Blogging

Blogging in the classroom

I know it's weird I'm writing a blog about blogging. But this is a more specific blog post regarding the usefulness of blogger as a tool to use with my classes. I have 2 classes I am currently working on Blogger with two classes in different ways my for junior blog I'm doing the blogging and sharing their work and what is going on in class with them and their whanau. For my seniors they are doing the blogging themselves.

Junior school blog

The junior school blog started off as a way for the junior pupils to have a space for rewindable learning. I realised every time I do an experiment in class the students ask questions as I go so actually putting those on a video is quite useful sometimes. Last week I tried a different method I filmed the video before class and gave the students a link to the blog and a worksheet. They really loved it and it gave me more time to answer individual questions and support students with their individual needs. I think this actually may be the way forward, losing the teacher talking at the front and spending more time individually with students. It's kind of blown my mind a little, it was quite hard to not explain too much and just let the students get on with it.

Senior class blogs

I decided to let my senior students create their own blogs and try to empower them to build a positive digital footprint. I wasn't sure how well it would go down with the students as they are year 11 and they have been known to just stare at me like I'm a crazy lady. A few students have got into the blogs and have produced some excellent work. For them they are using their blogs as a way to supplement the work book they are using and to consolidate learning in class. Well that's how I envisaged they would use it. Turns out they are way more imaginative than I am and some of them have started to use it far more creatively than I would have thought and are producing some excellent posts. I'm very proud of this group of students.

http://leytopotato.blogspot.co.nz

http://charlottewhsscience.blogspot.co.nz/

http://katelynscience.blogspot.co.nz/

http://brookewestland.blogspot.co.nz

http://krisynlang.blogspot.co.nz/

http://palmerkalib.blogspot.co.nz/

http://charliscience.blogspot.co.nz

http://andrewbradley1.blogspot.co.nz/

http://amywestlandhighschool.blogspot.co.nz/?m=1

http://hollywestlandhigh.blogspot.co.nz/

http://tarmwestland.blogspot.co.nz/

http://beyoncescience.blogspot.co.nz/

Google for education, educator level 1

Google for education, educator level 1 training

So today I started the google education training today. I decided to start with the level 1 training course so I could find out what the course is about and have a go at completing it. The course is interesting so far I have done 4 of the 13 units of the fundamentals course.

I have learnt quite a few things although I think this course is aimed at teachers using google apps for education for the first time I have learnt quite a bit about features that I have never used. The course is in units, each unit is split into lessons. Thankfully they have given time allowances for each unit so you can plan how long you want to spend on the course. Each lesson is concise and gives links to websites and places to find information. At the end of each lesson there are multiple choice questions which you can mark as you do them. At the end of the unit their is a test to find out how much you have learnt. I have to say that some of the questions are quite strangely worded and I don't always agree with the answers especially when relating to teaching pedagogy (units 1 and 2). Some of the questions are also weirdly phrased which mean I have given the wrong answer to a question and I don't fully understand why.
Example of one of the questions

"If you wanted to create a space to share weekly information with all of the one hundred seventy different community mentors of your students, what would be the URL (not including https://) to use to get you to the google product best suited for this?"

I thought an answer to this question would be sites.google.com, as this is a forum I use to communicate with parents however the answer was groups.google.com. I know this is a useful tool however it's not something I use with my classes to communicate with parents or students. This is definitely a weakness on my part as from what I have seen it could be really useful to send out bulk emails and connect parents not just students. I think I have only scratched the surface with this as I mainly use google groups as a forum to ask questions and discuss ideas. Google groups in on the staff learning site but I have purposely removed the email notifications from the web forum as otherwise staff were bombarded with email every time anyone posted. Google groups is a great collaborative tool and hopefully I can use it to its full potential.

I'm doing ok with this so far but I am worried about the test ($10 to take if you were wondering), there are practice questions but although I understand the tools and I can do everything in the tasks I am so far quite rubbish at understanding the multiple choice questions.

Actually this fear of the test is really good for me, I'm dyslexic and always did quite poorly in written exams as a student (I have never completed a written test within the time allocation), especially as I didn't get diagnosed until I was 21. I am being reminded how many of my students feel on a daily basis and how they feel having to sit an assessment. Having a learning disability has never really held me back in fact I usually see it as a strength rather than a weakness but written test are definitely my kryptonite.