Since I am not too familiar with the blogging world, I am using this opportunity to see the capabilities of blogging and how it can be used in a classroom setting.
I teach 7th and 8th grade Math. We have block scheduling and it can be quite the challenge tryin to keep teenagers interested for 90 minutes, especially in Math. One hope I have for this blog is to share ideas with other teachers on how to utilize technology in my classroom for every day activities but also to improve upon my lessons.
I think having a classroom blog would be a great way to keep the kids more engaged and more interested. Over the last few days I have been thinking how I would implement the use of a blog to get interaction between the kids but also interacting with the content. Currently I have a POW (Problem of the Week) which my students complete on paper. Posting the POW on a blog and enabling the students to respond would get them discussing ideas as to how to solve the problem, but they could also submit their work through the blog. I would also like to use the blog as a way to keep the students and parents up to date on what we are doing in class as well as the homework assignments and upcoming tests/quizzes.
Most importantly though, I would like my blog to be a place where students can go to study. I envision one student, on a rotating basis, posting the main ideas from the lesson as well as sample problems completed in class and how to solve them. That person would also provide additional problems that can be completed individually at home when studying.
Lastly, I would use the blog as a way to share project ideas and work. We do many projects in my classes, most of which are cross-curricular, and due to the nature of these projects, there is not a good way to show off their work and ideas. Using the blog I would be able to upload pictures and have students write about their individual or group project.
I have many ideas but working out the legistics is the next step. I have several students who do not have internet access at home; therefore those students would not be able to do many of the things I hope that my students would be able to use the blog for. While there are many classroom uses, I also do not have the capability for more than 4 students (there are only 4 computers in my classroom) to be on the blog at once. I would be able to have many people on at once approximately once a month and that has to be scheduled well in advance. Any ideas?
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If you want to use the blog as a way for students to complete a problem of the week you can use online whiteboards for student collaboration. Here are a couple sites to get you started.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.skrbl.com
http://dabbleboard.com
Thanks! I will look into those!
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ReplyDeleteI have also been considering how to incorporate blogging into my teaching, when I only have access to one or two computers in my classroom, and some students do not have a computer at home. I don't know there is a portion of your block that you have the students working independently, but if there is, you could divide this time into 5 minutes blockes, and certain students would get to be on the computer on Monday, some on Tuesday, etc., for a few minutes, and then rotate, and hopefully by Friday everyone will have had a chance to be on the blog and post. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea. Another idea I have recently been considering is having students come in during homeroom time to use the computer. A majority of my students have a computer at home and this would be a way to accommodate the students that don't without taking away from class time.
ReplyDeleteOh, an update. I recently found out that Scribblar- http://www.scribblar.com/ know allows you to have editable pdfs for collaboration. Don't know if this would be useful for your class, but it might.
ReplyDeleteI like the ideas that you are putting out on the table. If you are going to use a blog and only have limited computers maybe an idea would be to split the class into stations. Each station would have certain written problem to solve and a blogging post as a separate station that would allow for questions and discussions of the trouble they are having with certain station problems. The stations would be timed and at the end you would as a class go over the comments made on the blog as a whole. The blog could be used to assess what the students have learned on those certain station problems. I don't know I am just ball parking here, but I do like what you are trying to do in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I also have a challenge with students having limited access at home to computers. I spend a lot of time in our computer lab doing writing and research projects across every subject I teach. This helps me build the technology skills as well as incorporate other other types of learning. Many of the prior comments are excellent. Using a learning center rotate to post a blog, and having students using your computer prior to homeroom. With technology skills is seems to be a case of the "have and the have nots", as many low social-economic students have not opportunity to use a computer outside of school
ReplyDeleteYou could try using your classroom blog (or a wiki) as a center for writing: Post student samples and ask for feedback. Perhaps the students that do not have access to the internet at home could use the computer lab at school once or twice a week to feel included?
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of stations. That was something I did more when I was in elementary school but I don't tend to do it as much with my middle school kids and I think that would help change the pace of the day and I would be able to work with the kids on a more individual basis.
Jim and Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there is only one computer lab in our school that has enough computers for a whole class and that's the computer room where there are computer classes most of the day. Our library also has a computer lab but that only has 14 computers. I guess I could kind of use the station idea and just rotate the kids on the computers. These are some things to definitely consider.
Thanks for the help!
I know that my school has a boardband through out the school. I know that we just lack the hardware for the individual classrooms. Does any one know of a grant program that we could use to get even some simple notebook computer for our class?
ReplyDeleteJim, does your school have any type of a grant program? My school has an Ed Foundation, but they don't have enough money for enough technology that I would want.
ReplyDeleteEmma,
ReplyDeleteIs your schools Ed Foundation a local program? How is it funded?
Yes, our Ed Foundation is a local program which is just for our district. I believe it is primarily funded on donations. The teachers have an option to pay into it through their paycheck once or as small as 50 cents a paycheck. Also, our holiday social (aka Christmas party) was free but you could give an optional donation. It seems to work pretty well, but I have not directly written a grant yet.
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