Here is our site for using and learning about blogging in the college classroom and its application to elementary school classrooms. The ten of us have varied skills and abilities with blogging. We can mentor each other and all of us increase our skills while we are designing ways to use blogs in our classroom.
Here is the link to the newspaper article that we looked at in class.
I’m going to use this article for my “sharing a teaching idea” post.
I loved reading this. It brought up lots of good points.
Some of my thoughts:
-Teachers need to work together. A non-competitive environment must be established among teachers because of the teamwork it takes to teach. Critical feedback is important, however teachers should be sharing ideas and praising each other as opposed to scrutinizing and judging each other.
-Teachers should be qualified for the profession in a professional and intelligent sense. Not everyone can teach! A teacher must be passionate, well-rounded, approachable and relatable among other things.
-Teachers deserving higher pay = legit. IF THE TEACHER IS SUCCESSFUL and deserves the pay.
-Teaching isn’t a clock-in clock-out business. It is a lifestyle, and teachers who commit to the profession will have excellent results.
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2013/10/stop-teacher-wars
My mom sent me this article a little bit ago. At the time, I didn’t think much of it — I had a good laugh, and forgot about it. I found it again on my desktop this morning and wanted to share it with all of you.
I’ve been thinking about what kind of teacher I’m going to be, the relationships I will develop with my future students and the type of “classroom persona” I’ll be taking on. Last week, I saw one of my practicum Kindergarteners at China Town having dinner; I’ve never experienced seeing a student of mine outside of class before, so that was a new way of looking at things. I just think it’s important to think of teaching as a serious career you’re dedicating your life to, as well as having as much fun with it as possible. Don’t always take life too seriously, because your kids will appreciate seeing you be real in the classroom as well as respect their relationship with you outside of class.
Enjoy!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/33-teachers-who-got-the-last-laugh
Oops! Didn’t realize giving a title to my post would get rid of my name…. this is Sasha!
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/223213181.html
This is the article that I sent in an email to the whole class.
I haven’t gotten to commenting on it yet so I figured this would be a great place to do so. The article is by a Minnesota High School teacher that brought up points regarding 9/11 I hadn’t thought about before reading the article.
He questioned what our country is doing in the name of peace for our future generations after the tragedy of September 11th. Sanders discusses how the children now in schools are the people who will be fighting the urge to “heal wounds” caused by our generation’s doing, and that racial discrimination now implies connotations to terrorism. How do we teach our children to care about what happened before they were born, and explain history in a way that extinguishes our urge to fight each other over trying to create peace with one another?
Wow, Sasha! This is a very powerful article. The topic of 9/11 used to be a topic that brought up horrible memories for many, and now the kids entering middle and elementary school have no idea what the impact of that event was or event what the event was in general. They have not experienced the freedom and innocence that came before 9/11. Simply walking through the airport change over night as the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks panned out.
This quote spoke to me the most, “Our students need to learn not to fuel the embers of hate and anger but to stoke the flames of compassion. The real lessons of Trayvon Martin and 9/11 are that we are an imperfect nation, but that we must strive to bring happiness and forgiveness to our lives.” I think a way to extinguishes their urge to fight each other over trying to create peace is to set up that positive and open classroom environment. The way that we as teachers model our behavior and our response to the events or even to smaller conflicts will impact the way our students behave and solve their own conflicts. To teach them how to care about events that happened before they were born I would say try to make it as personable as possible and relate it to their parents or have them interview people who went through the events. We did this in my middle school for a Holocaust project and it really inspired me to find out more about the event even though I didn’t live through it.
That is all, I absolutely love this article!
Hello Classmates and Sue,
While surfing the web I stumbled upon this article that gives a new perspective on using blogging in the classroom. The article explains the blogging system that Alex Wilson uses in his classroom of 5-6 year olds with learning difficulties. Wilson uses a blog in his classroom to showcase the student’s talents. He says that instead of having to invite the parents to the school to view their student’s talents and progress, a blog allows the students to take videos and pictures of their work that their parents can view that day. This allows the students to take pride in their work and show their families what they have been doing in school instead of just telling them every night. It also allows the students to get practice in using blogs and technology, which is something they may never have worked with before. Enjoy the article!
http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2010/nov/04/class-blog-alex-wilson
http://pernillesripp.com/2011/05/28/14-steps-to-meaningful-student-blogging/
14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging
-Comments are important to make the blog work. Teach students how to use comments are a conversational piece.
-Let parents be involved. It’s a good way for them to see first hand what their children are doing.
-Don’t grade their responses. That would take away the fun and free spirit and excitement of the blog.
-Give it time for all of the students to get used to the blog. Not all will catch on and like it right away.
I love this! Thanks Hanna for sharing
Hello there classmates! Here is a website that I believe shares a great deal of good information about blogs. In this article there is information on how to make a blog work as well as ideas of how you can use blogs in your classroom. It even has a video of a first grader explaining how they access and use blackboard. It really shows how much elementary students are capable of. Here is the link, enjoy: http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/keeping-warm/its-elementary-blogging-with-young-learners
Really Great Job Mark!
Thank you Kayla, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
This article outlines five reasons students should begin blogging. The article explains that blogs allow students to have open reflections, use their own voice, improve literacy skills on a different medium than paper or essay format, create an archive of their learning and develop a positive footprint in the online world. All of these reasons support the use of blogs within the classroom.
One of my cousins recently began using a blog to improve her writing skills for a summer class. She was taking a cooking class for mathematics practice but was also working on her writing through the development of her cooking blog. This use of interdisciplinary work is something to think about when considering blogs for classwork!
http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3721
http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/
Here is a video and website that gives lots of information about blogging! This class has a classroom blog that they share with students around the world. They have also had opportunities to skype with other classrooms around the world! If you look at the left hand side of the webpage there are other links and ideas, such as family blogging month, that you can look at!
There are many examples and ideas on this site. It is full of information. The Mystery Skpe Call sounds interesting. Who is working on geography for their discipline? This might be something for you to explore.
http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/
This is a blog by Teacher Tom. He is the only employee at a preschool in Seattle, where he teaches his students starting at age 2 and continues to support their learning until the time they “graduate” to kindergarten.
He’s got dozens of categories of activity ideas, classroom cooperation, fun ideas and advice for everyone from perspective teachers to parents!
I want him to be my teacher…
This article provides a very insightful list of why educational blogging is a good idea. Some of the topics covered include; learning community interaction skills along with expanding the idea of community, providing new perspectives for the students, creating a student-centered learning environment, and it provides a skill for life long learning. If you aren’t sold on blogging in the classroom this article will for sure help you see a different perspective on it!
http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rationale-for-educational-blogging/
http://pernillesripp.com/2011/05/28/14-steps-to-meaningful-student-blogging/
14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging
-Comments are necessary for the blog to be effective. Comments should be a conversational piece to the blog.
-Let the parents be involved. This allows them to be active in what their children are working on
-Don’t grade them on it. That will turn them away from having fun with it
-Give it time for all of the students to catch on and be successful with it. Not all students will like the concept right away
https://suite101.com/a/5-benefits-for-creating-a-classroom-environment-for-student-blogs-a285167
This blog gives us 5 examples why we should use blogging in our classrooms.
– Alone with students will think it is great to blog and be on the computer, it also helps students with their writing and reading skills.
-It also can be a big motivator for students in your classroom.
This blog is from a 4th grade classroom:
http://mrwatanabes4thgradeblog.blogspot.com/
The teacher finds news stories that present an issue with at least 2 sides for students to take. He then asks for their ideas on the subject including prompting questions such as “Why or why not” and “What if Martin Luther King Jr. was never born?” He also notes for students to use “check your capitalization and spelling”.
This blog has some posts that make them think critically and others that just have them share more about themselves.
Hi Sue! This is fun!