More on the pros and Cons of Blogging

The article lists four benefits of student blogging:
1. helps students become subject matter experts.
2. Increases student interest and ownership in learning.
3. Offers students a legitimate chances to participate
4. opportunities for diverse perspectives.
For a further explanation, see the article at:http://www.thejournal.com/articles/16626_4

Of course, despite all of these benefits, another article from "The Journal" discusses how it is a challenge to transform the classroom to make it more relevant to a contemporary era. In other words, some schools need to step it up on the technology front. My school is one of them. We've been fighting hard to achieve internet access in our classrooms, because of course, the possibilities are endless.The article regarding these challenges is at: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17203

In terms of blogging safety, some school boards (New Jersey High School) license a content management system from Userland.com (manila.userland.com) to control the material that is posted on the blogging site and block access to all users. I'm still on the search for how else to manage blogging safety. http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17306_2

21 classes

I loved the website that my classmate posted: www.21classes.com. I can really see myself using this as an additional means of communication to my students. Sometimes, when a student is away for a few days, I forget to tell them something. I find calling annoying these days because I tend to get voicemail or the wrong person on the telephone. Thanks to Amy for drawing our attention to this site.

Using blogging as a Creative way to promote literacy

I've never written a blog of my own, but I've certainly read a number of them. I have friends who taught English abroad in places like Japan and Korea. Needless to say, these are very interesting experiences that needed to be shared. These friends created blogs and kept up with writing journal entries and posting photos daily. It's especially interesting to read a blog from someone you know because you really get a chance to visualize what that person is learning and experiencing.

Now, I think that people who blog regularly have excellent writing skills. (Hopefully blog writing will wear off on me). This is the MSN and text messaging age where students are losing their abilities to put together a sentence. If we teachers used blogging as a way to ask students to write daily, I think it would make a huge difference. Plus, students may be more inclined to "write" on the internet rather than on a piece of paper. And it can be done in any subject; for example, I could require my students to keep a blog of the current science issues related to what we're learning in class. Hmm....I love coming up with new teaching ideas!

An even more interesting use of blogging is that it can be used as a publishing tool, which of course, is of special importance to high school English teachers. There is an article that promotes using these tools at: http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.php

Hi there! With two years of teaching experience on my belt, I am trying to explore new avenues for student learning. I am basically the young blood in my departments, and I have already gained so much insight from experienced teachers. They provide me with analogies, lab strategies, and interesting discussion ideas. In some ways, these wonderful teachers feel technologically challenged and turn to the "young blood" for assistance in these avenues. But my ideas can only go so far. I need to develop more lessons that involve students actively using technology. They love it, and I love it. So, this blog is about posting materials that I will gain in my quest for new technological ideas and reasons.