After almost completing two weeks of my class, I am a little less overwhelmed and extra excited about what I have accomplished. I have also enjoyed following my classmates as they follow the same path as I am right now yet with different focuses. During the course of this past week I have been establishing the focus of my blog. Next week I think it is time to unveil it to my students and their parents.
Communication: Can't have enough of that! People like to receive information and communication is many different forms. Some prefer the paper form, like newsletters and notes. Some prefer email now that it can be right at our fingertips at work or on the go. Some prefer web based communication because it is more appealing to the eye and with instant notification when updates are posted, communication is always fresh and up to date. Besides communicating classroom information, I can open it up for conversation between myself, students, parents, and the rest of the world!
Classroom: I also want to use it as a showcase. I am so proud of my students and what they accomplish. I want them to see that other can appreciate their work as well. Between blogging and edmodo, if I can get them to want to write, that is a plus. Perhaps if they see this blog, they will want to create one as well. I am looking into http://kidblog.org . I teach 4th grade ELA and Social Studies. Writing, communicating, and sharing is what I want for them to embrace to enhance their learning. Please check out and follow my linked blog at http://tlt121computing.blogspot.com/ to see what they have just accomplished.
Connection: In two weeks I have already connected with new people from my class. I have already gotten ideas from others and hope that I have shared some useful ones with them as well. No one can do this all alone. A teacher's knowledge has to keep growing too. We have to keep up with the needs of our students, listen, help and inform parents, and also see what the the rest of the world is doing!
Deborah
ReplyDeleteYour blog is so impressive. I love the overall look and the great information you've posted already in just a couple of weeks. I especially love the page you created showcasing your students!
Will you have each student create a blog? How will you manage these? Will they be given weekly topics of discussion, or will they get to be "Experts" on a topic and be required to share their knowledge on the blog?
I bet your students would love having the opportunity to find games that reinforce classroom skills to post on their blog with a description why they selected the game. After a review day, a day of playing games others posted, students could blog about which game they felt strengthened their understanding the best. One game my 5th graders love (although it was created for middle school kids) is on the icivics.org site called "Do I Have a Right?" This focuses on the bill of rights as students run their own law firm. They must listen to cases, determine if a right has been violated, direct them to the lawyer that specializes in that area and more. As they win cases they can buy/hire more lawyers, their successful lawyers get specialized in more areas, and they can add features to their office like comfortable chairs so clients will wait longer. This game can take 45 minutes to play but my kids were shouting out the amendments immediately!
Also on that site is a game called "Executive in Command" where students are the president. They must make speeches to Congress, view/edit bills and laws, visit the various government agencies to pass laws or to put them into effect and handle international affairs as well. It is stressful yet very educational.
I really have learned a lot from you in the past two weeks and I look forward to the rest of our class together! You really are doing amazing things in your classroom. Your students are lucky to have such a technology driven teacher who finds ways to utilize the great resources that are available to make learning meaningful for them.
"M", that is perfect! Our next unit is the forming of a new nation, the Constitution and the three branches of government. I can't wait to check them out. Great example of the "connection" part that I was talking about. Your questions about the students blogging are great and ones I have to figure out. I like both ideas about weekly topics and becoming the "Expert" on a topic. Now I can't wait to get them started! And again, thank you for the very kind words.
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have a clear vision for your blog. The layout looks wonderful and is user-friendly. I agree that it has been exciting checking out the blogs of our fellow Walden classmates and discovering their goals for their blogs. I think that no matter what direction our blogs take us, they will serve as a wonderful tool to connect us to our classmates, colleagues, parents, and students. The photos and comments about what your students have accomplished on your TL&T 1:1 Computing blog were wonderful! I absolutely agree that our blogs can serve as a showcase for all our students do - parents love to see this and it gives students a sense of pride and accomplishment. With the laptops that are available to your 4th graders, I think that it would be really neat to have them create their own blogs. Perhaps they could blog as famous people is history, or create a blog where they can post new things they have learned to share with one another. Student-generated blogs could also be a great way to find out what content has been most meaningful for your students. For example - after a reading assignment, they could post a summary of what they have read to their blog. I think that students sharing their thoughts on history could be exciting and would even create back-and-forth dialog and discussion amongst them. And like your mentioned, it is a great way to get them reading and writing in the content area! Do you foresee any challenges with having your students create their own blogs? I plan on checking out http://kidblog.org, to see if it is something that would be beneficial for my own students. Keep me posted on what you have your students do - I am excited for you!
Deborah,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through Rachel's and love the reflections I am reading. It is so easy to look outside of ourselves and try and fix those things instead of looking within us to see what we can do.
I am your newest follower and would love for you to hop over to my blog and read some of my teacher inspirational poems and posts.
Heather
Heather's Heart
Thanks for following Heather! I am looking forward to your posts too.
DeleteHi Rachel, thanks for your kind words! Let's share ideas on blogging!