I feel like as a future teacher, I would love to incorporate blogging (or any form of a sharing website) in my class. Even though my ultimate goal is to teach elementary school, I know kids are participating on the world wide web. Hello! They are probably playing on Club penguin as I type. I digress. I feel as a teacher we should always encourage our students to now only strive in the subject we are teaching, but to strive in expanding their minds. In the future I will be in charge in shaping young people's minds, so I feel I want to challenge them every week. So I would take a website that encourages my students to interact with any websites I find and then write about their results through our classroom blog. Each week on a Friday I'd post an activity, and then communicate through the blog if they had any questions.
My main goal is I want them to learn how to use technology to their advantage and how to apply math to everything. I also would want them to learn how to explore on their own and desire to expand their mind outside the classroom.
Flashback, I remember when I was in middle school and I was in a technology class. This class taught basic computer skills. The teacher had a website where we created student emails that could be monitored by the instructor. I believe the email website was called epals. The class used this email to ask questions to other students, or even socialize before class started. The teacher encouraged us to use this email everyday to not only communicate, but to perfect our typing skills. When I'm a teacher I will encourage my students to set an email up so they can contact me for math help, and this will also prepare them for the world of emails in college.
Here's the link to the homepage http://www.epals.com/#!/main
I guess as teachers we can either us blogging, emails or whatever communicative website we need to teach our students, outside the classroom.
I was just wondering if this is an actual possibility, I can see this happening.
Then again, there could be issues controlling students and keeping the blog academic based.
I like that you pointed out that they are probably on Club Penguin! I think that I often underestimate the technological abilities of elementary students. When I know that my 7 & 8 year old sisters are often head of me. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI know they are on Club Penguin because, I use to go on that website all the time when I was younger. It is an interesting and safe environment that helps them explore the ways of working on a computer, while having fun.
DeleteI like your idea of encouraging the students to email you with questions. There can often be so much distraction in the classroom that it is easy for students, not just those with ADD or ADHD, to miss something. By providing them with a way to communicate with you outside of class, it gives them a way to get information they missed in a concrete way that they can refer back to. You could even provide instructions for the homework on a website that the students could refer to for questions.
ReplyDeleteExactly, it is easy for students to get easily distracted, and it doesn't take that long to miss out on important information. Also with emailing the teacher, students can learn at an early age how to construct proper emails, by the time emails are apart of their daily routine, it will be second nature to them.
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