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Tuesday November 28, 2006 I have long been a proponent for journals being an avenue for my students to explore their feelings about different things that are happening in their life. I tried to make sure that students understood their journals were for my viewing only. The thought was that I wanted them to learn to express their emotions freely so that they could then have plenty of content when they were writing. I didn't feel as though my middle schoolers would be honest if they thought their emotions would be put on display for every student. Middle School can be an even crueler experience than high school. This train of thought changed when I first discovered the power of blogging.
According to Richardson, blogging is becoming the new way for teachers and students to interact with each other about topics. Blogs serve several purposes. First, they are a way to tie a traditional instructional strategy, journals, to the technology revolution of today. One criticism that is often leveled at schools is that we are not doing enough to prepare our students for the work force. Another is that we are out of touch with what children of today are capable of in the realm of technology. Second, they allow teachers to foster higher level thinking skills. I speak from experience when I say that blogging requires more than just sending a cute email to someone. The third purpose that a blog can serve is that it can foster online learning communities. Classrooms no longer need to be isolated islands of learning. Students who may not have a kindred spirit in my class could quite possible find one in another, even at another school. Students would also have a larger audience to read and respond to their thoughts than just their fellow classmates.
One source that I found especially helpful was classblogmeister.com. This is a site just for teachers who want to utilize blogs in their classrooms. After perusing several of the classroom blog sites, I came up with a plan for how I wanted to use this site in my classroom. Because I want my students to actively engage in their world, I have decided to implement a current event blog. Every week I will post hyper links to news articles that are of particular interest to my students. Students will be given a choice of two to four news articles. They are to read the article then write a response to the article on their blog. They will also be required to post comments to other blogs written about the same article. Depending on the response, some students might need to be assigned articles as you always have those who claim they weren't interested in either one.
As I have mentioned before, research plays a big role in my eighth grade curriculum. I also like for students to make real world connections with the literature they are reading. One example is the novel The Weirdo by Theodore Taylor. This is a book set in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina. One of the main conflicts in the book is that between environmentalists and black bear hunters. Just recently, there was an article in the News and Observer about a protest that is scheduled to take place in the next month about the annual bear hunt that takes place in the Dismal Swamp. I would have students read this article and respond to it. This gives a real world connection to our novel. For every realistic fiction piece we read, there is something to mirror the conflict that plays out in the daily newspapers.
Blogging is the best way to bridge the gap between what students want to do and what teachers need for them to do. The possibilities are endless when you are a language arts teacher who believes that the more students write, the better they will become.
After all the discussion about types of hardware, it seems only natural to move into the discussion of software. After all, computers are made great only by the programs they can produce. Anyone who has ever tried to wrestle with an outdated computer can testify to this. One issue is how do core teachers integrate software into their classrooms. I think that the key to choosing software for educators is seeing how the individual software can engage students.
I do not consider myself in any way an expert in teaching technology. My specialty is middle grades language arts and social studies, but I have learned so much in this course about the appropriate use of software. There have been several purposes that software can serve that never crossed my mind. For example, I used spreadsheets and databases when teaching about North Carolina Counties. I did this personally because I didn't feel that the students would benefit from making their own spreadsheets. I was completely wrong. When I think of the lost opportunity to engage my students in this level of thinking, I am dismayed. After seeing all of the possibilities for spreadsheets and databases, I have decided to make students design their own about the North Carolina counties. We will focus on competency goal 8 in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. This goal states that the learner will evaluate the impact of demographic, social, economic, political, and technological advances in North Carolina from the 1970s to the present. Students will be required to create a database that includes demographic, economic, technical, and political information about a county. There are a hundred counties in North Carolina, so each student will conceivably have one county. There will be some overlap ,but students might be able to collaborate in teams for this project. The more advanced students will be required to work independently on the larger counties. After students have compiled their databases, we will move to the second phase of our project. Using spreadsheets, students will try to predict economic and political trends in the different voting districts. They will use the information from the databases to create a picture of the different regions of North Carolina. This will then allow for a final report on the regional diversity of North Carolina. During election years, students will write opinions about which candidates are offering the best solutions for each region based on the demographics, economics, and political leanings. Through this lesson, I hope to see my students gain a better understanding about the state of things in North Carolina. I want them to realize the impact of textile mills closing and the return of cotton as a major crop. By allowing them to learn and come to these conclusions on their own, I foresee them becoming better informed citizens in the future. One added benefit of using these software tools is that the eighth grade computer test is basically a test on using spreadsheets, databases, and word processing. While I am certainly not advocating that we teach the test, I think allowing these students to use these tools in a core class will have a positive affect on their ability to do well on this state test. At the very least, it will show them how useful these tools are in reality.
I do not consider myself in any way an expert in teaching technology. My specialty is middle grades language arts and social studies, but I have learned so much in this course about the appropriate use of software. There have been several purposes that software can serve that never crossed my mind. For example, I used spreadsheets and databases when teaching about North Carolina Counties. I did this personally because I didn't feel that the students would benefit from making their own spreadsheets. I was completely wrong. When I think of the lost opportunity to engage my students in this level of thinking, I am dismayed.
After seeing all of the possibilities for spreadsheets and databases, I have decided to make students design their own about the North Carolina counties. We will focus on competency goal 8 in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. This goal states that the learner will evaluate the impact of demographic, social, economic, political, and technological advances in North Carolina from the 1970s to the present. Students will be required to create a database that includes demographic, economic, technical, and political information about a county. There are a hundred counties in North Carolina, so each student will conceivably have one county. There will be some overlap ,but students might be able to collaborate in teams for this project. The more advanced students will be required to work independently on the larger counties.
After students have compiled their databases, we will move to the second phase of our project. Using spreadsheets, students will try to predict economic and political trends in the different voting districts. They will use the information from the databases to create a picture of the different regions of North Carolina. This will then allow for a final report on the regional diversity of North Carolina. During election years, students will write opinions about which candidates are offering the best solutions for each region based on the demographics, economics, and political leanings.
Through this lesson, I hope to see my students gain a better understanding about the state of things in North Carolina. I want them to realize the impact of textile mills closing and the return of cotton as a major crop. By allowing them to learn and come to these conclusions on their own, I foresee them becoming better informed citizens in the future.
One added benefit of using these software tools is that the eighth grade computer test is basically a test on using spreadsheets, databases, and word processing. While I am certainly not advocating that we teach the test, I think allowing these students to use these tools in a core class will have a positive affect on their ability to do well on this state test. At the very least, it will show them how useful these tools are in reality.