Monday, January 31, 2011

Essential Question 1: Blogging

It's been a long time since I've tried my hand at blogging, but I'm sure it will be a worthwhile practice. I have seen blogging in my student teaching placements since my undergrad experience, and they seem to be getting more popular by the minute. One teacher in one of the schools has a daily blog and part of the students homework is to read, research, and comment on each blog. I asked one student what they thought about the blog and would they like more of their teachers to offer this kind of homework instead of worksheets. The response I got was 100 percent positive. She said, "I like blogging because I can say what I really think and none of the other kids know who I am because we all have fake names. Our teacher knows who we are, but none of the students shared their names with each other. I'm shy in class, so it's easier for me to talk online." The names, I later found out, were computer generated and were usually animals (such as perky-porcupine, and gigantic-giraffe). I think it's a great way to get that shy student to say exactly what they think about a topic without having to think "what will my friends think? Is what I'm saying dumb?". Personally, I enjoy online class discussions much more for the same reason this student gave for liking blogs. I like to analyze exactly what I want to say before I say it, a traditional classroom discussion does not enable me to participate as fully as I would like to. Online, I can type out what I want to say, read and re-read it, and then check for spelling/punctuation, and then reread it again, and then post. Perhaps I over-think things?

I think blogs are excellent tools, especially for the shy kid or the over-thinkers like myself. Once students get into the higher grade levels, the teacher could make the blogs more independent. Instead of having the teacher blog and the students comment on the blog post, each student could have their own blog. They could elect to use their computer time (in centers or during study hall, etc) to write about what they're learning and experiencing in any particular class.

Blogs could also help parents become more involved in what the students are learning. The parents could also have accounts on whatever blog tool you're partial too, and post their feelings on the topic of the day/week/month as well. Any thing to involve parents in their child's education can't be a bad thing.

Because blogs are so easy to setup, maintain, and create, I would definitely (depending on age) make it a part of my classroom.