Thursday, March 11, 2010

Blogging in the Classroom


When exploring the role of blogging in the classroom, my first thought was to examine the blogs that I have already come into contact with. My best friend had a baby. Every so often, I get update notifications from “Ellie’s Little Blog.” It is an adorable way to communicate her baby’s triumphs and milestones. This could easily be a concept applied to my classroom. I would love to create a blog for our room that could communicate with parents. The blog would serve as another location for announcements. More than that, the blog would be a comprehensive venue to celebrate all of our triumphs and milestones.

During my student teaching, it was made very clear that time was not on my side. Class periods are too short and there is just too much required material to cover. This was frustrating for me because I love a theme. I was working with teaching fractions and math and could have spent an entire week relating fractions to pizza. I think another good use for a blog would be to encourage extended learning. Creating blogs with additional related concept activities for thematic units would be an excellent way to channel all of the creative supports. I love an idea that I came across about having the students blog about their vacations and charting their destinations on a map; what a perfect geography extension! The blog could be utilized at home, during an after school program, or serve as a station in the classroom when a student finished an assignment early.

I loved the section in Lee LeFevers Common Craft video where they say that “anyone is a reporter and publisher” and “everything is news to someone.” This would be my focus of the third way to use a blog in the classroom. I would love to create a blog where students report on acts of “good” that they witness in the community. Sometimes, it is so depressing watching the local and national news. It would be nice to have a vehicle for the students to report on the good things that are happening in the world that could help combat some of the bad.

1 comment:

  1. Love, Love, Love you idea to create a random act of kindness blog...let me know if you ever do that I would love to check it out. imagine if the parents could comment and check in on the class status. great ideas.

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