Wednesday, February 1, 2012

64 Interesting Ideas for Blogging in the Classroom

Image from 64 Ideas created by Tom Barrett 

Tom Barrett (on Twitter as @tombarrett) shared this presentation, 64 Interesting Ideas for Blogging in the Classroom. There's a wealth of ideas offered in the presentation. Of the 64 ideas, which ones strike you as most inviting? Why? How can these ideas be used to promote literacy skills?


14 comments:

  1. Some great ideas in there! I find it equally helpful to read other teachers' blogs to see how they use it, and model mine after ideas that I like!

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  2. After viewing this document, there were several exciting ideas that I was able to play with; maxmydream.com was new to me and I think it would be an amazing idea to engage students in "prompt" writing. Students will able to see their stories animated before them. I also like the idea of making the classroom Agreement public to parents as well as possibly sharing math videos not only for students, but for parents who are lost when trying to help with homework.

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  3. I love all the ideas there are to create blogs! The homework idea is great...however, you need to remember to update it daily! I also like how you can post videos that "sparks" student interest. Many of the websites and links I never heard of before, so I need to take the time and browse through the links and see what ones I can use in a Spanish class. But I love the idea of having these tips with the click of a button.

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  4. I have never used spelling city before, but after looking through this, I realized what it was. Lots of the colleagues at my school use it and I saw all of the different activities involved in it and thought it would offer great opportunities for my students to practice their spelling words.

    I also liked the whole idea about graphing and blogging about graphing. In my fourth grade classroom, we do a lot with graphing and looking through these ideas made me get an idea as to how I can use graphing to make activities more interactive amongst the students.

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  5. I love how there are so many options that you can try and explore with blogging. The options are endless and allow creativity to add a more personal touch. I would really like to add photos of my classroom to my blog and incorporate more student work as I feel right now I am using it as a new avenue only to communicate important handouts and information to parents rather than showing off student work and learning.

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  6. I thought the PowerPoint presentation was very useful! I think I would be able to create a blog to show students the vast amount of mathematical resources available for them. They love when I bring up in class certain math games or manipulatives. I try to stress that they can play with them at home too! Having everything in one place for students would help them from becoming overwhelmed. Being a blog, students can comment on what they liked or didn't like about a particular site or game.

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  7. I found several ideas that I think would be easily doable. My school just had our second exhibition night last night, so #9, Create an Art Gallery, would be perfect for our third exhibition night and have it on display for families. I liked # 12, Vocab Revision, particularly "Just Crosswords." Kids love puzzles and this would be a great enrichment forum. #42, Literature Questions, would be good to enhance comprehension strategies. Finally, #47, "Max My Dream," is just plain fun to goof around in!

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  8. I like Spelling City, I already use it weekly. My students play the games and practice their spelling words. I also liked the idea of the wordles. Wordles are word clouds that students create by typing in words surrounding a specific topic. It looks fun and I think my students will enjoy. I think the ideas of creating a Voki to embed into my webpage will be great and intriguing for students.

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  9. I really enjoyed looking at this PowerPoint created by people across the nation. There are some fabulous ideas for helping children to experience the world of blogging. I like the suggestion of asking students to create a survey on their blog, and then to have the students rotate from computer to computer. As they rotate, the students will answer the various surveys. The children will learn how to create a survey, but also how survey's work in general; everyone's opinion is taken into consideration.

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  10. WOW! Overload on a wealth of information. I can see using several of these in the classroom on a blog. I use a blog in my class as more of a conversation board. Posting their Wordles of their identity, or their projects and then having others comment on them. What a great way to get feedback on their work. Students have done Glogsters in my class and I was thinking of a way to have others view them, a blog would be a great way to do.

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  11. This was a great presentation. One that stood out to me the most was Wall Wisher. Just to start using a new tool, I quickly created one and the post was "what were one or two words that came to one's mind based on Blogging". Since I am not working in a classroom yet, I chose to post it on Twitter and Facebook to receive responses from friends and other educators. I'm eager to see what people have posted on Wall Wisher.

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    Replies
    1. @Rubi, be sure to return back to this blog posting to let us know what you find out based on your Twitter and Facebook polling? By the way do you prefer Facebook to Twitter or vice versa?

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  12. There were several ideas that I think sound and applicable to any content area. I particularly like the ideas about posting outlines of upcoming topics or lessons because it provides students with a way to become engaged with the material prior to starting a new unit. Students can also use this as a way to express further concepts within a unit they may be interested in exploring. Some of the other ideas presented about blogging that I found interesting were to add a wallwisher to the blog to get feedback from students about assignments. This feedback is really a great way to encourage students to reflect on what aspects of a lesson worked well for them and where they feel they would like to improve. They can also consider which strategies they feel helped them understand a concept. The literature questions seemed like an obvious one that I would use to ensure my students are actively engaged in discussions about literature with their peers in a way that may be more inviting for them.

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  13. I love these ideas! I especially liked #2, Publish Student Work. I am already planning on posting several writing samples to elicit feedback from other educators, as well as to gain new lessons/strategies to try to support my student's learning. What a great way to use technology to collaborate!

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