Third Week - blogs

This pilot project was proposed by my principal as a way to help teachers incorporate more technology into their teaching day.  The project entails me having less scheduled class time and more time to directly interact with teachers.

My reasons for doing this are changing.  Initially it was kind of a panicky response to the thought of our jobs in the district changing from mostly library to mostly technology (I can do technology!  Don't fire me!).  Then I took a class on PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) during the summer and got all excited about ALL the possibilities that exist using Web 2.0 tools in classrooms.  This was energizing but not very focused.

In talking to the teachers and observing what is and isn't yet possible in our K-5 school, I am LOVING blogs and classroom websites.  They enhance and utilize so many aspects of a teacher's day.

They can facilitate parent-teacher AND parent-child communication.  "What did you do in school today" becomes "I see you are learning to count by 2s. Let's practice!".  The parents who cannot volunteer still feel a part of the classroom.  It is yet another mode of making sure dates are remembered.

Writing!  Writing!  Writing!  Blogs are great for writing.  Many (most) of the ways teachers ask the students to write can be done with a blog.  Journals, discussions, challenge questions.  All can be done by a student on the computer posting to a website or blog.  For many of our students, who don't have a computer at home, these are critical skills for the rest of their school and work careers.  Any writing that is done on a blog gets two skills done instead of one.  Writing AND technology!  Win-win.

Teachers have a great place to reflect in blogs.  Personal blogs are amazing.  No one reads this one except other bloggers in my school, and I still think it is the most important thing I will do for this pilot project.  Any teacher on an evaluation year will have all their work and reflections recorded on a blog.  They can show week by week how it went, without sorting through papers and lesson plan books.

Sometimes I feel like a troglodyte in the blogosphere when I read about teachers that have been using blogs since 2000 and before.  But starting is important, and I am doing that!

There are other technologies that I love also, video being the number one technology that I could use every day all day.  

But I will concentrate on writing and blogs for a while here.  Knowing my focusing issues I may be talking about something totally different next week:)

Yay blogs!