September 9, 2016
There are so many ways to use a blog
in a classroom! A class blog can help students learn how to safely post
material online and can be monitored closely by the teacher to make sure that
the students are posting only what is needed and important to the assignment. A
class blog can provide students a meaningful writing experience and can teach
them to write in a particular tone and for a particular audience. A blog can
teach students in the way the learn best: through technology!
I am a third grade teacher and I plan
to use my blog in the areas of distribution, discussion, and demonstration
of information for my students and their parents.
The first area in which I will use
my blog in my classroom is for the distribution of information. I
am a big believer that parental involvement is key in the success of a
child's education. I encourage parents to be aware of what
is happening in our classroom and provide many opportunities for the
parents to know what is happening in the classroom. My blog will be a starting
point for parents to find information. On the blog I will post learning
objectives, as well as events happening in our school, like picture day, field
trips and special holiday plans. I will post notices and flyers and any other
important information that parents need to know about.
For discussion purposes, I will
use my blog for my third grade students to post their ideas about certain
projects and require them to respond to at least one other student in the class
blog. I would also like students to have projects throughout the school year to
be completed using a technology program of their choice, for example
PowerPoint, have the students post them on their blog and students can view
their presentation online, while forming their own response to the
project presented.
Over the course of the school year all
of the students projects, posts, responses and the appearance of their
blog will become their digital portfolio. In regards to demonstration,
the students will be able to showcase their blogs to demonstrate what
they have learned and accomplished this year and can show it off to the
technological world!
My third grade class would benefit
from having a class blog and will learn real life application and digital
citizenship from their participation.
I agree with you that parental involvement is key to student success. I also believe that it is very important for parents to know the weekly objectives, since they will be aware on what to cover at home as well. I like to post the weekly objectives as a form of accountability for myself. I loved the idea of having students create a powerpoint. I would use a powerpoint to do a research project. I also like how we can create student accountability by having them respond to another classmates's posts.
ReplyDeleteI also liked your idea of having the students create a powerpoint. I think it is a good evaluative tool for them to use to process the information they learned throughout a unit. Having all of the projects on their blog will allow the students to use it when you have parent conferences. You can have student led conferences with the students showcasing their portfolios.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an awesome example of how to keep parents involved in their children's learning. As a parent I love when I can go online and find out what assignments and or events are coming up at each of my children's schools. I also like to use technology to demonstrate best practices for my students. Showing Journals that received a perfect score help students understand what I am looking for when I grade.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteYou have very interesting ways of using the Blog in your classroom. I think it is a great idea to share the learning objectives and so that parents may be aware of what their child is learning at school and maybe also provide connections and conversations at home to continue the learning. I was also interested in the way that you plan to implement your student portfolio throughout the year. This is awesome for students and parents to see their academic growth!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that parental involvement is critical to student success. I have felt many times that I am not involved enough with my children's education even though I attend every parent/teacher conference, and I am available any time the teachers need anything in regards to my boys but sometimes I feel that it is not enough. It would be wonderful to be able to see what my boys are doing in the classroom on a daily or weekly basis to be able to be more involved in their education. As a parent, I would really appreciate the time the teacher took to create the blog and would feel much more connected to my children and even to the teacher. This is a great idea!!
Hello Jessica,
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to see how skilled this generation of students are with technology! When I was in the 3rd grade I was only a consumer of technology; using computer programs only to play “educational” games and for typing development programs. Hearing how your students are proficient with Microsoft PowerPoint as 3rd graders I can only imagine how exciting blogs can be for you as an educator! Great job of taking advantage of your students' technological savviness and planning to use blogs as another medium of learning for your students!
Hi Jessica.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Distribution part of your reflection. The school's resources are very important in the child's education, but we need the parental involvement, because it is an essential element to complete the education cycle, and I see that you have a great plan to implement at school in order to engage and motivate parents not only in their child's education issues but also in all the school activities and projects.
Jorge Villarreal.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your ideas on blogs! I agree that parents play such an important role and I think your idea of posting pictures and flyers online is a great way of getting them involved. I know whenever my little sister would bring flyers home they'd always end up lost or on the floor, so it is good that the parent can always resort to looking online for anything they need.