Blogging Assignment
Hello,
Wecome to our classroom blog. We will be using this blog for your Case Study documentation entries.
If you haven't already, please vote just to the right of this entry as to whether this is your first time to blog or not.
Today, Wednesday, March 7, 2012, you are going to share with the others in our class your experiences as you explore other educational blogging sites.
Did you prefer one blog over the others? Were any teachers experiencing dificulties that you have observed in your Clinical Teacher's classroom or at your assigned school? Simply share your thoughts.
Then return to our blog by Sunday, March 18, 2012 and read the others' responses and respond to at lease two peers.
Hope you enjoy your experience,
Dr. Hill
Blogging Reactions' Postings
You should be able to post comments at this time.
ReplyDeleteMarch 7, 2012
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed looking at all of these blogs. One that stood out to me was Edutopia's Spiral Notebook Blog. That site led me to many other blogs that interested me. One of which was called "How to Motivate Learning: Alternatives to Rewards". This blog gave 3 different approaches to getting that desired behaviors from your students other than giving them rewards. I liked the different things we could do in the classroom, but I have always and will always think that rewards work for me. Students respond positively to rewards.
ReplyDeleteAnother blog that interested me was the “Best Blog for Educators”. It had so many topics to choose from that it took a while to decide! Finally, I found on that really got my attention. It was titled “What Keeps You Going and Motivated?” I guess I didn’t read the title fully because I thought it was going to be about how you keep your student’s motivated. It wasn’t; it was how to keep yourself, as a teacher, motivated. I LOVED THIS. There were so many wonderful things that these people said about their jobs as teachers. Though they often had hard times, they stuck it out for their students, and they felt accomplished at the end. Being a teacher, you need to be sure that you can stick with it through the hard times. I’m sure we’ve all experienced hard times already, and we are only field-basing. But, what keeps us here is our love for children and education! This is definitely a blog I will return to if I ever have any doubts about my career, myself, or my students.
I love how they subdivide even down into teaching style on the blogs. Im not sure if yall do project based learning stuff, but they have an awesome board on it. I have been at the high school this long and had never gotten a straight definition and this helped a lot :)However, i couldn't find that spiral notebook blog :/
DeleteThis semester is my first semester to really experience blogging. I actually enjoy it and I think that it is a very useful tool. The one blog that I read that stood out to me was from ascd.typepad.com. In this blog, James Harvey posts his opinions private schools and how they are not any better than public schools. He even wrote an article Privitization: A Drain on Public Schools; just to prove his point. He says that studies show that 83% of charter schools have worse/no better grades that public schools. I found this information very interesting because every day people send their children to private schools thinking that they are getting a "better" education, when all along their are not. I really like reading this blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree that blogging is very useful. It is useful for me to share different ideas and learn different things. I went to private school and public school. As far as the learning goes,it was pretty much the same. However, I felt I was very sheltered in private schools and I never saw anything bad really happen. The worst I saw was a girl saying "you suck" to a guy playing basketball. When I got to public school it was completely different for me. I saw students making out and talking about drugs. First, I thought that kind of kissing was only in movies back then and second, the only drugs I thought existed were cigarettes. I don't know if being sheltered would be a good thing but I felt myself grow more as a person when I was in public school.
DeleteI need to check out that blog! I have worked in both private and public schools and it would be interesting to read another teacher's insights on the two.
Delete@Annisa: Would you have preferred to have stayed in private school or are you happy that you switched to public school when you did?
I am happy I switched to a public school. I felt more included in the world. I was a lot happier and got to experience a lot of things i wouldnt have if i stayed in private school. Thanks for asking!
DeleteThis semester is the first time I've experienced any type of blogging also. Just looking through facebook I've found that several of my friends have a blogging website and I think it's a great way to stay in contact with friends or family members that you don't see very often.
DeleteMegan, I agree with you on the private school seeming sheltered. I, myself, have never gone to private schools but I have had friends that went to private schools and they felt that nothing "exciting" ever really happened.
Blogging has been experience for me. I have never used a blog or even followed a blog. At first I was very frustrated but as I have gotten familiar with blogging I am starting to enjoy it. I chose to look at edutopia.org. They had many different types of topics to choose from. One topic I chose was differentiated instruction. I thought that since we are discussing this why not read about this. The blog had different people helping and giving advice on how to have a differentiated classroom. How exciting to actually get different tips from all types of teachers!
ReplyDeleteI have been having a hard time this semester as well with blogging, but as I do it more and more, it becomes easier to me. I'm glad I'm not the only one! I really enjoyed Edutopia as well; I loved all of the different topics there were to choose from.
DeleteI also liked get tips from various teachers. I think it is very helpful to see the classroom from multiple perspectives. I think it makes us aware of how different each teacher is and how different our classrooms will be.
DeleteBlogging can be confusing but once you get the hang of it can be a very useful tool. I enjoy it myself because it is easier to participate without having to talk over someone. The blog you read about is really helpful. It is very important to read about different opinions about differentiated instruction.This can really help us in our classrooms.
DeleteOkay Kourtney, as I am looking through everyones blogging responses, I am noticing that a huge majority of people chose edutopia. Honestly, I chose that site just because of the name and I thought it sounded neat. Its unanymous that edutopia is like the most organized blog site. I actually read that same blog about differentiated instruction, and I found it to be redundant at first. It was as if i was relearning what I had already learned in class, but from another persons words. It was cool though.
DeleteI chose to visit www.edutopia.org/node/4079 and read a conversation on grading policies that I found really interesting. I realized that from blogging, teachers can share many of their insights because most of them have had the same experiences. I think this is a great way to get good information from many different people. I have participated in blogs for some other classes and reading other peoples opinions really helps you see things from different perspectives. I did not choose to participate in any blogs however, I did learn a lot of information from reading many of the peoples responses. The topic of the discussion was that giving a student a zero for a grade lowers self esteem and zero's should not be given to students for missing assignments anymore. Many people were against this idea because giving a zero helps the students' parents understand what work they are missing. They will still be allowed to make this zero up however, some people felt that students will not be given a second chance in the real world when they work at a real job. I agree with both of these sides because they both make very good points. Some teachers even said that at their school they are only allowed to give a 50 as their lowest grade. I think this type of grading process may make students think that they do not have to turn in their assignments because they know they will get a grade either way and allows them to keep procrastinating.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, at least at miller, students do their work even if it is late because they know that they will get a zero. As students get older they need consequences. I hardly doubt that a policy like "they will get part commission on a sale even if they entirely messed it up" will happen in the real world. :/
DeleteI always find it useful to read about issues with grading policies. There are so many rules now out there, and you do not want to mess anything up. This is a good article.
DeleteWell, much like a few others i went to www.edutopia.org. I thought that organizationally their website was the easiest to navigate. Looking closer at it i really liked the subdivisions and variety of articles that were offered. There was a cool article on how to make it through the last 4o days of the school year, something that applies to literally every teacher and student. Prior to this assignment i have never gotten on a blog, it might be something worth looking into i suppose.
ReplyDeleteThe website www.edutopia.org did have a lot of interesting articles and ideas. I thought it was easier to read as well and that is why I picked it. It also had so many different topics that I could have been on this blogging site a long time.
DeleteI too likes that the website was easy to navigate. There were a lot of interesting articles available and many were applicable to our lives.
DeleteI thought this was the easiest blog to navigate also. I like that it was about things we could all relate to and use.
Deletethe edutopia.org definitely is the easiest website to navigate handsdown. i realy enjoyed looking at all of the different blogs that they had on there.
DeleteEdutopia.org is a great blog and I liked the article on Getting through the last 40 days of school. It's good to see how different teachers get through the last 40 days, because I would think that those would be the hardest to get through, because you are looking forward to such a big break.
Deletethis is my first time using a blog or even blogging about anything and i am still kind of confused but i do see that there is a vast ocean of information out there on the internet where these teachers and people blog about things. i like many others went and visited edutopia.org and i found it to be very interesting. all of the topics are in order. so when looking at the topics i chose the new teacher category and looked at the blog that had to do with lesson planning. it was a really cool and neat type of blog. it went through what a lesson plan is and what should be included in said lesson plan when creating and instructing it. overall i hope that this blogging thing could maybe turn into something more and that i'll be enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI agree Cameron. Blogging is very confusing but it does have a lot of information out there for us view and use. I am sure the more and more we use blogging sites we will understand more.
DeleteBlogging is confusing me as well. I was actually getting very frustrated trying to figure out how to post something. I also hope that I can figure the whole blogging thing out so use it as a tool in the future.
DeleteIt was confusing at first for me also. I didn't know what profile to choose and I hate those word verification things with the bunched up and wavy words that don't make sense. Yeah, blogs are a vast ocean of useful information. I agree this is something that I will use more as well.
DeleteI started blogging for the first time this semester and I was not sure how I felt about it. I was clumsy and unsure, but slowly I have found it to be fun and enjoyable. By no means am I any good at it, but I don't stumble around as much as I used to. In search of blogs and how to blog, I have become acquainted with many teaching blogs. Most of them are day to day blogs and have great activities. I explored edutopia.org and found it to be very helpful. It is a very useful website that let me explore topics I hadn't really thought about. One I found to be particularly good was one on classroom management. I think the thing that directed me to the post was the fact that it said for novice teachers. It was not meant as a derogatory comment, but was an attention getter for me. I enjoyed the article and can use the information I found in my teaching career.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the name of the classroom management blog?? I could use some help with that right now! :)
DeleteI think we found and read the same blog. I didn’t take novice to be a derogatory comment either and it caught my attention as well. I knew it would be an interesting blog for me to read because I know I’m not an expert teacher and could use any advice.
DeleteIt was called Five quick classroom management tips for novice teachers. I liked what she had to say!
DeleteThat was a good blog. I think that those classroom management tips will be very helpful for teachers.
DeleteHey Carrie, dont feel bad about your initial feeling about blogging. I think we all felt clumsy when we started blogging. To be honest, I still dont have a desire to blog, however, I do have a desire to get on blogs and read what other professionals are saying. I really gained a good amount of info about teaching just from reading what other teachers with experience had to say. Who knows, maybe when I have more experience under my belt, I might start blogging so that I can help mold and shape young newbie teachers.
DeleteThis is my first time blogging but I went to www.edutopia.orgs/blogs and found a blog a lady had posted about some successful tips for classroom management. I saw how blogs could be helpful to teachers because it provides a way for them to share ideas that worked for them with others. As a teacher, you can take some of those ideas and try them in your own classroom. I think this will be extremely useful for us as beginning teachers when we are not really sure of what we are doing. Blogging can help us overcome difficulties we may be having in the classroom because you can get advice from others on how to handle it.
ReplyDeleteWell said! I bet classroom management is one of the most blogged about topics! There are so many different ideas, like you said, for you to try in your own classroom. You can then blog about your experiences.
DeleteCould you post a link to the blog that had tips for classroom management?
Wow, edutopia, must of been a favorite because it seems like to me that most of everyone checked out this blog. It sounds like it can be very helpful for teachers.
DeleteThis is my first time blogging and just like Kourtney and Cameron mentioned, it can be a bit confusing and frustrating. One thing that helps is when the blog is well organized. For me just like many others I found edutopia.orgs/blogs, to be the most useful and interesting. It is very well organized, the topics are very useful, and I love the tabs at the top of the page especially how you can browse by grade level and select a different community like special ed or new teachers. There were so many good entries, but I liked “New Teacher Academy: Delivery of Instruction” by Lisa Dabbs. Some topics presented were classroom management and lesson planning. On classroom management I enjoyed the video of Mr. Stortz a 4th grade teacher in McKinney, TX. I learned that classroom management is all about having a good relationship with students, being consistent, and being open to advice from others in the business like blogging. When your a young teacher you have to let go of your pride and be not be afraid to use veteran teachers as tools and mentors. We are going to need all the help we can get.
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY agree that blogging can be confusing! Each blog site just looked like a bunch of gibberish. It makes it so much easier when the site is easy to navigate.
DeleteI mentioned in my post how I like to use google search to find blogs on specific topics. I feel like going into some of these blog sites it like swimming in a huge sea looking for a tiny fish!
yeah that new teacher academy blog on that website is awesome. i have found that being connected with google and stuff makes it easier to log onto alot of the websites and just blog from there.
DeleteI love teacher blogs! Teachers are the most creative people and most of them are willing to share their wisdom for free! The blogs that I checked out from the handout were standard blogs. Nothing that interested me at this time in my career. The Edutopia site didn't attract me nor did The Essential Blog. ASCD's Weblog did lead me to a hilarious blog (http://myhipsterteacher.tumblr.com/) that I enjoyed reading. I didn't find a blog that I wanted to join or post to.
ReplyDeleteSome of the blogs that I have found that I like are http://lessonplansos.blogspot.com/, http://www.englishblog.com/lesson_plans/, and http://teacherlingo.com/blogs/default.aspx. These blogs focus on lesson plans and ideas for the classroom. If I find something awesome on these blogs or others I like to pin it to my Pinterest account. Pinterest is kind of like a blog. :)
It is easier for me to search out specific blogs through google search. I just type in the specific type of blog I am looking for, mostly elementary lesson plan ideas, and search. I found with this assignment that it works will any type of information or support you need.
I can only imagine how helpful this will be once I enter the classroom and have all sorts of new teacher issues. I hope one day when I have the wisdom to share, I will be able to help out others.
Blogs are just like journal entries! Here is a link to one of my favorite sites that can help you start a blog in your own classroom!
Deletehttp://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/tips-howtos/start-blog-30117.html
You see, that's what I said in my initial response about blogging. when I think of a journal entry, I think of a diary about personal life issues. But then I realized that Journal entries can be about your profession too... By the way, I was reading your response about lesson plan blogs... Wow, that amazing. I actually went to look it up and found some nifty blogs for music teachers. I know where I'm going when I become a teacher.
DeleteSorry this is a little late, but here we go...
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the blogs, however there weren't any that interested me that much. Teachers are very creative people and for me, I feel teacher or education blogs should be inviting and appear to be interesting whether it's the font they use, the background they choose or the pictures they include.
I haven't been involved in any blogs really, but for my Ed Tech class this semester, I had to create my own blog, but we only have had to make 2 to 3 entries so far, so I havne't done much with it.
I have read friends' blogs about their families and things they do, and I think it's a great way to keep in touch with relatives and friends that might live far away or that you don't see very often.
I would love to start a blog one day about my family, I'm just not sure if I could keep it up, but I would try!
I agree! I don't think they appear very interesting either. I have come across other educational blogs that are very creative.
DeleteThat is one thing that caught my eye. I didn't find anything too interesting while looking through the blogs and I think it does have to do with the appearance. Appearance is everything when it comes to writing and when you are looking at a computer screen where everyone has same font and while reading, everything starts to run in together. at least that's how I feel. If they were allowed to change font ot like you said the background color, it would be a lot more eye catching.
DeleteThis is my first semester to experience blogging. We have to blog for ETEC also. At first it was kind of frustrating and confusing, but I think I am slowly coming around to it. I think blogs are very useful. I've come across many blogs on pinterest that are very useful to me this semester. I've seen a couple of 5th grade blogs and find them helpful for lesson planning. I looked at edutopia.org/blogs and found it very interesting. One of the blogs that I came across was about educators using pinterest.com. I use pinterest and LOVE it! I have used some ideas there for lesson plans. I think the layout could be a little more attention grabbing, but overall I really liked this blog!
ReplyDeleteI feel like you can definetly use blogging as a great tool in teaching. Just the communication alone that is made available to you through blogging, can really help a teaching in their occupation. Blogging also helps teachers gather information that they can use in their teaching.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Blogging can be a great tool for teaching. It helps communication and collaboration with other teachers and sharing ideas.
DeleteMarch 20,2012
ReplyDeleteToday is my first day to blog about my case study. As soon as I was told about this assignment, I already knew who I was going to study. This child is always fidgeting and his concentration is always focused anywhere but where it needs to be. Just today he got his color moved for not listening, which is very usual from him. Today we were measuring rice in cups and just could not stop playing with the rice. My CT called on him countless of times and still he continued messing with it. Every time you ask him to do something, he always takes as long as possible to do it. When we were doing our math lesson today we had to do a worksheet after. Well this student as soon as he gets his paper, rushes through it and goes to turn it in. I asked him to let me see it and when he gave it to me, I told him that half of his answers were wrong. As I tried to coach him through his work, all that I heard was, "This takes too long, and I do not want to redo it".
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DeleteI'm not very familiar with blogging. I just recently started doing with my ETEC class. I'm not very good at it but I know with practice I will become better...hopefully. I looked at a few of the education blogs and really couldn't find anything that caught my interest. There was this one blog where they talked about integrating technology into the classroom. This caught my attention because with my ETEC class we are learning about voicethread and one of our lessons has to include us using it. The teacher who posted the blog had basically said that the way technology is rising in the world, it is important for us to incorporate into our classroom and teach our kids but then it has a downfall to using technology. Children's penmanship has decreased and so has their spelling because they rely on spelling check when teachers ask for typed assignments. I agree with this statement because I can see this happening now. Children's writing hasn't been what it use to be. With so many teachers asking for typed papers, the students lose the practice of writing. I personally wouldn't ask for typed papers until late middle school because writing is such an important part of life and they need as much practice as they can get to help them in the future. Im not saying we shouldn't integrate technology because I do think it is important for students to learn but not at the expense of losing a certain skill.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that while technology should be incorporated, there can be downsides. I think a good guide to gauge use of technology in the classroom is to look at the skill being taught and decide if the technology is really enhancing learning or simply being used as a crutch. One example is that if students are learning to do long division, they obviously shouldn't be using calculators. But if students are working on a large project requiring multiple calculations, use of a calculator can help them to focus on the actual concepts being learned instead of wasting time doing each calculation by hand.
DeleteThis is my first time blogging and to be honest I was confused and did not know what to do. After looking at the blogging websites only one caught my attention which was the edutopia website. This website had a blog on pinterest for educators and that spiked my interest. I do have a pinterest account and there is some useful things for educators on there. My friend is a teacher and she finds a lot of great things on pinterest for her students and I always go to her board to see what new things she found.
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestion of using piterest! I am somewhat familiar with the site, but I had never considered using it as a resource for education. There are many areas of the web that have creative content, especially blogs with do-it-yourself and how-to instructions, that can be adapted for use in education. One that you might want to check out is instructables.com - You can find all kinds of creative hands on activities there!
DeleteMy initial reaction is that the majority of the blogs are somewhat difficult to navigate. Because of the way the blogs were organized, it was difficult to quickly find topics and posts that were relevant and interesting to me. The one site that I did have some success with was edutopia. The options to browse by grade level and the search bar at the top means that educators can navigate quickly to the type of content they are looking for. One of the more interesting blogs I found on edutopia was at http://www.edutopia.org/spiralnotebook/judy-willis
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the focus on neuroscience and how the functioning of our brain effects the way we learn. I'm sure many of the other blogging sites have useful information as well, but I think the one I will return to and use as a resource in the future is edutopia.
I completely agree with you Michael. It took me forever just to get started on this blog for class. I couldn't figure out how to sign in untill finally I found the right button out of one hundred buttons to push. Nonetheless, Edutopia was the best site. I found that it was the easiest to navigate and search for other blogs.
DeleteThis is my first time to ever blog. I have never kept a journal, or any type of diary or notebook about myself. In fact, I rarely get online to check my facebook. I am just not an online kind of person. To be quite honest, I am not the type of person to write down what I am feeling. For the longest time, that is exactly what I thought what blogging was. I thought it was just people spilling out their hearts onto the open world wide web for all to see. After getting the opportunity to look at all these blogging websites, I have come to realize that it is more than that. There are actually communities of bloggers out there that share similar interests, hobbies, jobs, etc. Just from the few blogging sights that I saw, it was clear to me that there was so much useful information about teaching. I mean literally, anything and everything you can possibly think of: classroom management, bullying, grades, motivation, and so on. I think my favorite blog site, even though I didn't join it, was the edutopia site. There were so many subjects being talking about and it seemed the easiest to navigate through. Some of those blog sites were not user friendly. I think the blog that caught my attention the most was "The Great Homework Debate". Some teachers pile it on, while others fill that you should have minimal homework. All stated reasons why they felt they were right. In short, seeing all these blogs really showed me that there is actually good information to found with educational blogs.
ReplyDelete