Blogging in the Classroom
Getting Started
Training #1:
45-60 minutes
Objective:
Become familiar with blogging and its use in the classroom.
Materials Needed:
Computer Access
Your blog set up
Blog post with activities and links (below)
Agenda:
1. What is a blog? Discuss basics / history
a. Blog is short for web-log
b. Started so that regular people could express themselves and connect to an audience outside of their daily life ‘circle’.
c. Businesses, celebrities, and political candidates now include blogs on their sites so that they can connect to people outside of their daily ‘circles’.
d. Educators are now using blogs to connect to students and parents.
2. Discuss the benefits and uses of blogging
a. Benefits: Collaboration, engages the students, it’s free, instruction time extends to home, encourages reflection, it’s free, parent communication, etc. – click here for more: advantages of blogging in the classroom
b. Uses: Teacher/class web page, class newsletter, cadre/committee blog, posting student work, student e-portfolios, etc. – click here for more: ideas for using a blog in the classroom
3. Explore blogs
a. Have teachers access your blog. Show them the basic setup of a blog while emphasizing key vocab (sidebar, post, comment, categories).
b. The newest post (one at the top) should be the activity for today’s lesson. The post should walk them through visiting some good classroom blogs you have found. **Make sure that the blogs you send your teachers to are relevant to your school setting and that you offer a variety of grade levels and curricular areas. Need a list to choose from? Go here: Edublogger Blog List
c. Give teachers the remainder of the session to explore blogs and start thinking about how they will use blogs in their classrooms.
d. Teachers’ ticket out the door: Have them leave a comment on your post answering a question you put at the end of the post. For example: How can you see a blog fitting into your classroom? What is one pro and one con that you can see with using a blog in the classroom? What kind of support do you feel you would need to be able to implement a blog in your classroom?
e. Add some activities for teachers who have already set up their blogs and advanced users.
Sample Blog Post:
The goal for today’s training is to allow teachers the time to understand the basics of blogging, explore blogs created by educators, and determine how they see blogs fitting into their curriculum.
Teachers, your tasks today are to:
1. Visit the blogs of teachers on campus and those available online. Determining how you see blogging fitting into your curriculum.
Blogs through Edublogs:
Go to http://www.edublogs.org . Towards the bottom of the page, you will see blog links. Click around.
Go to http://theedublogger.edublogs.org and click on the link across the top of the page called Check Out These Class Blogs
Other great blogs:
http://integratingtechnology.edublogs.org/
http://lgeslibrary.edublogs.org/
http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/
http://africacolony.wordpress.com/
Advanced users:
Enter your blog and create a post for your kids to visit with a picture or video. Include a higher level thinking question that the students will respond to.
Create a post with some information pertaining to content currently being studied. Create a poll at http://polldaddy.com that relates to the information provided.
Make it meaningful!!
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