I have spent a great deal of time trying to think of ways to incorporate this blog into regular use for my classes. I teach ninth grade World Geography, so after many discussions with other social studies teachers, I have found that they are currently using blogs in a variety of ways. My goal is to piece together several of these ideas in a manner that can provide something that my students will find useful and meaningful.
My first thought, and that of several of my colleagues, was to use the blog as an area to post assignments and lessons from the course. I decided against this course of action, as I already have a school-based website that I use to keep my students and their parents up-to-date with that kind of information. That site also contains a course calendar and options for gradebook access. I want to avoid that kind of "nuts and bolts" content for this blog. I want to use the blog to provide something for my students that will meaningfully supplement their course work and offer an opportunity for better engagement with the course material.
I believe I will start offering supplemental information (i.e. relevant news articles or videos) to our classroom material on the blog for students to read or view, and then have them use the blog to further our class discussion on the subject material. Students will be required to read or view the blog's material and then post a comment on how it relates to our classroom content and discussions.
I also like the idea of having students continue classroom discussions and debates on the blog. We will often run out of class time when discussing hot-button issues related to our course content, and are forced to leave them behind when moving on to new subjects. The blog will provide a new space to continue those debates with each student actually having their opinions heard and responded to.
This blog can also serve as an open forum for students to discuss the day-to-day activity of our class. Any questions students might have can be posted on the blog to be answered by myself or even another student. I really like the idea of the students having an area where they can have an open discussion without being ridiculed or worrying about other students controlling the direction of the class.
I know that I am being very short-sighted with these ideas but I am certainly willing to try anything to better engage my students. Let me know what you think about my ideas and let me hear some of your own.
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Ross,
ReplyDeleteYour approach to the blog is not close minded. You already have a website and clearly you are using technology to assist with your class management both with the parents and the students. I like our approach to the blog as a way to extend the classroom and make room for all students to participate. At the ninth grade level getting the students more involved in a socially academic setting would be great.
Some challenges that you might face are the requirements that you place on the blog. Are the students going to have to post at different points in the year or will it only become an option? Will you provide class time at different points in the year for the students to post or is it going to be done at home? Once you get more involved in creating your blog in the manner in which you foresee it to be, you can test out how the students feel about using the blog. Once you get a response from them, then you can set standards that they must follow.
By the way, what is the link to your web site? You should add it to your blog, if you have not already. I would like to check it out.