Feb
17
Thing 4: Blogging about Blogs
February 17, 2010 | 3 Comments
Blog Comment #1: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Spies Like Us
The content of this blog is what makes me very wary of technology but even more convinced that we should be spending more inservice time teaching our teachers about the technology our students are using so that we can help guide them to use it more responsibly, ethically, and effectively.
Blog Comment #2: Mark’s edtechblog: Is this SSR, 2.0?
This blog lends itself perfectly to the question of how blog reading differs from other reading. I was a bit nervous when reading blogs took the place of reading chapter books in this 3rd grade classroom. Reading short, simple texts instead of extended chapter narratives is a contributing factor in the decreased attention span in our students. Secondly, there’s quite a difference in the quality of reading between reading 3rd grader’s blogs and reading published books. However, I think this teacher does a great job of recognizing that we need to spark the interest of our students – to get them interested in reading so that they continue reading. The balance this teacher is creating might be just what is needed to get more of our struggling students reading, reading, reading.
As an aside . . . and perhaps it shouldn’t be an aside at all . .. I read several of the student blogs from this link and was impressed with the variety of writing that I discovered. From plays to letters to stories to stream of consciousness, these blogs were filled with more writing than I’ve seen in student folders and on classroom walls. Perhaps posting our writing to blogs will help to decrease the anxiety many students feel about other people reading their writing.
Blog Comment #3: Patrick’s Update: 5th Grade
Great commentary on the power teachers have – and the importance of using our powers for good. Be sure to read the comments.
Blog Comment #4: PowerPoint Reform: A First Chapter
I would require every single person to read this blog prior to being allowed to open PowerPoint to create a presentation. I’ve recently become involved in two different organizations whose PowerPoint slides were PARAGRAPHS (yes, I was shouting that). Ugh! Valenza offers great ideas and some very good links at the bottom of her blog for life beyond the paragraph and bullet.
Blog Comment #5: Students 2.0
I teach an ACT course, provide individual ACT tutoring, and am currently working with a colleague to develop a set of workshops to guide students and parents in the college admissions process. The first two blog entries piqued my interest because I thought I had discovered a great resource by students for students to aid in the college search process. However, the blog entries seemed to wander after the initial ones (although being new to this whole “blog” and “link” world, I might very well be missing something. However, this blog did encourage me to go out to look for other resources long these lines. Will report back.
3 Comments so far
I so agree with your comment about PowerPoint reform.I mean, we can all read, right? So a Ppt presentation is supposed to be much more than that!