Blog Post #1

I always thought a blog was a pretty silly thing. I also thought our first microwave was great at boiling water only. I have done some looking and have discovered it isn’t just a vanity project. I looked up the definition on line with Webster’s. Not my personal dictionary, it is a bit outdated. A blog is short for weblog used for writing and it can be interactive. Blogs are different than a vlog because of the video aspect. My thoughts seem to put vlogs somewhere between what I have seen on instagram and a podcast. Discussion boards seem a little dry or I didn’t look at the right ones. Websites are where I go for information I am looking for. That might be a good way to get content out to students. But, I’d like to see examples.

To help me determine which blog site to use I searched for the top blog sights. And, I asked a colleague. She used WordPress. She had links for different areas of content. I thought it would be between Tumbler and WIX. I chose to use WIX because it seemed the simplest to use. Also another coworker has used it. Their ads also work. Then, I saw the price. So, I went to WordPress. Looking out for my “affordances”

This blog site seems to be set up with affordances similar to a word document. I am familiar with word documents. I guess this will help me move my way up the SAMR model if I keep learning. It looks simple to add images or links. I will try that another post. (Simple, but I haven’t done it before. So, I’m a little nervous.)

Blogging seems like a techie way of scribing your inner monologue. I am sure it is more and will be able determine how it will help me as a student as the course progresses. Elementary students who are older could use it to help formulate or lay out their writing or gain confidence in their own voice. As a teacher I don’t believe a blog would be a good tool to use with my first graders. Maybe with parents if, there was an option to only let them see their comments and my response to them. This might be a good tool to use with colleagues. But I am not sure how at this point.

I could provide student skills, expectations and examples to parents. They really want to help their own kids some of them don’t know how or feel silly asking questions. For example, I could post about how students are expected to represent numbers; standard, expanded, picture and objects. Parents could reinforce what was taught in the class. We could build a better school home bridge to ensure students are successful. This type of positive reinforcement would keep students wanting to work towards high goals.

Wouldn’t this be cool if I could connect with parents at home and they would respond with questions and examples of what their child did at home that was connected to school. Using the idea of representing number and sending home expectations and examples via the blog students would be given an assignment to represent numbers they see around them in different ways. For example their house number is 118. They could take a picture of it. Then mark it up to demonstrate how they know how to use expanded form. Then turn it into a song or spoken work piece to convey the depth of knowledge they have.

That seems like a far fetched idea. Then again, I though boiling water in a microwave as far as I could take it. All it took was time, motivation and inspiration to increase my skillset. So it will be with increasing my skillset with blogs and technology.