Reader's Theater Video

*Parent Compliance on file for all students pictured.

Picnik...Awesome!

From Thailand

Pictures from My Trip

Highlights from exploring the jungles of Thailand on an elephant, and my trip to the Great Wall of China.

Google Reader

I feel like Google Reader will be a beneficial tool for me as an educator.  It is a way to have all the blogs that I like compacted into one space.  Rather than needing to visit each individual blog, I will be able to stay up to date with Google Reader.  As I find more blogs that I like, I will be able to keep up with them more effectively.

Diigo...

How have I not known about this before now?  I finished setting up my Diigo account, and I really like the tools it offers.  I LOVE the capture and highlighter options.  I am excited to find ways to use this in my classroom; as well as, to store great websites I find when doing research for lessons.

Blogging in the Classroom

One of the biggest reasons I can think of to use blogs in the classroom is for a fast, easy reflection from students.  In my classroom I have used blogging as a way to gather feedback from students on the success of different lessons, to gauge understanding of content, and also to learn more about the students in my room.  Through a quick blog post from my students, I was able to gain valuable insight into the comprehension of a new math concept that was introduced during instruction.  I spend a great deal of time thinking about how to do things better, and using a blog to gather feedback was very beneficial to how I taught my students.  My only wish is that I had used my classroom blog more consistently throughout the school year.

In addition to being a powerful reflective tool, blogging can be an outlet for students who don't really like to write.  Students think that when they are typing a blog post, they aren't writing.  They don't realize that expressing thoughts and ideas through a blogging is sneaking the writing past them. :)  Students enjoy the instant publication of their thoughts on a blog after they click "submit." 

I am sure that I will find many more as I continue to search, but here is a blog that I found that I like.  I like how this teacher was able to balance the use of content related, and non-content related, posts throughout his school year.

Here is the link: http://blogs.dalton.org/edinger/

I am hoping to use my classroom blog more consistently, and more effectively this year.  My reasoning for posting the link is to help keep me accountable for using it more often. :) 

Here is the link to my classroom blog:  http://branson.k12.mo.us/blog/clarkt/