The first standard that I do not feel completely confident in is, “3b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation”. In order to improve how I feel about this standard, I think I would like to experiment with a class blog. Because I have several different levels (Italian 5, 6, 7, and 8), I think I would start small and practice with just one level until I become more comfortable. The blog would include things like a class calendar to show upcoming assignments, links to websites for practice, a question of the day that relates to the topic we are studying, and maybe a cultural fact of the day, etc. Although I already have a site, I think a blog would allow for students to communicate with each other and collaborate more. My only concern with a blog is that I would have to moderate comments, and it would take up a lot of time to do so with over 100 students. I would also include a link to student grades on the blog. Parents and students could use it to check overall averages, missing assignments, etc. I would monitor my progress by the participation in the class blog. Over time, if the percentage of students who participate in the blog increases, I would think that the blog is a successful one, assisting in improving student success. In order to extend my learning, I would like to spend some time on other classroom blogs to find more ideas or ways to improve the one I create.
Next, I know I need work with the standard, “5a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.” My goals to strengthen this indicator include attending more workshops or professional development opportunities where I can share ideas with colleagues on implementation of technology. I can request release time from my administrators, or suggest topics for them to teach us about during professional development days in-district. Once I attend these meetings, I will make it a goal to implement one new thing learned in my own classes. After implementing these new strategies, I will observe how effective they are with my students, and adjust/modify my lesson from there.
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I like your GAME plan of using a blog to increase communication among and between students, parents and yourself. I particularly like your question of the day. Your concern of how to manage reading and approving all of those student blog postings is what has prevented me from having a classroom blog. Perhaps we could teach students how to express themselves succinctly, by limiting the number of words per student post. That would make the task of monitoring it more manageable. Perhaps more importantly it would help students learn how to communicate more efficiently and effectively.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some interesting ideas to overcome the amount of moderating on class blogs. One idea that seems to work well is to assign specific groups to certain topics. That way only a small portion of your overall students are responding at any given time. The tricky part is ensuring that every student is assigned a consistent number of blogs throughout a quarter. I have tried to incorporate blogs into the classroom and the issue that I experienced was motivation. It seemed like the students viewed it as just another essay to write and really did not take ownership of it.
ReplyDeletePB
Creating a class blog for your students to collaborate on is wonderful but I do see your point of having to monitor so many students. That could take up a whole lot of time. I teach about 80 seventh graders per day, so I completely understand. Maybe just including an assignment per class at different times in the year would be better because then you would only have to monitor one class blog at a time. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI used a blog with my 3rd grade science class. They enjoyed the experience a lot. My one reccommendation is to make sure that posts are approved before they are published. That is a safeguard for the students.
ReplyDeleteDierdre Amey
Marcella I too plan to start a class blog. The web site to get great information is, www.classpress.com You can check out my blog for more info. Good luck with the class blog.
ReplyDeleteJohn's personal blog:
http://john-learningstyles.blogspot.com/
John
Marcella,one of my goals is to start a class blog as well. My wife started on as a middle school teacher and I am in the process of getting approval to do the same. I am using the web site: www.classpress.com. It is a great site. Please check out my blog for all the information available. Good luck with your blog.
ReplyDelete