Lots of Blogs

Entry written by: Rachel F. Topic: Blogs


I didn't know what a blog was until a few weeks ago when I got one in order to get free books. When I started it, I felt like I was jumping off a cliff into the unkown. This is how technology is for a lot of people, especially teachers who have never used it before. It is a whole different world that is very overwhelming. I think little steps in technology can help teachers become more comfortable with it and as they get used to it, they can add more web-based ways of learning in their classroom.

Blogs is a great way to open the door of technology in classrooms today. Most secondary age students already know how they work, and can help the teacher if they need help. And once the blog is set up, there is little that the teacher needs to do to keep it going. The teacher could even have the students be in charge of the blog if they trusted their students well enough to do it, and just check up on it every once in a while. There are not a whole lot of fancy tools in most blogs, making it easy for the teacher and students, but there are enough to keep the students interested like uploading pictures, videos,and links to other websites. The teacher can end the blog whenever they want to but can go back to look at it for grades and assesments any time they need to.

Also, blogs can be use in practically every subject in every grade level. English teachers of any level can use it for brainstorming for papers or projects or for discussing a particular book they are learning about in class. They can also use it to continue a discussion in class they were unable to finish. Math teachers can post practice math problems for their class to do before a test or for homework. And if the students do not understand a specific problem, they can ask their other classmates or the teacher for help. History students can post pictures for a group project on it, or the teacher can have them post a link to a website on a particular website and talk about how the website has good information or not, and how it relates to a specific subject. With blogs, the possibilities are nearly endless for the classroom. I am looking forward to using some of these ideas in my future classroom, and can't wait to see how others use them as well!