Pacing

I've discovered pacing is an important part of the blogging process. By having several small assignments prepared with a future deadline in mind, students can work at their own pace. Assignments will eventually overlap, but this provides individual goals in a differentiated classroom.

Student Blogs

I have moved on from a shared class blog to individual accounts. Today the students set up their own blogs. They'll use my blog, our class blog, to check in occasionally for assignments. Their first post today was a Chapter 31 summary. Some were able to put their summaries into Wordle. They got a kick out of that.

The experiment begins...

Tomorrow I'll be using Blogger in the classroom. I'd like the students to set up their own accounts. I'll be posting assignments on our class blog. As a way of going paperless, I'll have them post their responses on their blogs to some questions regarding the literature. I'll use the comment section to post their grade, if they allow me. If not, I'll let them know discreetly.

I'm sure there are better programs for this kind of experiment, but I'll use it as an opportunity to "get my feet wet."

Believer

I am a believer in Twitter. A teacher's network is a fantastic idea. Follow me at BillSLRHS.

AnalyzeWords

Just found out about AnalyzeWords. It is a device that analyzes the emotional, social, and thinking style of your Tweets.

The link to the article:

http://www.good.is/post/what-words-reveal/?GT1=48001

Wordle

Just checked out Wordle. Used text from A Lesson Before Dying. Kind of neat. Might be interesting to have students paste their text into the box. Show them what I see- gonna, thier, defiantly, etc.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1370574/ALBD

#i3cs21

New Ideas

Ideas are percolating. I have figured out a way to get my students to the site by posting their photstory projects there. Now, what can (or can't) I do once they are there?

Percolating, percolating...

What next?

I've started a blog with my senior Eng class. There is some enthusiasm for posting, but less for actively using it as a tool to keep up with the readings. On one hand, I'd like to make it more interactive. On the other, I'm concerned about the lack of internet access at home for the students.

Kiva experiment

The “living context” method engages students in their learning. Jen, a teacher of the 4th and 5th grades, chose Kiva, a microloan website used by entrepreneurs from developing countries around the world, to bring numbers to life for her young pupils. Jen’s student soon began helping people with loans all over the globe. The only catch? They had to justify their decisions using some “pretty complicated numbers.”

Jen chose GDP, AIDS and population, literacy rates, and life expectancy as statistics for her young students to mull over. It wasn’t long before the students became emotionally tied to the numbers. Through this Kiva exercise her students gave loans to those who were affected by AIDS and lower literacy rates. The children felt empowered by giving to those in need.

By engaging her students emotionally, Jen brought warmth to the “cold world of mathematics.” She was able to cover learning objectives and now finds herself “actively seeking engaging, relevant, and emotional contexts for all of [her] teaching in Math.”

New Class

Just getting started here.