The Next Star, Blogging I

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzQ5ZnpiczlxYzM&hl=en_GB&pli=1

 

Why I decided to use blogs. 

In my search for best practices using blogs in the classroom, I came across this great site titled “64 Interesting Ideas for class Blogs” (https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzQ5ZnpiczlxYzM&hl=en_GB&pli=1 ) this site discussed many great applications of blogs and how teachers and students can use them effectively in a classroom setting.  A few of these 62 suggestions stood out to me as they also appeared in Will Richardson’s “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for classrooms” (Richardson, 2010). They include:

1.   Sharing photos of your classroom.  Using one of our classroom blogs, I shared photos of really cool activities that my students were involved in (Richardson, 2010).  Some of our favourite photos were from guest speakers such as Marty Chan and our district Chaplin Father Michael Mireau.

2.   Sharing photos of a class display.  This was a great way to show parents their child’s art work.  Because I do post my students’ work on our bulletin boards, taking the work home is a challenge. Therefore parents usually wait for demo of learning or a time when they can come in to see the work (Richardson, 2010).  Using our classroom blog this is no longer the case; parents simply login to our district site using their child’s credentials and are able to view all their child’s work.  

3.   After taking about two weeks to set-up and update out classroom blog, I have two students who have learned how to maintain the blog.  They are continuously updating our site as the day goes on for all the subjects including classes like French that I do not teach.  This is a great enrichment project for those students who like to take on more responsibilities (Richardson, 2010). 

4.   Students in my class are also using our blog site to post tutorials of recently covered topics.  This is great. We have two students who are responsible for creating these tutorials for each subject area.  In total, we have eight students creating video tutorials for Language Arts, Math, Science and Social.  These lessons have become great learning tools for students who may have missed a class or would like to revisit a previously covered topic (Richardson, 2010). 

5.   Parent communication of special events.  Using our classroom blog parents can check to see which important events are coming up.  For example right now we have the dates for our Hep B immunizations, demo of learning and Halloween based special events (Richardson, 2010). 

6.   Student support network.  Using our classroom blog students can post questions that they may have on a project or homework assignment enabling them to learn socially rather than independently.  Normally a response is given within a few hours of the original post.  This is a great tool that allows students to collaborate outside of the classroom! (Richardson, 2010)