Thing # 3

I need to learn to look ahead. In my post for #2 I said that I really didn't know what teachers were using blogs for, and as I read a little further down, there is a link to a teacher blog to give us ideas on what we can do with a blog in our classrooms. I think it is a great place to post reminders about important events coming up such as Open House, Art and Author Night, PTO fundraisers, progress report and report card dates, no school dates, etc. The more ways such information can be communicated, the better. It is also a great place to have links to websites for interactive learning, webcams, museums, etc. I was investigating a teacher's blog, and she had very personal notes on there to the students. For instance, she let the students know that one of their classmates had broken her arm during recess that day and asked the students to be thinking about how they could help her out when she came back to school. Talk about building a caring community...I love that. I also love the idea of a classroom blog as a place for students to "journal" their feelings, thoughts, ideas, perspectives, concerns, and Ah-Ha moments. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of ways to use a blog in the classroom. I would like to try a few and have them be meaningful learning experiences.