Next time someone asks you "Why Blog?" (and they will!)Let these 6 & 7 year olds from Nelson Central School in New Zealand tell them. They are a bit persuasive! You can check out their class blog at: http://room9nelsoncentral.blogspot.com/ Or their Rachel Boyd, their teacher's edublog at: http://rachelboyd.blogspot.com/
Go to: http://flatplanet.wikispaces.com/About and check out the power of wikis and technology. Two classrooms, two countries, one wiki, one project. We're not just talking pen pals, we're talking Environment. Students are having high level discussions and collaborating across the country on environmental projects. Who wouldn't want their child to have this experience!
Blog Island Deserted?
Have you been blogging? podcasting? how about thinking about it? That's a start, right? Students in Ms. Conforti's class taped their Haiku poems and uploaded them for everyone to listen. Ms. Colwell's first graders are learning about podcasting. They look forward to making more first grade podcasts too! What are you doing or even just thinking about? It's the thought that counts!
Vacation time can be educational time when you include blogging on your itinerary. Bloggers can share the sites they visit and the adventures they experience while communicating with the family or students back at home. By including pictures and web-based links, vacation bloggers aren't just telling about a vacation, they're allowing others to experience it too! With blogging, students won't just visit the Grand Canyon, they will have to immerse themselves in it, so they will be able to share it with their audience. Students will be more interactive visitors and more responsible internet browsers in order to find links that capture the Grand Canyon at its best. No internet on the road? ...just create the text and add links when back at home. No computer? ...add the information later. Students who go on vacation during the year, could blog it! Students who are studying a country can create a blog about it! While blogging can be a writing project for students, it can be a teaching tool for teachers. Teachers can use a blog from their own vacation to help students learn content. If they are visiting a mission they can blog their trip and teach students about missions. It can serve as your scrapbook too!
Mary went shopping! Wal-Mart has mp3 recorders online
for $48 including shipping. They're $69 in the store. You can have them
shipped to the store for pick-up and save $6.
Also.. check Circuit City. They had a Sandisk for $39.99
Happy Shopping
Guess what Mary is up to in 2nd grade at Pioneer School?
Mary has recorded some of her children reading (for fluency) and emailed parents so they could listen to their child at home. The parents were excited to receive the email and were impressed with Mary's technology use! Go Mary! Share your stories too, successes and not so successes are all welcome.
Part of being a tech leader is helping your teachers allocate their resources. Do you have teachers at your site that still haven't got their feet wet with Powerpoint? Here is a no pressure training for them. March 20th 3:30-5:30pm Sign up at http://www.edtechnetwork.org/. Dream of using PowerPoint in your classroom? Let’s turn your dream into reality! Not only can an effective PowerPoint help engage your students, it can allow you to preserve your lessons, so you can reteach and review at the click of a mouse. Join your colleagues from across the nation for a FREE live, online experience right from your classroom or personal computer. You can even receive professional development hours! Spaces are limited!
Though El Dorado Co. educators would rather be venturing out soaking up the sun on this bright, sunny day in March, they are inside diligently typing on their laptops. They are joining the millions of online consumers and producers and attempting to make a difference in education one blog at a time. Initially their attempts are to reach audiences back at their school sites, but with the internet, they know the potential reaches well beyond the El Dorado County line.
Can Blogs Help Students? Is blogging Good For the Brain? The internet is dripping with articles emphazing the strengths of Web 2.0 technologies like blogging.
Giving Voice - In her own "words" illustrates why teachers should be using technology in the classroom. Amanda an avid user of many 2.0 technologies explains, "If they see me write they don't know I'm autistic".
So how can we get teachers to embrace technology's newest collaboration tools? The search is on...
Check out this 6 year class from England at http://priestsic6.learnerblogs.org/They use their blogs to communicate to parents and publish work, but more interestingly to communicate assignments to students. Students are assigned "Blogging Tasks" and can choose from an array of activities including: reading and responding to each others blogs, posting their own comments, exploring online links and voting.
If you are wondering where blogging may impact your life, check out some of the educational blog sites. There are professional development blogs, reflective teaching blogs, University curriculum blogs, teachers/student communication blogs and poetry and book club blogs to name a few. If you are still wondering if a blog may impact your life at all, check out some of the blog insights made by 8th grade students at http://anne.teachesme.com/2005/07/09#a2979.
