Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Blogging in my classroom
Blogs would be a perfect tool to utilize in my high school Computers 2 classroom. Not only will it introduce the concept of a blog to them, but we will be using to do something that we already do but differently. Currently, students participate in a journal entry the first ten minutes of class. Students find the journal prompt in the computers shared drive, respond to the blog in a word document containing one week's journals, and then save on their personal drive. To check these, I can either access their personal drive from my computer or I can ask students to open their files and I walk around (the faster method). I plan to change the journal the assignments to be completed on a blog. I will post the journal prompt on my blog and they can respond to it on there. I can add a component where students have to respond one of their peer's response. I think this technique will lead to student's writing improving. Students will be accountable for what they write because it is posted on the Internet. Their peers, parents and the entire world have access to their response. I am really excited to use blogs in my classroom!
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Using a blog for journal entries is a great way to get students excited and interested in writing and blogging. I know that I can type much faster than I can write; a skill that has saved me a lot of time over the years. Blogging journal entries will not only help students to improve their typing skills but also allow them (once efficient typers) to produce more work in the time given. One thing I really love about journals is that they provide private writing time for the students to express their struggles, emotions and ideas. I often find things written in journals that the students would never say out loud. The things I find in them and the connections they help me to create with the students are very special to me. One challenge I would find with blogging for journal entries is that I don’t think the students would open up as much and I would be afraid that I could possibly be missing some imperative information about that child to help them to be successful. I don’t think I would completely cut out paper and pencil journals as they are a key tool for teacher-student communication but instead incorporate both shared journals and independent journals into the lessons.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jasmin. I chose to keep my journals strictly on the computer since it's computers class. I believe students do paper and pencil journals in their language classes.
DeleteSome students may feel shy posting for their everybody to read so it would be a good idea for me to do some journals on the blog and others in Microsoft Word as I am currently doing.
Thanks for the ideas!
Hi Tanya, I think using a blog as a journal source is wonderful. Ironically, I chose the same idea for my blog but I want to use it more as a tool of reflection for each week. The fact that you teach high school I think your students are very capable of utilizing this tool or concept. I teach fourth grade science and social studies and the concept of daily writing is important to me. But, for me, I am also using my blog as a connection to the parents about the grades and comprehension level of their children.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you are inviting your parents to view your blog! Are you creating a blog that your students respond to or are each of your students creating their own blog?
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