This week’s reading assignments from our text, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcast, and Other Powerful Web Tools for classrooms," was rather enlightening, the reading allowed me to view blogs in a different light. Since be I am a very private person the thought of having a blog whether personal or professional was not something I ever considered, however, after reading all the positive impact blogs have on students learning and the professional collaboration it allows for educators, I am ready to blog. Yes, Ms. Satchell is ready to start her own classroom blog.
Considering that I would like to implement this into my classroom, I would use it as a forum for myself and my students to post/discuss assignment, introduce new concepts, show videos of concepts that we have covered and will be covering in the future. With the use of my blog, the students who are scared to ask questions in class will be able to express themselves, more freely. The students will also be able to ask for assistance and share their knowledge with their classmates.
As a high school mathematics teacher,teaching Algebra I and II, I feel that blogs will be a good tool for my instructional context, since it allows students to be more honest about what they understand in class. My blog, would also allow for my students to reflect on the lesson, and on my teaching, students will be able to use it inform me of any problems they are having. I would also link it to the Khan Academy, so that students would have access to instructional videos. In all, I think that having a blog as a part of my classroom instruction would be beneficial to both my students and I.
Reference
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
How will you train your students to get comfortable using the blog for questions and comments about the material in your class. Are your hopes other students will start to help or will you be the one to answer their questions and comment?
ReplyDeleteRenee,
DeleteGood question, I never thought about that one. My students have some knowledge on blogging, since I've used Edmodo with them before, however, for this medium, I want to pose "EXIT TICKET" questions which they must answer before our next class meeting, this will get the students to loosen up.
In the beginning I will be the only one, however, as time progress, I hope other students will become comfortable enough to offer help.
Do you feel that students would feel more comfortable approaching you about an issue through blogging, rather than face to face? I love the idea, but discussing mathematics via blogging seems difficult. As a fellow mathematics teacher, I feel blogging would be a great way to share answers to assignments and reviews, share extra practice or challenge problems for students who either need help or need to be pushed. I also think sharing instructional videos, as you said, would be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that students will be more comfortable using the blog than asking questions in class, I say this because I have sen them on Face Book asking each other for help for my home work. So with the blog, they will have a common place to meet and share. I also feel as if it would be too difficult to discuss math on the blogs,however, I find that students are able to break down my lessons for their classmates.
DeleteI also plan to use my blog to post links to resources that will help my students with math homework. Do you know any other websites besides the Khan Academy? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more websites, havent really had the time to play around with them as yet; http://www.hippocampus.org/,
Deletehttp://www.webmath.com/,
http://www.math.com/, http://www.freemathhelp.com/,
http://www.solvemymath.com,
http://www.mathway.com/.
Hope these will be helpful.
Thanks!
ReplyDelete