Hi everyone! My name is Lori and I am a middle school computer science teacher. I am presently working on my certificate as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Clarion University with plans to further my education in this field.
This professional blog is going to be dedicated to the use of blogging as another means of communication in my middle school 7th & 8th grade classes. Additionally, by using blogs, I want to encourage my students’ interest in technology and what it has to offer. I also want to foster a sense of teamwork among my students when they need to work together on various projects. A general thought of mine would be to have the students treat these blogs as “workspaces” with reflections on daily activities and then finally, as jumping-off points for future classroom interactions.
Since this is my first professional blog, I would welcome any suggestions on how to incorporate this into a middle school environment. Any experiences you have had or problems you would foresee would be most appreciated. Also, I would like to see our teachers, parents, and administrators use this as a productive tool in communicating to each other. Any thoughts or experiences with this would also be welcome.
Finally, please share any blogs that you come across that you might find interesting.
8 comments:
Lori,
I like your Blog so far. I hope you learn and share some neat ways to incorporate Blogs into your profession.
I'm looking forward to reading more of your ideas.
Have a great day!
~ John
Hi Lori! One of my concerns with blogs is making sure you have enough class time to allow students to create a blog and make postings, etc. I am not sure, at this time, how many computers I will have in my classroom next year but I know some of my students won't have internet access at home. How do you plan on dealing with this issue?
Hi Jodi:
Our school has the same problem. I don't know about your situation but our students have a study hall during the week that they can use to access the computers either in my room or the library to work on their blogs.
Hey Lori! I did find out that I only have one computer in my room. This may change as we move into the new building and updates are completed. I will be excited to see how many opportunities my students will have during school hours to work on the Internet if necessary. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Lori!
Your blog looks nice so far! I like your idea of having your students work in teams and using technology to facilitate teamwork. Do you have nay experience creating teams, facilitating learning, and using technology in the classroom?
In response to Jodi, since you only have one computer in your classroom, you may want to create time each week for teams of students to work in centers. You could include the technology as one of the centers and have the students rotate throughout the centers during each month.
Also, I wanted to let you know that I have navigated blogs on www.scholastic.com and they seem to be good resources. Their website has blogs for teachers and parents! Many of the blogs shared bulletin board and classroom organization ideas. I especially liked that parents could participate in the blogs and support each other.
Take care,
Chasady
Hi Lori:
I really like the set-up of your blog. I am interested in hearing more about your classes and your curriculum. What computer skills do your students learn?
I think your idea of using Blogs to foster teamwork is a fantastic idea. I think the idea of reflection is a great way to promote future interactions. I am looking forward to working with you over the next few weeks.
Shantal
Thanks for the great idea Chasady! I am going to implement various centers throughout my room and technology would be a great center for the students to work on blogs, wikis, etc.
Hi Chasady:
I always like to have my students work in groups whenever possible. Students get a chance to help each other through the course of the project.
As for my working with fellow teachers, I have held several in-service programs for our teachers in my school, I have shown them different things on various software programs that we have in class. Our problem is that we don't have prep periods in our building that would allow more collaboration.
Since I am a technology teacher, I try to bring in as much of the new technology as our budget allows. I try to bring real world problems into my classroom. I enjoy the challenge.
Lori
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