Keeping current with the ning and blog sites that I have allotted time for has given me so many new ideas and applications to introduce almost daily in my classroom. This allotment of time (one planning period per week) is keeping me current on my professional development ideas. I am also carving out time to participate in online professional developments that are more particular to my classroom that what my district physically offers. Discovery education has become a favorite of mine for new resources and technology grants.
I am still working to get a distance classroom (Moodle) up and running. In the mean time I have created a classroom blog page instead of a website because I have found it easier to have feedback and participation from students and parents from outside of the classroom. My students love showing off to their friends and families when their artworks or projects make the headline. They also love connecting with one another beyond our four walls.
As stated in my previous update posting these goals are not ones to be met, but to be extended into new goals and to ultimately become a way of life in my classroom. I have created a time and space to work with digital storytelling via ePals. My students are also signed up for a community mural project and will be skyping with other students in the community to review their experiences. I feel this will give them a truly authentic audience both close to home and afar. I will also be soon initiating the problem based learning unit involving the leaning tower of Pisa, that is in the works. With this my students will use webquests, blogging, collaborative presentations tools along with critical thinking to repair their own learning tower of Pisa on a fixed budget. I can already tell from the current responsiveness that this will be a highly motivated learning project!
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteWow, you have taken on so many great projects. It is no wonder your students are highly motivated. I like your idea of using a classroom blog as well. It's great to include parents whenever you can. What a neat way to display student work, especially for students who have family members that don't make it into school very often or who live far away. Is your blog a page that you solely make posts on or will you eventually allow your students to blog from your page as well?
Wonderful ideas!
So far I am using the blog as a sort of digital newspaper, where I let parents know what is going on in our classroom and highlight student work. But I would like it to evolve where students can write articles and upload videos and such as well. Thanks for the response!
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYour classroom sounds so engaging; a place where students really do think. I also love Discovery's United Streaming, as it full of professional development for teachers, as well as great content videos for students. Our district has a contract with Discovery, and we have full access to it in the classroom. So do most of your parents have internet access? Only half of my 30 parents have internet service (I work in an impoverished community).