Blog post #2

Dear Students,

This year we will be using blogs as an exciting and new way to communicate with each other, as well as with others from around the world.  While it is exciting, I would like you to be aware of the following things in order to keep you safe.

·         Never offer any personal information including your last name, contact information, home address, phone numbers, school's name, email address, last names of friends or relatives, instant messaging names, age, or birth date.

·         Never post provocative pictures of yourself or anyone else, and be sure any images you provide do not reveal any of the previously mentioned information. Always remember to look at the background of a picture too.

·         Assume what you publish on the web is permanent. Anyone on the Internet can easily print out a blog or save it to a computer.

·         Use blogging provider sites with clearly stated terms of use, and make sure they can protect the actual blogs, not just the user accounts, with password protection. (Even so, it's better to assume anyone can see it.)

·         Avoid trying to "outdo" or compete with other bloggers.

·         Keep blogs positive and don't use them for slander or to attack others.

Link to  Blogging Safety

                                           3 Ways To Use Blogs In Your Own Teaching

1.) Journaling- First off, using blogs to journal can be an effective way to engage your students actively in writing.  Seeing the jet- set society that we live in, and considering how our students are surrounded by technology, logging onto a computer to journal is typically a more attractive alternative to writing in a notebook.  A benefit to both the teacher and the student is that a blogspot can serve as a filing cabinet.  That’s right! No more “ I left it in my locker”, or “Can I bring it in to you tomorrow?”  Blogspots offer an accessible and user friendly approach to journaling.

According to the NYS ESL standards, journaling would fulfill STANDARD 2: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression.

2.) The development of expertise in a particular subject-  If a teacher were to assign a research project in which some of the students  had similar or the same topics, blogging could be a way to share information, clarify, and further analyze, as they work together collaboratively to progress as experts in an area.  It could be a requirement that each student had to make a certain number of posts on another person’s blog with the same topic.   In addition to looking at information, written work could also be evaluated – as a means of peer review/editing.

According to the NYS ESL standards, the development of expertise in a particular subject would fulfill STANDARD 3: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for critical analysis and evaluation.

3.)Communicating with others outside of the class-  Using blogs as a way to maintain the critical relationship between the school and parents is another way that blogs can facilitate communication in an around the school.  While not all parents may be as tech savvy as some, I feel it would have to be a supplemental form of communication at this point, in addition to newsletters that go home.  The benefit, though, it would be accessible instantly to parents, covering special news, and important events.

In addition to communicating with parents, something which I would personally like to try is using a blog for penpals.  Having connections with schools in Central America, I think it would be a great way to share letters, pictures, and even video, making the lengthy waits and uncertainty of penpals something of the past.

According to the NYS ESL standards, communicating with others outside of the class would fulfill STANDARD 5: Students will demonstrate cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.

Link to ESL standards - Link to ESLStandards