Some Things I Found Interesting...

When I was searching through a list of classroom blogs, there were 2 that were especially appealing to me. The first was the blog for Mr. Sigler's third grade classroom called Global Frig Door. I thought that it was a very interesting title because, as he explains on the blog, it is the refrigerator door that parents usually put their children's work up on that they are very proud of. Mr. Sigler adds a new post each week to update parents on what is going on in their classroom. First, he includes the 5-6 spelling words for the week to encourage the parents to practice with their children, as well as links to some interactive websites for extra spelling practices. This blog also has posts about the "theme of the month" in his classroom accompanied by pictures and videos of some of the activities that they have done. For example, the class did a mock election in their classroom back in November, so he videotaped them going through the voting process and then posted the video. I think that these types of things are very beneficial for their parents because it makes them aware of the experiences that their child is gaining and how they participated in that event. In addition to these things, Mr. Sigler includes some links to other things that they are learning in class, as well as having a live moon-observation grid available to see for anyone who visits the blog. I really enjoyed this blog because it is very attractive and colorful, and it does not include jumbles of words, but mostly pictures and videos that make it much more fun to explore.
The second blog that I liked was called Mrs. Hines' Leading Learners: Learning Through Exploration. The reason why her blog was so appealing to me was because she used a very organized format to outline the most recent happenings in the classroom. On the home page of the blog was a video where she asked each of her students one-by-one "If I were President, I would..." and posted the children's responses. It was very interesting for me to hear what they had to say because many of them were very opinionated even though they are only in fourth grade. Mrs. Hines also includes a survey on the blog for visitors to take to determine what kind of a learner they are. She then goes on to explain how the type of learner you are is affected positively and negatively by her teaching style. In addition, she provided a calendar of events on the blog as well as a place where visitors can go back to previous months to see what had gone on in the class. Finally, I thought it was very neat how she included a link to a list of books that she has in her classroom library. Even though this does seem like it would be a lot of work to post, I think it is beneficial for parents to know what type of literature their students are being exposed to, and hopefully this will encourage them to promote reading at home as well. I really liked this blog because it contained many pictures and was very easy to use, yet very informative. I hope to incorporate some of this blog's style into my own classroom page in the future.
After looking at these blogs I realized how much I really don't know about blogging and how to use it for my future classroom. There are SO many things that a teacher can include and there are a variety of ways to present each one, so it is going to take a lot of dedication for me to learn how to do it for my own class. I do see many benefits of using a blog for my classroom and I am excited to use it for many things. I will first use it to inform parents and guardians of what is going on in our class by having a calendar with classroom themes, etc. and also including related pictures. In addition to this, I will post students' work so that their parents are able to see it. Many times students lose their work on their way home or lose important papers that their parents need to see, so I will post everything on the blog so that parents will have access to it whenever they want. I also plan to use the blog to get feedback from parents: I will post surveys about certain issues so that I can get a feel for how parents will react to my teaching about certain issues, etc. and hopefully this will prevent me from having any major confrontations with parents over issues. Finally, I can see using a blog as a great teaching tool for my students. Not only do I see it helping my audio visual learners by seeing things presented to them in a different way, but I expect it to motivate students to try their best. If students want their work to be on the blog, I think it will make them more focused on their work and want to do the best work possible. Finally, by having a blog, my hope is the parents will become very involved in their child's learning and that I can create an even stronger learning community for my students.