Module 1, Assignment 2

    In this assignment, we looked at an article and different blogs and thought about how we could use a blog in our classroom.  I liked the fact that you could share materials, websites, and ideas with parents to help them work with their children.  Blogs could get parents more interested in what is going on in the classroom and help children share their work.  Also, for children in upper grades, blogging would help get them accustomed to typing.  Now that most SOL tests must be taken on the computer, typing and computer skills have become a necessity for elementary students.  Blogging could give them real life, hands on typing and editing experience without it seeming like a chore. 
     I could use blogging with my preschoolers.  Preschool teachers work with their children on prewriting skills.  Some of your higher students that have begun to write could type some of their own posts.  For those children that are not quite writing yet, the teacher could upload student work and type dictation into their blog for them.  Then, we could read their blog back to them.  This would be a wonderful prewriting activity for very young children. 
     Some of the blogs I looked at and loved where, mscassidysclass.edublogs.org, teacher tom, and Miss Erin's Preschool Class.  I loved the individual blogs that Ms. Cassidy had set up for each of her children.  Many parents would love to see this, and they would feel more included and invested within their child's classroom.  Teacher Tom's is a male preschool teacher from Washington state.  The picture on the top of his blog is of him dressed as a superhero with a red cape.  He has many wonderful ideas and projects for preschool teachers to use within their classroom along with step-by-step directions complete with pictures.  On Miss Erin's Preschool Class blog, she had entire themes along with suggested books, posted work samples, songs, and hands on activities that could be used with your children in a preschool classroom.  I will definitely refer back to these blogs and sites in the future. 

 

Sorry, I loved this.  I just couldn't resist.