I think I have added the most vital things to my blog to hand it over to Alec. However I have so much more I want to add. Like lots of cool videos to make it a bit more fun, links, projects, etc but I know I just have to stop today and can add to it tomorrow and forever. Thats the great thing. I can just keep my blog going and add and change it to suit me.
I did really want to add some papers and units of work to share with anyone that was interested but for some reason, my virus infested computer or my illiteracy and forgetfulness is restricting me from doing it. It just wont upload no matter how many times I press browse.
So anyone have ideas as to what I could be doing wrong on what i thought was a simple process please give me a hoy and let me know.
Thanks Alec for helping me set this blog up. Its a great tool and I know I will continue to use it through my education and teaching career.
This is our final tech task. It’s about the decisions we have to make in a world full of choices. No one can make up their mind or speak with certainty because we are bombarded with products and choices all telling us they are the best ones to choose.
We used imovie to make it and the the song behind it is ‘Everybody’ By Martin Solveig. Hope you like it.
Over the last few weeks or more our ECMP (computers) class was asked to mentor and comment on two classroom blog sites. We were able to make view and make comments on a senior maths class’s blog or a grade 4 classrooms blog. Initially I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea and found it hard to make comments to the class. I was unsure about the actual benefit students would get from working with a blog and was a little concerned about how I would use this idea in my future classroom and school without other teachers and parents having a problem with it.
However, that all changed once I started to view the blog sites more and read the comments students had posted about the lessons they had just learnt. It made me realize how beneficial having a class blog is. Students are able to clarify their learning by posting on their blog. They practice the terminology of topics but also learn how to put ideas in their own words which increases their understanding and there is a better chance that knowledge and understanding will go into their longterm memory. Blogging is like an online journal except better. I think the fact that it is an interactive tool that people can discuss topics, ask questions, make comments, give praise, and show off their skills makes it more education for each student and more relevant to students because it uses the internet which we are all we are all involved in now.
The saying is so true, what you don’t understand you are afraid of. This project and these blogs changed my view of blogging and interacting with people on the internet. I realise everyone still needs to be very careful but I am not afraid of implementing this idea into my classroom anymore. These blogs model great structure and content that any teacher could build a something off. Its fun and gives children a great sense of pride to know that you, their teacher thinks their thoughts and knowledge is good enough to share with others and it gives them independence that is so important to learning and critical thinking.
Here are the two blogs that we have been looking at. Check them out if you haven’t already.
