In Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms he talks about the importance of teachers blogging. I like that he explained the benefit of teachers blogging and becoming comfortable with the activity before asking their students to do so. I am excited about the prospect of trying blogging with my 1st graders, but I definitely want to get a handle on the whole concept before I get them into the mix. Richardson mentions taking baby steps with the kids and I feel like that's what Prof. Arzt is doing with us. She does such an amazing job of walking us through visual tutorials that I feel like I can handle this overload of information that much better.
A worry I have when using blogging with my students is the fact that they all don't have internet access at home. With the strict confines of our curriculum there really isn't much extra time to play with so I'd like the kids to do most of their blogging at home. Yet, for some this will be problematic. Currently, we ask students to go onto www.xtramath.org and complete math flashcards for homework and the initial response from many parents about the use of technology was not exactly glowing. I feel like showing the parents examples of other students blogs would be helpful for them to come around to the idea.
In my search I found some sites that I like and think I could share with parents...
Ms. Cassidy's Blog is one of my favorites right now! She has her Kindergarteners showcase their learning through the class blog as well as individual blogs and it's amazing that their families from around the world get to be a part of their daily learning! To start my kids off I would probably have them read some of these Kindergarteners blog posts as well as watch the videos they have posted.
"Three Approaches to Blogging" as featured on Integrating Technology and Literacy overviews distributing information through blog, discussing information and demonstrating information learned. I think all three approaches are crucial for kids to partake in but I feel the most hands-on section is the demonstrating where students can actually get their hands dirty and actually blog.
I think my take away from this blog is...baby steps...no good teacher was ever born overnight so I need to cut myself a little slack and ease into this whole "blogging with six-year-olds" idea!
Completely agree with those baby steps :) I think it's all about tinkering with a variety of tools, and then selecting a few that make the most sense in our own classroom. While there are some pretty incredible platforms available to teachers and students, the goal is to determine which ones are the "right fit" given one's access to technology, comfort level, and curricular goals.
ReplyDeleteYes, Mrs. Cassidy's blog is amazing. She has been blogging for awhile. Although I follow the Free Tech for Teachers Blog, I did not have the post about blogging you provided entered in my Diigo Library. Thanks for the reference. It is an excellent post, and I just tagged and listed it in Diigo.
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