly to keep parents posted about what their child is doing in class. I think this is a great way to make parents feel like part of the classroom and keep them notified about how their child is performing.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern with blogging is that I do not understand how younger children will participate. I am afraid they will not understand the whole concept of blogging, but I do like how this teacher posted the classroom activities and the students' work, allowing parents or other teachers to see.
I liked the "Tell the Raven" activity. This one had blog posts by students in the teacher's class. They wrote about what they wanted. Most wrote about the zoo trip. This was for a 6th grade class. This would be good because then parents or other students could comment on eachothers work. The teacher would also be able to see things that the children liked or did not like. The bad thing about this might be that the students write bad things, unless the teacher set certain guidelines about their posts.
ReplyDeleteOne activity that I viewed was Pre-Cal 40s (Fall '06) and thought it was a great idea because the teacher updates activities that they do in class everyday. There are links on the side of the blog of every activity they ever did so that the students could go back and look at what they did if they ever have a question about something. The teacher put up a pretty neat post, titles "Podcapsule." She talked about how the students made a podcast with their reflections and recommendations to themselves on how to make themselves better students in their next math class. If I used this in my classroom, students would be able to go back and view all of the activities and be well prepared for a quiz, test, or even a final exam. One challenge of blogging would have to be the participation of my students. It might just end up being a waste of my time if my students do not use blogging.
ReplyDeleteFor me, as an english ed major, I liked The Secret Life of Bees blog. The idea of building a blog around an entire book so as to discuss themes and ideas posed by the book is right up my alley of interest. I would want to do a different book ofcourse, perhaps Moby Dick, The Odyssey, or something by Shakespeare. The idea would be the same though: that every week the students would have assigned readings and would have to blog on their readings. One week could be themes they saw in the chapters, the next week could be symbols, after that perhaps character profiles. The challenge would be in coming up with different ideas for blog entries so the students aren't just doing the same thing over and over again. What I hope they would gain from such an activity is the joy of discussing literature at an elevated level.
ReplyDeleteLooking through the different blogs, I thought a lot of them would be great for an elementary classroom. However, my absolute favorite was the blog about a visit from author/scientist Ron Hirschi. "Author Visit at Elementary" (http://authorvisit.blogspot. com/) is a blog that lets the first grade students keep in touch with author/scientist, Ron Hirschi, that will be visiting their classroom. He asks them questions and gives them fun facts so that they can really get the full experience from him. This is a benefit to students because they get to communicate with Hirschi before he even comes to the classroom. Therefore, he can get ideas about what these children are interested in learning. It is also a great way of learning about fun facts that are not taught in the regular everyday curriculum. One big challenge that I believe that I would have with blogging in my classroom is that the students may use the blogging for more than just learning. I would be concerned that they would be checking facebook, myspace, and other blogs that do not relate to the learning experience. If there was a way to only lets them blog on my class blog, it would be a great learning tool in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne blog I liked was the Honors Biology blog(http://ghshonorsbio.blogspot.com/). I am a Chem Ed major so seeing this blog makes me think I can use a blog like this only for Chemistry. It looks like on this blog everyone once and awhile chapter reviews would be posted for the students. I think this is a very good idea, whenever there was a test the blog would be a good place to put review information. I think one challenge I would have is trying to come up with ideas on how to use my blog. Chemistry is a very hard subject that has alot of hands on projects.
ReplyDeleteMy example would be http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=12433. The one tough thing to get through to my first graders would be for them to understand the blog itself. They are at such a young age, I can see it hard for them to understand, but at the same time, they are like sponges. They will absorb so much so fast when they decide they want to. The sky is the limit for the children at this building age. That is why a dedicated teacher is needed in this setting. I would want to you this style so it keeps the parents involved online. They can see the things there children are doing and can use the internet to show other family members or friends. Teaching children how to be computer friendly at this young age will help them prepare for the future.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting blog I would incorporate into my classroom is classroom 208. Some of the things I find interesting in this blogs is the teacher puts up different activitys they do in class up on the blog. this is helpful for instances in which students are absent for class. The students can get the assignments that are done in class, and get them done. Some of the problems that I could encounter are the students not having internet at home, or the parents not allowing their children to get on theinternet.
ReplyDeleteAs a music major, it is hard to find good activities on education websites that are not specifically for music. I didn't seem to find any activities that were related to music on this site. However,I did find one that I would take a simlar aproach with. First Grade Banyon Room: http://banyan.edublogs.org/. This activity features the use of podcasts and blogging. For this activity, I would work with the students in creating thier own podcasts, (be it song of the week, the genre we are studying, composer of the week, and what have you). After this, the students would then use blogging to discuss the podcast they created. This will give students an opportunity for collaboration and peer review. All the while, the students are being reinforced about concepts learned in class. The hardest part of this activity would be getting the students (young students) involved enough into the actual podcast creation. This would not be something I would do for young children. I actually did an activity similar to this (minus the blogging) in my 60 hour clinical with 8th grade students and they loved it. This would deffinately be an activity for middle school and up.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the blog on researching and reflecting was interesting. Every person researches differently which brings in different information on a topic. Therefore by allowing students to explore a topic gathers a lot of informative information. The problem with coordinating an activity around such an assignment is that the teacher has to be informative on the topic and rather or not the information should be detailed or informative. I would use this assignment in a blog set up in my future classroom. This would be a very interesting way for students to learn from each other and gather majority of information on a topic.
ReplyDelete(http://authorvisitsindiana.blogspot.com/)
ReplyDeleteThis blog would be a great benefit in doing a cross-curriculum activity with music education because you could use the activies to learn about those animals or creatures and use it as a history project. You could get songs that go along with the lessons and you can use examples of the animals to discribe dynamics and Tempo! The disadvantages of using this would be: The lack of funds that the Arts program will have in the schools. The music department is usually the last department to get funds for anything, so if you don't have the high tech stuff in your classroom you will not be able to use the blog activities!
I liked the blog http://authorvisit.blogspot.com/. It shows all the different scientific findings with pictures and stories to go along with it. Most of the pictures of are underwater creatures which are interesting because it is thins that you don't see everyday.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the blog "Author visit to Elementary" at http://authorvisit.blogspot.com/. I thought it was interesting to have the animals and pictures. They were able to coment about the animals and a class from Australian sent in a picture for them as well. The article was great too. Especially, when students are able to post issues that they may have and recieve responses from other students around the world. A challenge for incorperating technology in the classroom is that some schools does not have the technology readily available. Some schools shares the tecnology.
ReplyDeleteTo use blogging in my future classroom, I guess I would use blogging to incorporate current events in the world in my world history class. I would aim for students discussing and sharing information and view point son current affairs in the world, and maybe relevant thoughts on the subject matter of the world history class. A problem would be getting the students involved without the distraction of just social networking. I will of course want them to network, but to keep their attention on subject matter may be a challenge. I will like to involve my students in developing opinions and sharing them as well.
ReplyDeleteI like some of the blogs shown however a good bit have been left to die as they were last updated in 2006 and even 2004, however Mrs. Bradley's Kindergarten blog was very nicely outlined and interesting. I also like that if she is going to have itunes associated with it that she's aware the songs need to be child related.
ReplyDelete