Hi,
Blogging!!!! It is a whole new world for me to explore! I feel as many of my students have told me they feel on the first day of school...a little excited, a little scared but willing to give it a try! As a teacher in an elementary school, the world of blogging has not really been used as an educational tool. Although we are a considered a "tech" school, the staff, for the most part, is what educational theorist Marc Prensky calls "Digital Immigrants". Most of us were not surrounded by technology growing up. But even though a large majority of our students are considered ESL, they have an ease with technology that amazes me. Technology has the ability to "level the playing field" so to speak. The pride and confidence a student has displayed when showing me how they have found some interesting information on a topic we have discussed in class, or a site they want to share with classmates transcends all languages. This is the world that most of these students can delve into without the feelings of self doubt and uneasiness (which I often have!). As a classroom teacher with a high proportion of students at different stages of English Learning, I would love to link my class to another in South Asia where most of my students' families originate from. I think to be able to converse in both their native language and in English would expose all the students to a very rich learning environment.
I often bring in articles I have clipped from the newpaper or talk about the latest news item I've heard on the way to school. I think to start a blog where the students would contribute news items, whether it be world news, local or school news would be an exciting way for them to share their thoughts, feelings and opinions. I also think that a blog would be an excellent way to open the schoolroom up to parents. Many of our parents feel shy about their level of English proficiency. To have a class blog would probably be a more effective way to communicate with them than our monthly newsletters. To have the students contribute or post their work, with a brief description of what it's about and how they did it would probably get more attention from the parents than getting one more piece of paper with endless information that schools are infamous for generating! Just as the cartoon portrays.....there are "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants"..... but the twain may meet at suzanne-justlearning! Let's keep our fingers crossed!
Suzanne
4 comments:
Suzanne,
I think your idea about hooking up your students with one or more classrooms in SE Asia sounds intriguing. The key to success there would be careful planning of exactly what the exchange of information would be. I'm sure that you can think of many possibilities.
Regarding the technological expertise of many of the students, that used to worry me when I first started teaching about computers in f2f university classrooms, but I soon discovered two things:
1. We all benefitted when those who knew more helped out those who knew less including me.
2. Everyone seems to know just a piece of the puzzle, but working together, we could create a great scene!.
Dr. Burgos
Suzanne,
Don't worry, I am very new to this too. I have not used blogging in my classroom yet either, but it does sound like a very useful tool to use. I loved the ideas you had for your elementary classroom, especially to use blogging to better communicate with parents. I think this would be beneficial at any level and in any school.
Hola Suzanne! I'm not really familiar with this whole blogging thing either but it seems like its really going to change the way we teach. I like the ideas you have about how we can use blogs. I have my students bring in articles and facts about specific countries similar to what you do with news articles and it would seem like a much more interesting thing to do online.
Carolina =)
I'm not too sure how I feel about blogging in elementary schools but once they're in the upper grades, it changes.
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