The
purpose of using a blog in my classroom is to give the students another
platform for showcasing their ideas and opinions about financial concepts we
cover in class. Blogs serves to enhance
as well as deepen learning. (Richardson, 2010). It can also can help advance
student’s reading by more clearly, being critical and analytical. In addition,
it would allow me to do something I do not, and that is provide my students
with a wider audience for their writing and expanding their audience also
creates an opportunity to develop a stronger relationship with their peers and
perhaps other teachers, parents and community members. (Richardson, 2010). A
blog is free your students to use and has a pasting permanence without the fear
of getting lost.
I
teach personal finance, SAT prep. Adding blogging to my educational teaching
arsenal is very worthwhile because I feel my students are being exposed to
financial concepts that they will not need at the young age of 15 or 16. I
believe that the most important people in their life at this point are their
parents, who are fully engaged with saving and investing their money and all
the caveats for being financially responsible.
One of ways I want to enhance what I do is involve their parents in what
they are learning during the day. Blogging will allow parents to subscribe to
their blogs, read what their child has written in real time, and most importantly
offer comments and insight making our classroom a collaborative space with
valuable input from outside our four walls. (Richardson, 2010). One
recommendation that I want to adopt is having student create infographics
through Piktochart for example, to support, enhance and highlight the ideas expressed
in their writing combining new and motivating reasons for students to write (Rogers,
2015).
Lastly,
incorporating blogging in our classroom will meet two distinct ISTE Standards
for Teachers, facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity as
well as model digital age work and learning (Standards for teachers. (n.d.)). If
students are given more choice as to what to write about they will become more
inspired. Blogging could be a part of what they will do in the workforce. For the students, two standards will be achieved,
students will feel empowered, having more say on what to write about and having
their responses be read by others as well as be knowledge conductors, producing
creative artifacts to enhance their learning (Standards for students. (n.d.)).
References:
Richardson, W. (2010).
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Rogers,
J. rogers. jonathan@iowacityschools. or. (2015). Five Easy Ways to Bring
Blogging to Your Classroom. English in Texas, 45(2), 38–40. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=111954149&site=eds-live&scope=site
Standards
for Students. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2019, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
Standards
for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2019, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
I love the idea of getting input from "outside the four walls." That's one of the great things about blogging, we can post our work for others to see. Just like in our online class, I am already learning a lot from just reading our classmates blogs.
ReplyDeleteAs you use your blog in class, do you fear that maybe parents won't be as active to look at blogs as you might suggest? I was thinking that students might be even more interactive with one another work than the parents might be.
Richardson touches on the safety of using blogs. Saying to make sure that students, parents, and even administrators are clear about expectations for using a blog (Richardson, 2015). I believe it is important to outline the main purpose of using a blog to the parents, so parents completely understand the importance of blogging and what it could do to enhance learning for their child. Once the parents are completely on board, we have just opened up another way to make students work more meaningful then ever before.
Reference
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
This is great, because finance is a more authentic learning topic for teenage students. I see memes on Facebook all the time from recent high school graduates in which they decry the fact that they went through four years of high school never once learning anything about how to fill out their taxes or other important financial tasks. Might I suggest using those memes to remind students of the importance of the tasks they are blogging about? A potential challenge in just about any class is getting students past the "why is this important to me?" question. By introducing students to these memes and then moving that into the topics you are discussing and blogging about in class, students can make the connections to real life. Another suggestion is to try having the students blog personal budgets, real or imagined, and then explain how they will manage the finances in a way that allows for their budget.
ReplyDeleteFrom mrscottb
Blogging is a great way to give your students an opportunity to express themselves. Often there are many students who are shy and don’t share their ideas. Blogging can be a way to get these students to participate. “What we need to understand is that shyness is a combination of emotions. It is derived from fear, tension, apprehension and embarrassment. Blogging can help students overcome these fears” (Teacher Hub. 2019).
ReplyDeleteReference:
Teacher Hub. K-12 News, Lessons and Shared Resources. 2019. Teacher For Teacher.