Thing 4: Uses of Blogs in Education
It was fun to explore some of the blogs and to think about the many ways blogs can be used in education. I started by reading Why I Don’t Assign Homework by Dan. Reading this blog brought back memories from Mr. Horrell’s 5th grade math class. I remember thinking, “Can’t he tell that I understand this from doing 10 problems or even 15 problems? Do I have to do 25 or 30 to show that I get this?” Math was not my favorite subject at that time, so I really should have asked, “Can’t he see that I am completely confused in only 10 problems?” It is true that the kids that faithfully do their homework are usually the kids that are doing well in class. I’m sure the parents that constantly hear, “But that isn’t the way we do it anymore. The teacher said I have to do it a different way!” would be thrilled to have a little less homework. Dan’s ideas are worth reflection. I think there is a happy medium in the homework department.
I was so excited to read McCuller’s A Final Goodbye! Ms. McCuller’s class had a funeral for overused words. My class actually did this in October, and we created a Powerpoint presentation. The overused words were on gravestones, and flowers popped up with synonyms that would be better to use. I loved reading the comments from the kids about the activity!
Another blog I enjoyed was Mark’s Is This SSR, 2.0? Independent reading (also called SSR - Sustained Silent Reading) is an important part of each day in my class. Mark has found that his kids are extremely motivated by reading blogs during their SSR time on some days. Mark decided to provide the choice of reading books or blogs, and he found that it was very successful. This grew into a podcast, in which his students shared their thoughts about reading blogs during SSR time. I think the idea of allowing a choice is great. What I find is that the more my students read their classmates’ blogs, the more interested they become in the books and topics that are mentioned in the blogs. We have waiting lists for books now, if you can believe that! I love the fact that Mark’s idea grew into a podcast. I am thinking of doing more podcasting with my class this year. Right now, we are having class council speeches and elections. The kids have mentioned that they would like the speeches to be put on our blog as podcasts.
I learned a lot from reading Anne Davis’ blog, Rationale for Educational Blogging. She mentions new literacies that children have to be exposed to in order to succeed. I think she gets to the heart of a lot of things that I have been considering. I really want to teach my students to consider their audience and help them learn to participate in a community of learners. She mentions students discovering their “distinctive voices.” I completely see that happening in my classroom. I rarely hear, “I don’t know,” when I ask students to think about something and write about it on our blog. I hear lots of ideas coming from students who are gaining confidence in having opinions. I think I can learn a lot from Anne Davis. She has a great deal of experience in using blogs with students, and I look forward to reading more of what she has to say.
On a lighter note, I giggled reading the “duck diaries” of second graders on Duck with a Blog. I thought it was great that the teacher took the experience of a feathered visitor on the playground and made it into an assignment on the blog. The fact that the children used invented spellings made the posts more fun to read. I hope that the duck didn’t actually get a “concooshen” (concussion).
By reading all of these blogs, I really got to see the variety of ways educators use blogs. I also got some great ideas from all that reading. 