Now that I feel that I'm coming to better understand the features on Blogger, I think it's time to explore the options available to help me get started using blogs with my students. It was fairly easy for me to get started myself, and I am sure that my students will catch on just as quickly, however it's very important for me to have a clear plan, expectations, and way for assessing work. Without proper preparation, a great idea can quickly collapse and I wouldn't want my students to miss out of the great value in this activity. To help me plan, I searched for available web resources to support my instruction.
Blogging in Your Classroom: A Guide to Getting Started
This site gives a great description of the basics of blogs, their use in education, and how to get started. It appears to be geared more towards an audience of teachers in lower levels, but I think would be great for anyone wanting to begin a new task with blogging. It gives great ideas about setting up a class blog and sites that can be used to help facilitate that, such as KidBlog. A class site would be a great way to create an exchange of ideas, allowing my students to stay up to date on class news, themes, and activities, while at the same time using the target language. We have a program at my school where we can post assignments for students to see, but it is not as interactive as a blog and therefore, in my opinion, not as timely and effective. Also, some of my classes contain 30+ students, so blogging will give them all a chance to participate, even when they all don't have time to participate individually as much as I would like in class.
I especially like the tips about clear regulations for commenting and keeping parents in the loop with blog activities. Both very important points to being successful. Getting parents on board can really benefit the project as a whole.
Blogging Resources for Classroom Teachers
This is another great resource for getting started blogging in the classroom. This contains a great list of resources for the educator who is just starting to blog. My personal favorite link is 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging It provides a step by step guide to help teachers feel comfortable getting started. I enjoy the idea of teaching students how to blog by "paper blogging" first, and then moving to using the technology. These are great ideas to get started! I'm looking forward to beginning some of the steps and sharing them with my fellow department members. I'm excited about the idea of blogging become a part of our successful foreign language program!
The article “14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging” offered some good tips. I like the idea of teaching students how to blog on paper first. The article also suggested teaching students how to comment. It is a great way to prepare students. I never thought about teaching students how to ask questions and respond.
ReplyDeleteBlogging in your Classroom: A Guide To Getting Started was a fabulous site! As a teacher, I would absolutley reference this site as I am creating a classroom blog! The site provided all the essentials for starting a blog without being overwhelming! I have seen the article, "14 steps to Meaningful Student Blogging" before, and I beleive that article is another great resource to use when implemening blogs in the classroom! Thanks for sharing such great resources!
ReplyDeleteI took a look at the 14 steps, very interesting article. I like how you are going to tie it to a foreign language program. You must let me know how it goes!
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