Blog post 19: Using video for teaching and learning

Blog post 19: Using video for teaching and learning

http://ed.ted.com/on/JxnQJrV3

I enjoyed learning about TedEd this week. The lesson I created deals with graphic novels. I found a video on YouTube that describes the qualities of a successful graphic novel. I like the ability to add questions so that you can check for comprehension. The option to choose from an open answer or multiple choice is also a great option. Multiple choice options do not provide educators with insight into what the students feel about a certain topic. Inserting a video into the lesson is a great way for students to learn at their own pace which helps to make the experience more student centered. I really love the Dig Deeper option where you can add additional resources for the students to explore. This is a great option for students who feel like they need more resources as well as students who are very interested in the subject matter. I can definitely see myself using this learning tool in the future.

There are many ways video can be incorporated in teaching and learning in the 21^st century classroom. YouTube provides a vast amount of resources on virtually every subject matter created by others and made available online. Many times if my sophomore students are unfamiliar with words in our novel we will look it up on google and find a related video on YouTube. This is a great way for students to not only read the word but to be able to see it as well.

Students could make videos for various purposes in the 21^st century classroom. In my sophomore English, Reading, Writing, and Study Skills class my students could create videos of chapter analysis to share with the class. This would be a great way to get different perspectives on the novel we read in and out of class.

Students could also create videos of their group assignments. This would be a great way to document the collaborative process and could also be used as a teaching tool for future students. Students could chose roles and post video chat questions to a group chat.

Incorporating video in the classroom is a great tool for students and teachers alike. Teachers can find videos on many different topics that can enable them to learn new skills and abilities that will help them to become more effective teachers. This is especially true in incorporating technology in the classroom. 

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

There are many ways Google Photos could be used in my sophomore English, Reading, Writing, and Study skills class. Students could look for pictures that match their definitions for vocabulary words. Students create vocabulary word documents that include what they think the word means, the definition from a dictionary, a synonym, an antonym, use it in a sentence, and draw a picture currently in my class. I think it would be a great benefit for my students to include photos from Google Photos for my students that do not have very strong art skills. Google photos could also be used for the students who do draw well to save their drawings from class.

Another great option for using Google photos is to create an album for writing prompts. They say a picture says a thousand words. Not everyone gets the same story from each picture. I think using pictures as prompts for free writings would give students a novel way to explore their writing skills. After students write their assignment they could peer review each other’s assignments and see what similarities and differences they had in their writings using a peer review form.

Google Photos is also a great tool in the classroom to show students pictures of items they read about that they have not seen in real life. When reading the novel Blue Bloods in my classroom we came across words that had no real meaning to students like, ascot. We looked up the words and then searched google to find photos of an Ascot. This process helped students understand the meaning of the word better. Another word we looked up is daguerreotype. Students were unsure of the meaning even after reading the definition. Once we were able to find pictures with Google We made an able in Google Photos to serve as a reference for future classes. Once students saw the images they were able to use their background knowledge to remember times that they had seen daguerreotypes in their lives or in movies.

Google Photos provides teachers with a great source of images to assist in building knowledge in the classroom. Different Albums can be created for whatever need may arise. Google Photos is also web based so there is no need to carry a certain device around with you. One can access photos from anywhere.

Blog post 17: Google Photos assignment

https://goo.gl/photos/CyxoV3YSFvMwimZSA

These photos depict the power of words as well as change. Change is important for anyone to grow. Many times we and our students find this process difficult. These quotes are meant as inspiration.

Blog post 16: Self-directed Learning using Feedly

https://www.edutopia.org/article/50-writing-prompts-all-grade-levels-todd-finley

I read an interesting article on edutopia.org about writing prompts. I liked this article because it provided different writing prompts for elementary, middle and high school students. Some of the prompts were similar to prompts that I use in my sophomore English, reading, writing, and study skills class and some were new to me.

 "You can save one object before your house burns down. What is it? What makes that object important to you," is a prompt I have used in my classroom. This prompt is great because it allows you to get to know what is most important or valuable to your student. I usually change the prompt to you can only grab three items. I do this because one item usually has my students saving their cell phones, lol.

One prompt I would like to incorporate in my Journal writing portion of my class is “What things do you conscientiously do to feed your brain?” I think this writing prompt will help me know what type of activities I can introduce my students to help them to conscientiously feed their brains. I will keep you posted on how well this works in class.

My favorite writing prompt I found listed under elementary writing prompts. “I wish my teachers knew that . . .”. This is by far my favorite writing prompt because my students all have different needs, fears, and insecurities. I have laughed and cried with my students as we read their writing out loud in class. They never cease to amaze me with their kind words for what their classmates share. This exercise builds a sense of community in the class.

http://2cents.onlearning.us/?p=5046

In his blog titled” A Couple of Things about the Election,” David Warlick discusses the differences in population density and education levels of voters in our recent election. Through his research he discovered that the denser the population was the more likely voters were to vote for Hilary Clinton rather than Donald Trump. He also noted that if the voter had some college education they were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. This affect grew with the amount of education the voter had. I am not sure how accurate his research is though based on the faulty polling information that we witnessed during this election. If his data is correct then it only shows how important education is today, especially in rural areas.

Blog post 15: Using LiveBinders for teaching and learning

 Using LiveBinders for Teaching and Learning

There are many ways teachers can use LiveBinders in and out of their classrooms. LiveBinders seems to be a great organization tool, collaboration tool, and a convenient tool to organize and access pertinent information no matter what subject you teach.

For teachers who teach more than one subject this would be a great tool to organize lesson plans for the different subjects taught. This can come in particularly handy if you need a substitute on short notice. You can simply upload documents that the substitute can show on the projector. It is also relatively simple to add links to content online such as YouTube videos or even educational websites that would help any substitute keep the students learning and engaged in your absence. This tool is helpful whether you teach pre-k or high school biology.

Teachers could also use LiveBinders for group assignments. In my sophomore English, reading, writing and study skills class I would help my students set up LiveBinders to keep their different assignments organized by tabs. They would have one tab for study skills. This tab would include websites to help develop stronger study skills as well as pictures the students find online that help them to create a personal study space. The next tab students could also keep the week’s journal topics up to date so that they could start early if they need more time writing.  The next tab would be their Reading tab. This tab would include sub tabs for character analysis, vocabulary, and chapter summaries.

I think one of the best uses of LiveBinders for my sophomores would be to create a binder named BEST WORKS. This would be a digital best works portfolio. Students would be responsible for uploading their personal best works from the class. I would meet with students once a month to evaluate their selections together and discuss the improvements made as well as any concerns I or the student might have.  This process would help students develop a strong sense of self and help them to identify improvement in their work. The best works portfolio allows students to meet with the teacher for one on one communication.

There are countless ways LiveBinders can be incorporated into your 21^st century learning environment. One great option for educators is to upgrade your account so that you can have Private Binders, as all regular account binders are open to the world.

Live Binders

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/2114261?tabid=b4be116c-d2c6-776b-f6c8-7fbff3296fa6

Blog Post 14: Final Lesson Plan Ideas

The subject my lesson will focus on is Sophomore- English, Reading, Writing, and Study Skills.

The learning goals for this lesson will be for students to use vocabulary that they have learned while reading their novel "Hex Hall" in different ways. Students will create a graphic novel of a chapter in the book.Once complete they will add their work to a class presentation.

Students are interested in the novel that we read in class. Students work with the novel vocabulary by defining the word, writing a synonym and antonym, using the word in a sentence, and drawing a picture. Students show a lot of interest in drawing depictions of the vocabulary words. Students constantly ask to share their artwork with the class. Creating a graphic novel will allow them to use their vocabulary in different ways while at the same time providing a presentation to their peers about what they got out of the novel.

Students will use Prezi to create their individual group chapter presentations. Prezi will also be used to create a class book presentation. Prezi is a web 2.0 tool that allows for easy collaboration.

Students will use a Pinterest board to upload pictures that they create about the chapter. Pinterest allows for shared boards that each member can add their contributions to.

I do not have a concrete list of activities or the chronological order they will go in yet.

Student learning will be assessed by using a project rubric so that there are clear expectations on each step of the assignment. Students will also be assessed by their peers with a peer evaluation form. One half of their grade will come from the peer assessment and the other half will come from their group project meeting the expectations the rubric provides.

Blog post 13 Helping a teacher use wikis

Helping a teacher use wikis

 Jane had an awesome idea to use wikis in her science assignment that would help students collaborate with their peers based on similar topic selection. One of the issues Jane’s students have run into is there does not seem to be a clear expectation of what group members are expected to do. This situation can be addressed in several different ways. One way to solve this problem is to set clear expectations with students about what makes an online collaborative project successful. One way this process could have gone smoother is to provide group members with specific roles in the group. The group should be given clear written explanations of each roles duties and responsibilities. Group members could read over the descriptions and chose roles they feel they can be successful in.


Students in Jane’s class to not all seem to know what the expectations are for the project as a whole. This could be clarified by presenting a rubric that shows varying points for different levels of completeness, Rubrics are a great tool for group collaboration because it provides all members of the group with a framework of the assignment. The use of a rubric for group work provides a fair unbiased assessment tool.

 Another way Jane could help her students to be more successful with their group project is to break the project down in to manageable chunks. This could be accomplished by having students turn in their research question. Once this is approved students could move on to turning in their hypothesis. Each step could also include a rubric that sets clear specific expectations. By providing the assignment in chunks Jane would be better able to identify groups that are struggling with different parts of the assignment.

 In Jane’s classroom there seems to be a differing degree of student knowledge skills and abilities. Perhaps one way to help Jane’s student groups to be more successful would be to group students based on their abilities on different functions required on the project. Groups could consist of a good communicator, a good writer, someone who is very tech savvy, and so on. When we create groups that have students that have different skill sets they may be more successful.

One of the major issues that seemed to plague Jane’s group projects is a lack of communication between group members. One way to help students work well together is by providing a grade that is determined by the peers in your group. Group evaluation forms are a great way to set expectations for group members and a way for members to provide feedback about their peers in their group. A great editing checklist is available at readwritethink.org. Jane can use any of the above mention strategies for improving the collaborative wiki assignment for her science class.

 With the use of these tools Jane’s students will have clear expectations and an opportunity to evaluate the effort of their peers as well as how well they performed themselves as a member of a team.

 http://compus.uom.gr/INF188/document/Arthra_gia_ergasies/Using-wikis-to-develop-student-teachers-learning,-teaching,-and-assessment-capabilities-.pdf

 http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/

https://youtu.be/4nAnsRQx7-g https://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/Rubrics

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/editing-checklist-self-peer-30232.html

Blog Post 12 Section I: Learning from hashtags #DigitalCitizenship For this week’s assignment I chose the hashtag #DigitalCitizenship. This hashtag provides a wealth of information on how to safely and effectively use digital media for students and teachers alike. I was able to find several customizable digital citizenship contracts that lay out acceptable and unacceptable behaviors on line. I found this to be extremely useful because I have been incorporating many different types of digital tools in my classroom since beginning this course. Using digital media in the classroom allows for quick communication and this tool makes sure students understand the expectation for online communication for class work. In order for students to be succesful with digital media use there are specific skills they should master. An interesting informative read I found while doing my twitter research this week is an article about digital skills we need to teach our children. With the amount of time our students spend online or in the digital realm I felt like this is an important issue that may sometimes be overlooked by parents as well as educators. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/8-digital-skills-we-must-teach-our-children/ One great resource I found was an article about the 8 digital life skills all children need. I really liked this article because it not only provided digital life skills but it also provided instructions for how to teach these skills to our students. The article explains DQ or digital intelligence. This is a follow up article to the previous article that I discussed. I would put both articles on a must read list. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/8-digital-life-skills-all-children-need-and-a-plan-for-teaching-them/ https://www.commonsense.org/education/teaching-strategies/dealing-with-digital-distraction-in-the-classroom?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=%23DigCitWeek,Dig%2BCit,Digital%2BDistractions&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Common%2BSense%2BEducation Section II: Ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning Based on the readings in this week, and my own experience in using Twitter, there are many ways of using Twitter for teaching and learning. I currently teach sophomore level English, Reading, Writing, and Study Skills. I can help my students improve their vocabulary by having them follow https://twitter.com/VocabularyCom. This provides a great resource for expanding one’s vocabulary in a simple effortless way. One way I think twitter could be very effective in my classroom is to have short chats on the novel we are reading. I could tweet comprehension check questions to my students and have them reply. This provides a great way to use technology when not in the classroom.

Blog Post 11: Using Edmodo for teaching and learning I enjoyed learning about how to use Edmodo for teaching and learning this week. I currently teach Sophomore level English, Reading, Writing and Study Skills. I have incorporated Edmodo into my digital learning environment this week. I like the ability to use Spotlight to assess where my students are based on state specific guidelines. Spotlight allows me to post in Edmodo and my students can take the assessment on their own time. This is very convenient for both teacher and learner. Once students have completed their assessment I can review the results and adjust my instruction to meet the needs of each student in the classroom which also helps me differentiate my instruction. I had never used Edmodo before this week. I really liked the ability to connect with other teachers online. I was able to find very useful writing rubrics that will help me more effectively teach writing in the classroom as well as in our digital learning environment. This rubric can be posted in Edmodo so students understand expectations for writing assignments and at the same time they have a key to evaluate their own work. I love the Quiz option in Edmodo and the ability to create many types of questions. I posted a quiz about the novel we are currently reading. I could tell which students had been reading and which had not based on their answers and how quickly they attempted the quiz after it was posted. The short answer requires the teacher to go in and grade the response before the student receives full credit for the quiz. This is a great feature because it reminds me to check back often so that students receive feedback as soon as possible. I also like the ability to comment on the student’s response in the short answer portion of the quiz. Students tend to appreciate thoughtful responses to why their answer was correct or incorrect. Edmodo is also a great resource for parent involvement. Edmodo provides a digital tool for parents to keep up with what is going on in their student’s classroom. This allows for parents to have discussions about assignments and help students manage their time to turn in assignments on time. I am really enjoying incorporating Edmodo into my learning environment. I have received positive feedback from the students so far. This is a great way for students to collaborate and ask questions when they need help.

Self-directed learning using Feedly

In my self-directed learning this week I discovered Michael Gorman. In his article titled "STEM in all Areas…. Ten Ideas to Transform STEM from Nouns to Verbs… and Facts to Thinking" he discusses how limiting STEM instruction to the four subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math leave much to be offered in teaching students skills they will need to be successful in the 21st century workplace. Gorman discusses the need to incorporate all subjects and help students to achieve these desired skills through assessment with rubrics. I have found that proper use of assessment in the classroom makes the world of difference in helping students understand what the expectations are as well as helping them to meet their own goals. Gorman discusses the mode for teaching STEM is often PBL but this is still not adequate in helping our students to think critically and develop skills that will serve them in the future. PBL is a great tool for helping my students understand how important their reading skills are in every subject they take in high school. I teach my students to use context clues to decipher the meaning of text they do not understand. If all else fails add some technology. Most students have a smart phone in the palm of their hand. Don’t know what a word means? Just google it. There is really no excuse anymore for not knowing the meaning of a word. https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/stem-for-in-all-areas-ten-ideas-to-transform-stem-from-nouns-to-verbs-and-facts-to-thinking/ Another interesting read this week was "Suspending Students From School: Does it Work?" by Adam Gutierrez. I found the statistics stated quite depressing and even a bit reprehensible. According to research minority children are given out of school suspension at much higher rates than white students. Students who receive OSS are more likely to need to repeat a grade level and students who repeat a grade level are much more likely to drop out of school than those who do not repeat a grade level. One of the strange things is that research shows that OSS is ineffective, so why have we relied on it for so long? Gutierrez describes several research based alternatives to OSS. The goal is to help create a safe constructive learning environment for all students. One such method is Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports PBIS. My children's elementary school started using a PBIS protocol in their school last year. Teachers and staff praise positive behavior and provide signage to let students know what behavior is expected from them in each different type of environment in the school. In the hallways there are signs reminding students which side of the hallway to walk on and to be quite because learning is happening nearby. There are signs posted in the bathroom reminding students to use resources wisely and to always wash their hands. Overall the behavior issues at the school do seem to have minimized. I look forward to learning more about this program. http://www.edudemic.com/suspending-students

Prezi Presentation

Using Google Drive for teaching and learning

THE readings and activities this week using Google Drive have really opened up my mind to how I can incorporate Google Drive into my teaching repertoire as well as how my students can become more proficient 21^st century learners. 

  Google Drive offers a wide variety of options in creating content for both teaching and learning. I particularly liked creating a Form. I was able to create a basic Student Survey to acquire baseline information about my students and their study habits. This will be very helpful as my teaching year begins tomorrow. Students can use Forms to create surveys for research projects. This can help them efficiently and effectively gather data. 

I like the spreadsheet option that Google Drive offers. In particular I like that users are able to import data from several sources. I use class dojo in my class to take attendance and track student participation in class. Google sheets will allow me to have a simple forum for storing all of this information in one place. In the past I would have to email myself my excel spreadsheet each time I made an update.

 With Google drive I can log in on any device or computer and my information is at my fingertips. 

Google sheets is an awesome tool for my High School Sophomores to collaborate on group research projects. Students can check off activities that have been completed and these entries are color coated so everyone in the group knows who did what.  This feature is also available in google docs which allows for collaborators to work on a writing assignment together.

I think Google docs would be a great way for my students to write their journal entries. These entries can then be reviewed by a peer for improvement. Once the review is completed the original author can make changes to their writing for clarity and readability. Peer review is a great way for high school students to learn to give and receive feedback.

Google Slides is similar to power point but much more user friendly. Using Google slides provides a collaborative environment for students to work on presentations. This could be very useful in my classroom because my students come from high schools all over the city including three different school districts.  This awesome tool will allow for all students to actively participate in the creation of their final product.

After all collaborations are complete I can receive feedback on a Google Form that asks survey questions about group participation and quality of peer members work. 

Google Drive Survey

Using Pinterest for teaching and learning

Pinterest provides many opportunities to gather valuable resources for teaching and learning. I have been a Pinterest user for several years. I tend to find resources for my girl scout troop such as badge requirements, ceremony ideas, and of course arts and craft ideas. Last year this changed when I started creating writing boards to organize templates for my teaching. I was pleasantly surprised in how much I learned about resources for learning as an educator this week.

I found an interesting blog through Pinterest about three steps to becoming an organized tweeter. I do not use Twitter very often because it has always seemed like a more social tool than educational tool. After reading the article though I may just include tweeting in my classroom this year. The limited amount of characters allowed per tweet will allow for students to provide specific succinct feedback to the topic at hand. In her blog, "Birds of a Feather Learn Together: 3 Steps to Becoming an Organized Tweeter" Patricia J. Brown provides valuable resources for organizing tweets so that anyone can follow their twitter feed with ease. One of these tools is called Hootsuite. I really like this tool because it also allows for the organization of other social media apps like Facebook. 

Another great tool the blogger discusses is Storify. Storify is a website that allows users to tell their story through social media apps. I think this is a great tool for my students because it can show them the image that they are presenting to the world. This is particularly important as they begin to apply for college. Sometimes my students do not realize that perception is reality. this experience can be a great tool for positive self promotion.

http://msedtechie.blogspot.com/2014/11/birds-of-feather-learn-together-3-steps.html?m=1

Another great tool I discovered through Pinterest Boards this week is Google Story Builder. This tool allows students to tell their own story. I think this technological tool could help my students introduce themselves to the class. Students have choices on the characters they add, the dialog, theme music, and best of all it is shareable. Students could share their link on a twitter feed or in our class Facebook private group. I have noticed the more I incorporate technology into my classroom the more ownership students have and the higher the participation is in the virtual and classroom setting.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/google-story-builder-easily-create.html

I will definitely be creating many more boards for teaching and learning. Happy pinning to you and to all a good night.

Pinterest Board

https://www.pinterest.com/utepstudent/educational-board/

Here is my Educational Board link to Pinterest. I love collaborating on Pinterest with friends for holiday parties and with my students for study skills. The think I hate about Pinterest, is it is like a blackhole, once I go in you will not hear from me for hours. So many Pins...so little time.

Evernote in the Classroom by Lois M. Galindo

Let’s be honest there are limitless possibilities to incorporating Evernote in the classroom. What an awesome tool for the 21^st century learning environment. This is a great tool for Delivering information to students. Evernote can also be used for collaboration on group projects. Evernote offers countless ways to distribute information to students. This tool also provides a very user friendly interface to demonstrate concepts in and out of the classroom.

In teaching my high school sophomores reading writing and study skills I would use Evernote help students create notebooks for their different assignments. This tool will help students organize their assignments by subject matter. In their writing Notebook they can save all of their journal entries and research papers. In their reading folders they can save their character analysis writings as well as their chapter summaries. In their Study skills Notebook they can save documents that teach them effective study habits as well as photos of ideal study spaces and schedules for studying.

One of the great features of Evernote is the ability to set alarms or reminders for the notes students place in their Notebooks. Students can schedule reminders days before due dates on their rubrics to ensure they are going to meet their due dates. They can also use this function to set goals and see if they are achieving them in a timely manner. I would use this in my classroom to help my students with their time management skills.

Evernote offers a unique opportunity to combine the use of photos, text and audio notes in the same notebook. I would have students create a vocabulary Notebook to place in their reading Notebook. Students can add a photo of the word, define the word in text, and make an audio note using the word in a sentence. Working with the vocabulary in multiple modalities will help students to remember and use novel words more effectively.

Evernote allows students to compile many different types of notes in their Notebooks. The option to share your Notebook with others lends Evernote to be an amazing collaboration tool. Students can share Notebooks with others in their group. This provides for a very accessible way for students to share information and make changes to group project fairly easily.

These are just a few ways I could see incorporating Evernote into my classroom, The possibilities for organizing lesson plans and content material would be a whole other blog.

Evernote Notebook Lois M. Galindo

This notebook is an example of how I can save information for my class instruction.

https://www.evernote.com/pub/lmwhite150/firstnotebook

feedly feedback by Lois M. Galindo

     I found an interesting read by the author of our textbook. Many times we think of ourselves as teachers but are we also learners? In his blog, titled “Cultures of Perpetual Learning, “Will Richards describes the culture that AT&T has created in their business that if you do not continue to learn and develop new skills you can and in many cases will be left behind. He provides evidence that employees at AT&T spend 8 to 10 hours of their week on honing new skills that will be applicable to their job. He describes a career lattice versus a career ladder. He goes on to explain that in the 21^st century workplace we must acquire new skills and abilities constantly so that we are considered valuable. This makes a lot of sense to me because how can you possible teach if you are unwilling to learn?

    The next reading I found helpful for educators is “Setting Classroom Expectations “ by Adam Gutierrez. Many times teachers make a list of rules and expect students to follow along like robots. In this article Gutierrez describes developing expectations fro students, parents, and the classroom as a whole. Gutierrez hits the nail on the head when he talks about having students actively participate in developing the classroom expectations. This is a skill I learned from girl scouts. Each class I had comes up with a Group Agreement. This is accomplished by asking the students open ended questions about what they expect to get out of the class. These expectations are then managed by discussing the curriculum that must be covered. Then students are able to add their goals into the curriculum as a group.  Once we know what we will be doing we discuss they ways we should interact in the classroom setting as individuals and as groups.

     Suggestions are given by all student. Suggestions that are agreed upon by the group are added to our group agreement. We discuss that the group agreement is a living document and nothing is set in stone. If students or the teacher have suggestions to add at a later time the suggestion is brought up, debated, and agreed to or not.

When we make students an active participant in their education they become lifelong learners and develop 21^st century skills they need to be successful in the workforce.

The other articles I found interesting discuss project based learning and the different ways of implementing this process in to your curriculum.

http://willrichardson.com/cultures-perpetual-learning/

http://www.edudemic.com/setting-classroom-expectations/

http://www.edutopia.org/article/celebrate-national-park-centennial-project-suzie-boss

http://www.edutopia.org/practice/wellbeing-developing-empathy-emotional-awareness-and-agency

http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-school21-well-being-progression.pdf

Journal Blogging by Lois M. Galindo

For my high school sophomore students enrolled in The Upward Bound program I would use Blogger for their English, Reading, Writing, and study skills course. The three purposes discussed in this week’s readings (distribution, discussion, and demonstration) can be demonstrated through blogging exercises in many ways.

I would use the blogger format for distribution by posting a calendar and syllabus on my blog so that students and parents are aware of due dates ahead of time and can use their time management skills to start assignments ahead of time so they are not late. Distributing due dates and assignment requirements ahead of time offers students flexibility in when they start their assignments. This also provides ample time for any questions the students may have about the assignment.

I would use the blogger format for demonstration y having students blog their Journal entries. I would put this practice in place by having students submit journal topics they are interested in writing about. I would then collect all responses and randomly select topics weekly. Students would have the opportunity to write their journals on the blog and include video and photos. Students could place video content rating the topic and the level of difficulty they had writing about it.

I would use the blogger format for discussion purposes by requiring students to respond to three classmate’s blogs. These classmates could be assigned by the teacher to have students who are strong in certain areas of writing assist their peers in becoming stronger writers. Students could also select the classmates they would like to respond to. Students could also use video or text to respond to their peer’s journal submissions. This process would provide for a rich opportunity for students to discuss their work and make improvements based on feedback from the teacher and peers.

Blogger provides a real time opportunity for students to create content, receive feedback, and maintain a portfolio of work for a particular class. This format is an invaluable tool that allows students to put personal touches on their writing, While at the same time receiving feedback from their teacher and peers from the classroom. Students can add pictures of what the writing reminds them of or makes them think about. Video can be added from YouTube about the subject matter or original content can be created by the student and posted on the blog. Blogging assignments provides students with real world skills that they can develop and use in the future.