Feb

3

Blogging in the Classroom- By Invitation Only

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Goals, Graphic Organizers, Uncategorized, Useful Handouts 

welcomeSince my last post about setting up a classroom blog and after speaking with my blogging consultant extraordinaire, Lisa, I’ve made some changes. As Lisa so astutely pointed out with the blog setup I’d chosen for my classroom blog, my students’ posts would not be private. Anyone could access the them. Given that I wanted my students in my Learning Strategies Class to publish their personal reflections on a variety of topics and issues, she felt that they might not be comfortable doing this if their posts were accessible to the entire net. I have to say, I think she’s right. My students would be more likely to share their thoughts with their classmates. than with the whole world. So, Lisa did some further research and offered me some other options. After some deliberation, I decided to go with WordPress because it offered the option of having a private blog where I could invite participants. The students would go to WordPress and register a user name, and then I would invite them to participate in the classroom blog. I can invite up to thirty-five students , so that’s not a problem. Only the students I invite will be able to participate in the blog. I want that element of control because I don’t want too much to have to apologise for!

Now, I am developing an assignment that would have my grade eleven and twelve students create a pamphlet aimed at kids in grade four and up on surfing the net safely. There’s an elementary school nearby, and we could distribute the pamphlets to those kids. I’ll get in touch with the principal and check out the possibility.

I’ll have my class do a placemat activity (see link below) to brainstorm ideas for the contents of the pamphlet and the rubric which will be used to evaluate it. Some of my students have younger siblings so they’ll appreciate the value of such a pamphlet. We’ve all heard the horror stories about unsuspecting kids and the internet. I’ll also have them post their reflections about the assignment on the class blog. I already have handouts for some of those reflections , one for before (see link below) they start the assignment and one for after (see link below) they have finished it. They can use the handouts as a starting point.

Graphic Organizer- Placemat

Handout- Thinking About the Completed Assigment

Handout- Assignment Planning

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