Welcome to the TLC blog!
Here are some links to posts that I think demonstrate some of the rewards of blogging with teacher education students. (As I shared, there have also been challenges!) Since our class is an integrated Language Arts and Social Studies Methods course, I’ve selected examples that have something to do with diversity.
- Extending class conversation: Diversity in children’s literature
- Linking to resources: Expository text research on Ramadan
- Building class community: “Shout out” for being willing to discuss diversity
- Helping us write in a professional voice that is appropriate to a public audience: Discrimination
- Reporting on campus event: Adichie talk!
- Just for fun: A class mash-up!
TLC members, what advice would you give to teacher educators about using blogs or other social media with teacher candidates?
I would like to echo what Emilie said! I also like that Valerie requires us to comment on our classmates’ posts a certain number of times, as it is much more effective to have a conversation rather than a string of posts with no responses. This has helped me get in the habit of thoughtfully responding to posts, even after I have fulfilled the requirement.
My advice would be to have an organized chart for students to keep track of the blogs they have posted and with different requirements for the blogs (like Valerie had us do!). It is important to have clear expectations as well for what students post online so that some students are not writing one or two words where others are writing long paragraphs. It really allows students to express themselves in a different way than vocally in class!