As a teaching professional, setting up a blog(s) would be beneficial in several areas. I would create a personal reflection blog where I would list tips, reactions to lessons or methods used in the classroom, share ideas and lesson plans with fellow teachers, and discuss current trends and issues facing today's teachers and schools.
Aside from a personal blog, I would also create a a classroom blog to allow parents to stay informed of important news such as homework assignments, class activities school events. It would also be an excellent avenue to display student work, highlight exceptional students, provide additional resources for student's to explore that compliment class activities.
For older students, a blog could also be a way to facilitate class discussions. Students could even be encouraged to create their own blog to record responses to books or topics, and post assignments.
I love your idea of creating a blog so your students' parents can stay informed and involved. All too often, parents are not involved in their children's education, and a teacher-led blog would be a perfect remedy. I think that it would be so neat to have an interactive, digital realm where parents can keep track of their children's assignments and feel comfortable communicating with their teachers. I can imagine grades would increase tremendously! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that your blog would include the different problems and challenges facing teachers.This would help other teacher to finally feel they have a voice, other than being program to do certain things.
ReplyDeleteThank you wordwhiz! As a parent myself, I believe that making the classroom as accessible as possible will increase parental involvement and also build rapport between teachers and parents.
ReplyDeleteShawlynn- thank you for your comment. I always feel that an active dialogue is the best way to work through problems and challenges.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how many of us are planning the same use for the blog. I guess parent connections must be a major problem for teachers. How much response do you think you would get? I know my kids use the internet - at least the older ones - for games and Twitter and the like. I don't know about the parents though. For them the computer and the internet may be a way of paying bills and not a social link
ReplyDeleteBill, from my experience most of my students parents are very familiar with Facebook and Myspace. The problems I see are that the parents too are consumed with these other social networking sites which they can easily access from their cell phones. Also, I will just put it out there that some parents are intimidated by teachers and would rather not communicate with us at all. I have heard parents say, "from 7 to 3 they're (their child) is the school's problem not mine!" So sad...but true story.
DeleteUsing a blog to display student work is a great idea. Since the traditional Parent-Teacher Meeting is inconvenient for many working parents, a blog with their child's work and the teacher's comments could provide the parents a means of tracking their child's progress.
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