I want to start out saying...WOW!!!
These are two very different blogs and both are very impressive.
A Bump on a Blog is an English class blog from Indiana. The blog is maintained by the teacher and filled with all kinds of interesting youtube videos and other bits of information. The final two entries in the blog are a letter to the parents explaining why the class is using a blog this year and the list of dos and don'ts for the students. Both of these are very extensive and interesting. The student list even includes what will happen if you break the rules - a great bit of info from the beginning.
I started linking to the other listed blogs. These were student blogs and the principal's blog. It looked like the students simply blogged about their life - no real specific direction - and included links to other student blogs and websites of interest.
The part that really impressed me is that the teacher was using this blog to communicate directly with her students and the students were using the blogs just as all beginners - to blog about themselves and prom and boring Friday nights.
Miller's English 10 Classroom Blog is something all together different. Here is a teacher from Connecticut who takes his technology VERY seriously!! The blog itself is different discussion questions that students need to respond to - their comments are listed for each of the posts. That is not the amazing thing.
The amazing thing is the extensive use of technology that Mr. Miller has pulled together. This is a perfect example of a filing cabinet blog. From this blog there are links to numerous wiki pages. The first wiki is a google calendar with the assignments listed. Other wiki page provide details about the major assignments for class. He uses Slideshare and Animoto to demonstrate what the students are supposed to do. The Slideshare powerpoint walks them through a paper he calls iSearch and the Animoto is a graphic illustration of a quote from a book.
That is just a sampling of what is on this site. It's one that English teachers would love to browse for the content and techie watchers would love to browse for all the ways he applies stuff...
It is all so organized and clear. It's a great example of how it can all work together to benefit the students.
3 comments:
Beth - Thanks for sharing these two blog examples. I am trying to determine how to set up my school blog for next school year, and following yours and looking at the two you mentioned have helped me.
Thank you so much for sharing these two sites. Both have great examples of how I could use a blog in my classroom at the beginning of the school year if I wanted to. I especially think the idea of a class calendar would be helpful, as my students tend to be forgetful!
What a great contrast - the Bump on a Blog is a great example of a KISS blog that would be a great jumping off point!
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