This is a video that I might show children in an early elementary grade, like Kindergarten or First.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Uploading Photos
A beautiful Hawaiian Sunset. January 2011.
Huanauma Bay on the island of Oahu.
My first trip to Hawaii this past Christmas Break.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Best Practices
Blogging is a fun and very popular thing. However it can also be dangerous because a lot of information is often shared on blogs. Especially when creating a class blog with pictures, video and names of students, safety is a huge issue. How horrid it would be to have any child somewhat exploited through an innocent classroom blog page. Here are a few cautions and safety tips I found in researching when blogging.
1. Using a blogging site that has clear privacy and security policies. Many websites, like Blogger, have security settings which allows for the blog to be private or public. There is also a feature to help report abuse. Depending on who you want to see your blog, it may be a good idea to make it private rather than public.
1. Using a blogging site that has clear privacy and security policies. Many websites, like Blogger, have security settings which allows for the blog to be private or public. There is also a feature to help report abuse. Depending on who you want to see your blog, it may be a good idea to make it private rather than public.
http://ilookbothways.com/learn-safety/blogging/
2. Assume what you publish online is permanent. Anyone can find a blog online and either print or save it, so it's important to not put information that is too personal online. An educational blog should be used for educational purposes only.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/blogging.aspx
3. Decide who can comment on the blog under posts. This is important because parents may want to make a comment. There is good feature also that will allow the blog administrator to moderate all of the comments, deciding which will be allowed to show up under posts. I found a cool tutorial on exactly how to do this, which includes a few more details.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Pedagogy of Blogs
I am thrilled for the blogging unit this week. Blogging is one of my personal hobbies and as much as I have done it and enjoy looking at other people's blogs, it never once crossed my mind to incorporate blogging into a classroom setting. I can guarantee that I will be using a blog one day as a future teacher. What a brilliant idea! In researching educational blogs, I discovered that there are many different kinds out there. Each one is different. Here are a few of my favorites and why:
This is one of the examples listed on Blackboard but it's my very favorite.
1) Mrs. Cassidy uses a lot of pictures and video to show what is happening in her 1st grade class. I found myself watching endless video clips of these darling kids that I didn't even know. As a parent, I would love to watch clips of my children making profound statements and learning. Parents miss out on a lot of that because they aren't in the classrooms. The videos give parents an interactive experience with the classroom.
2) On the right hand side of the page, there are links to each child. They have their own personal blogs as well that include video and poetry or writing assignments they have done. A lot of the educational blogs have this feature.
Classblogmeister.com is the host website of this educational blog.
2. Making Teachers Nerdy
This is a really cool blog that lists many, many different educational blogs or resources for education. In fact, I think that I will be referring to this blog a few times in the upcoming years of teaching. Here is the link to one of the listed 4th grade blogs on the website. It is titled Mrs. O'Brien's 4th Grade Blog. One feature of this blog that I really like is that on the right hand side, she lists what they are studying and has links to websites and assignments of what they are currently working on. Parents could stay updated on what core curriculum is being discussed in class to be able to help their kids with homework.
3. Educational Reviews
This blog is a little different than the other two. There are seriously so many blogs out there that have links to great resources. This blog is an actual resource itself. It was created by a teacher and a mom and contains a lot of different plans/games/ideas for teaching. Teachers could use blogs like this to contribute to their classrooms and give them ideas of how to format their own blogs.
Finally, a good educational blog host website is Edublogs. It is just like Blogger, which I am familiar with and obviously using now, but it's targeted specifically for educational purposes. I think if I were to create a blog for a class I would create one through that website.
This is one of the examples listed on Blackboard but it's my very favorite.
1) Mrs. Cassidy uses a lot of pictures and video to show what is happening in her 1st grade class. I found myself watching endless video clips of these darling kids that I didn't even know. As a parent, I would love to watch clips of my children making profound statements and learning. Parents miss out on a lot of that because they aren't in the classrooms. The videos give parents an interactive experience with the classroom.
2) On the right hand side of the page, there are links to each child. They have their own personal blogs as well that include video and poetry or writing assignments they have done. A lot of the educational blogs have this feature.
Classblogmeister.com is the host website of this educational blog.
2. Making Teachers Nerdy
This is a really cool blog that lists many, many different educational blogs or resources for education. In fact, I think that I will be referring to this blog a few times in the upcoming years of teaching. Here is the link to one of the listed 4th grade blogs on the website. It is titled Mrs. O'Brien's 4th Grade Blog. One feature of this blog that I really like is that on the right hand side, she lists what they are studying and has links to websites and assignments of what they are currently working on. Parents could stay updated on what core curriculum is being discussed in class to be able to help their kids with homework.
3. Educational Reviews
This blog is a little different than the other two. There are seriously so many blogs out there that have links to great resources. This blog is an actual resource itself. It was created by a teacher and a mom and contains a lot of different plans/games/ideas for teaching. Teachers could use blogs like this to contribute to their classrooms and give them ideas of how to format their own blogs.
Finally, a good educational blog host website is Edublogs. It is just like Blogger, which I am familiar with and obviously using now, but it's targeted specifically for educational purposes. I think if I were to create a blog for a class I would create one through that website.
I just thought I would include a few cartoons to provide a little laughter. :)
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