That title may be a bit misleading - I'm not sure this is actually my first step into the new frontier of blog-ville. I've been a reader and occasional commenter of blogs for about a year now. It began with one parenting blog , recommended by a friend, and from that one I stumbled upon the other, a personal finance blog. I subscribe to these two blogs via Google Reader, and also have new posts delivered directly to my email inbox. Reading these blogs often leads me to others, as I follow links and suggestions from the authors and comments. Therefore, this blog territory is not completely foreign to me. The title, however, addresses my first step into the world of blog authoring, where I am a total newbie. So please be gentle. And here goes...
In addition to the blogs I read daily in my personal life, I also check in with several edu-blogs on a fairly regular basis. The blog section of my Web 2.0 Tools course (Fresno Pacific University) led me to some good ones I was unfamiliar with. Here are just a few:
http://www.weblogg-ed.com
http://www.commoncraftshow.com
http://www.tipline.blogspot.com
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334.html
In my position as a high school technology integration coach, I'm always on the hunt for new ideas, techniques, strategies, tools, applications, and resources that I can bring back to my teachers to enrich their classrooms. I spent most of last year focusing on building comfort and familiarity with the basic technology. Now that the teachers have developed some basic tech integration techniques, my push for this year is student blogging. Our district is focusing on Literacy Across the Content Areas, and I see blogs as the perfect way to accomplish this goal. It is only the second week of school, and I have already helped one English teacher set up a class blog for her students to publish book reviews and discuss their literature circle books, and one history teacher set up a class portal where she will post debate topics and her students will use the comments section to develop their arguments and rebuttals. In the next few weeks I will be working with an AP Calculus teacher who wants her students to blog about their progress in class and the real world connections they make with their content. Once these teachers are comfortable with the process of blogging and see the benefits it has for their students, it is my hope that they will serve as cheerleaders and missionaries for their colleagues, and help bring many of them on board the blogging-train.
The blogging activities mentioned above - book reviews, literature circle discussions, debate platforms, and reflective math journals - address many of the NETS for Students. Specific NETS that these activities touch on include:
1.b.: create original works as a means of personal or group expression;
All of the Performance Indicators for standard 2, Communication and Collaboration;
All of the Performance Indicators for standard 5, Digital Citizenship;
And all of the Performance Indicators for standard 6, Technology Operations and Concepts.
I'll be tracking my progress with helping teachers implement student blogs here, in my own edublog. So feel free to follow along, and offer your best tips, hints, and strategies. All suggestions welcome!!
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