Blog Post #12

This blog post has obviously thrown me off because I'm a week behind completing it. I had NO clue what to do, and seeing how awesome and creative everyone else's posts were didn't help. Then, finally it hit me. I need to do an assignment on the thing that I was so confused about in a previous blog post...How To Create Your First Class Blog. So, here it goes.

Assignment: My First Class Blog

Instructions: With a focus on your subject, or sport if you'd like, think about how you could incorporate a class blog into your future classroom. Read Step 1- Create A Class Blog. You can also read Check Out Class Blogs! to see a list of educators class blogs around the globe. All of this information is found on The Edublogger. Search this site, and come up with a theme and maybe some potential assignments you would give your class. Write 2-3 paragraphs reflecting on what you've learned and discovered about starting a class blog in your future classroom.


My First Class Blog:
The Edublogger.com website was so informative. It tells you how to develop your own class blog. It even breaks it down to forming a URL and usernames. These are all areas that were intimidating to me, and made me feel that I couldn't do a class blog of my own. The advice given sounds just like something Dr. Strange would tell us....take time to check out other educators blogs- EXPLORE and DISCOVER (both have been common themes of EDM 310). The website takes you through 9 steps to creating your own class blog. This is exactly what I needed. It talks about forming rules and guidelines for student blogging. The steps even include how to add students to Google Reader and blogroll. These are all areas where I really wasn't sure how it would play out it my future classroom. Now, I have a better understanding of how to literally 'build' my first class blog from the ground up.

I loved that Sue Waters, the Edublogs Support Manager, even lefter her twitter account up so you could send questions at any time. Not only are they telling you how to do it, they are also there to help (again, very familiar to how we function in EDM 310). Now that I feel like I have the actual instructions to run a class blog, I feel more confident having one in my future History classes. And, even as a coach, I could easily manage a Team Blog. In my History classes, I could ask questions relevant to the wars, Presidents, etc that we are discussing in class. On my Team Blog I could give the players a forum to write reflections on game situations, ask questions regarding different plays we've learned in practice, and keep constant conversation going with players and coaches. Blogging is a very cool too. I've enjoyed it in EDM 310 as a student, but until now I haven't felt like I could run it as a teacher, like Dr. Strange does for us.