OK, so since last week a lot has happened. First, my students absolutely adore the class blog! They are always so eager to finish their morning work and get on the blog to see what I have put up for them to do. This week, I have used the blog each day. The first day posed difficulties because they struggled even logging into the site. However, each day they got better and better. I would definitely suggest using the blog daily at first to smooth out as many kinks as possible.

Each post asked slightly more of my students. The first post was just about what they thought of the blog, then about a friend in the class, they took a poll on a math questions, and finally today they took a quiz on the blog. They bombed the quiz. I was really disappointed. I was unsure if this was due to the content of the quiz, or by the act of taking a quiz online. After asking the students about the questions and going over the answers with them, we call came to the same conclusion. It was the fact that they had never taken a quiz on the blog before. They weren't sure how it worked, they didn't know if everyone would see their score, etc. I never explained it to them! Yikes! So, reader, learn from my mistake, explain the process of taking a quiz on a blog to your students. Yes, they CAN use scratch paper to solve the problem, they do NOT need to solve a difficult division problem in their head. Oi!

I have had a lot of positive experiences though. Each student got to choose an Avatar to use as their profile picture. This way they do not have a picture of them floating around on the Internet. We went over guidelines of having a blog. Yes, complete sentences and punctation were required. They cannot use this blog as a Facebook account, etc. After going over the guidelines, we all signed it and I have posted it in the classroom so remind us all of our agreement.

The students have been talking about the blog to each other at lunch, to other students, and even mentioned it to a few teachers. I have also been sharing this journey with the other members of the third grade team. Two of them seem eager to start a blog of their own. They were impressed with the options the blog had. One of them was in the mindset that a blog was just something to vent on, somewhat like a journal. I explained some of my ideas, and she was floored!

In the next coming weeks, I plan to make sub groups on the blog and have literature circle discussions on the blog. I am hoping this works well and helps my students work independently while creating their response, but collaboratively working together via discussion.

As always, please comment and ask any questions! I love feedback!

Student Blog

Since creating this blog for myself, I have really started to wonder how my students would react to using a blog themselves. I began to ponder different ways for them to use this piece of technolgy. I want to make sure students are truly getting something out of its use instead of just another item to check off their to do list for the day. As a teacher, I like to have fun teaching, and as a student I want the same thing. I began to think of an easy way to start them on the process of using a blog. The first thing that came to mind was using it to communicate basic skills and thoughts for the day. A modified message board if you will.

I have talked the idea over with my assistant since he knows how I operate my classroom and how the students behave. Tomorrow, I will explain to the students what I will be doing and how this is will be set up. Every morning my students have morning work to complete to start the day off with review and get their brains juiced up for the day. After they finish their morning work, I will give them the opportunity to log into my class webpage, click on the link to the blog, and have students read the latest message I wrote to them. This might be a question I ask them to see if they can explain a skill, I might just have open conversations with them about what they like most in teaching, etc. I want them to know they have a say in what happens in the classroom (to a point).

Hopefully by the next post I will have some feedback to write to you about!

First Post!

I created with blog for a class I am taking in grad school. I am to use this blog as a portal to express 21st century learning I notice in the classroom, ideas I have, articles I find interesting, connections I make to class discussions, and even use this as a place to post questions I have about technology in education. I plan to write in this twice a week, and document any activities my class has done, and list any new sources I might have found. I hope, reader, you find use in my postings and can learn with me as I delve into the world of 21st century skills.

A site I use on a regular basis in my classroom is IXL.com. My county has subscribed to this site as a math practice resource for students. They select their grade level and a list of topics appear. The student then selects the topic and objective they want to work with. The computer then asks questions until the student has "mastered" the skill. This is a great resource because it differentiates for each child. As a student gets a problem wrong, the difficulty of the next problem will decrease. There is also a place for an explanation so the student can understand where he/she went wrong. The computer automatically assigns problems that are similar to the one missed until the students gets several correct. This allows students that are struggling to get extra practice, and those that are achieving at grade level have opportunities for enrichment. I would highly suggest writing a grant to have access to this wonderful resource.