The purpose of this blog is to provide classroom teachers an opportunity to refresh their passion for teaching, review the latest in research and ways to apply it in their classrooms, and to reflect on our teaching with celebrations when things go well and revisions to our strategies when the end result did not meet our expectations.




Blogs in the Classroom

How can we use blogs with our students?
Reflection: Using blogs provides students the opportunity to use higher - order thinking skills to synthesize information in order to draw conclusions. As students reflect upon their learning in the content areas, they are strengthening their retention of the concepts taught. It can be viewed as nonfiction writing.
Assessment: What a great way to assess student progress! You can look at it like a portfolio. Comparing the students' reflections and comments from the beginning of the year through to the end provides the opportunity to see student growth in their thinking and learning.

3 comments:

Bill Gaskins said...

Should every thing student should write in a blog be assessed?

loonyhiker said...

I am always amazed when teachers teach as if we have cookie cutter students. As long as they teach that way, I don't see how they can expect students to be successful. Each student has individual interests and needs. Just like we all buy and eat different foods from the grocery store, each student needs different instruction in order to fulfill their needs.

Philisa said...

In order to "make the link between the student's interest, learning preferences, and what the student finds relevant", the teacher of the student in the chair must do their homework first. Before I ever open a textbook at the beginning of the semester, I take the first three days of class to find out who my students are as people and as students so that I know how to plan for the semester. The selections on the district-mandated Essential Texts list are just the beginning. I choose from that list based on what the students tell me about themselves and then I structure the activities based on that. You can't go into teaching blind without knowing the people you are teaching. I think some teachers just get into the habit of teaching the same old thing because that is what is comfortable to them, but if the students tune out because the material and the way it is presented is old, what good is the teacher doing them? Are they learning? Do they even want to learn? Just a thought...