Ms. Mordoh - Blogging
One of the workshops we did early on was about blogging. This captured my attention so totally that I dropped all plans to have my students work on individual websites and decided to run everything, journals, projects,comments, portfolios, through their own blogs.
To begin, I started a blog for each of my classes. In each blog I put information and assignments. My posts contain links to forms I want the students to complete, videos I want them to watch, and how I want assignments completed. These blogs are the first place students should look for information. They are not my lesson plans, but rather a place to check about projects. I also use these blogs to display their work.
Next, I had each student create a blog as their portfolio for my classes. Since we loop (teach the same students for two years), have our students for both their middle school years, these blogs contain work from both their 7th and 8th grade years. Students can see their growth in both writing ability and their own maturation. Student blogs are a showcase for their assignments. Edison does Student-Lead-Conferences during which my students sit with their parents at a computer and show their work. An additional benefit is that relatives who are in other countries can see their work too.
In the 8th grade, students created a second blog on a topic of their choice. After checking out other blogs on their subject, they came up with a catchy title and created a blog to talk about a subject of their choice.
I even have a blog for the team of teachers I work with. We use this blog to showcase excellent work. Parents can see what our team is doing, and the students love to see their work displayed for the public to see.
My students have even created their own blogs that they share with their friends!
Blog Assignments:
- Research Presentations - Students picked a topic and posted guiding questions on their blogs for this Expository Project. They did research on others’ topics, posting the information and citation as a comment. The final project was a PowerPoint that they posted on their blog and presented to the class.
- They have blogged on their experiences at school.
- They blogged on topics their history teacher posted on his blog for a grade in both our classes.
- They post information about the books they have read.
- They have filmed and edited videos and added them to their video page.
- They have created podcasts and attached them to their blogs.
- They have posted essays and poems that they have written.
For an example, please check out Drucilla's Blog.
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