Educational Video

Bulletin Board Creations

I was given the assignment of creating some bulletin boards for my Level II experience.  I had resources for one and not the other, I bet you can tell which one.  How do you use bulletin boards to enhance the learning in your classes?

Picture Assignment

She is not happy about losing, how do you feel when you lose?

Safe Practices for Blogs

1. Depending on the age of students, consider posting their work on your own teacher blog using a pseudonym instead of the students’ real names. In no cases use a student’s first name and last name on a blog posting.
2. Set up your weblog with a password to limit public access. The password can be provided to class members, parents, and others with an interest in the work of your class, but others in the public are prohibited from simply browsing the contents of your classroom weblog.
3. If students set up their own blogs, conduct formal orientation sessions for students and parents about online safety, specifically as it relates to blogging. Document attendance at these sessions and provide handouts. Encourage students to use pseudonyms instead of their real names on their blogs, to never divulge personal information including their email address, phone number, and address, etc. Find more information and resources to share on www.getnetwise.org

Above is a set of guidelines that provided me with some of the most useful and concise information about safe blogging.  After reading this some of my fears my be alleviated.  I think clear communication outlining expectations and the intention of the blog will help make a classroom blog more successful. 



http://www.wtvi.com/teks/04_05_articles/educational_blogging.html

Blogging in the Classroom

Using a blog as an aid in the classroom is one more way to enhance learning.  Do I agree?  The jury is still out on this resource for me.  I see that blogging can be an extension for writing, a useful tool to communicate with students.  The students would be able to communicate with each other as well as communicating with parents and other family members.  The down side, privacy.  Some of the blogs that I looked at shared biographies of the children in the teacher's class.  As a mother, this falls in the stranger danger category.  I know that there are safe guards that can be used.  What about the shy child that has a hard time commenting, blogging could be a safe area or one more pressure. 

I had a great time looking at other blogs,  I found myself pausing at blogs aimed at educators. 


http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogs-in-education.html

Mr. Downs has created this blog with the intention of it being a place for him to write every day for half hour every day.  Below is a little snippet of some of the information he shares with others.

A blog is a personal website that contains content organized like a journal or a diary. Each entry is dated, and the entries are displayed on the web page in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent entry is posted at the top. Readers catch up with blogs by starting at the top and reading down until they encounter material they’re already read.

http://learninginmaine.blogspot.com

This may be one of the favorite blogs I found and I encourage you to visit this blog.  One part of this blog that was nice for me to take a minute and watch was the video presentation from Diana Laufenberg.  Worth your time.

http://edtechlife.com

This blog is a great resource for using technology in the classroom. Many links and very useful information.  I can spend hours learning from this blog and plan to do so.