Just like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz who sang "If I only had a brain," I have been thinking about the uses of a blog. Recently at the dinner table, I said to the family, we should have a blog just to keep track of the stuff we do throughout the year . . . like the date we planted our vegetable garden last year, or when we had the first measurable snowfall, or the first day we jumped into our pool. After all, 365 or so days between an event that happens only once a year makes it hard to remember stuff! This led me to think that the same principle would apply to my classroom . . . keep a blog of the stuff I encounter on a daily basis each day of the school year, then read it back during the next school year just to remove any cobwebs and keep me on top of my game! Which then led me to think about other practical uses of a blog. In my younger days, when my brain was much more creative, I would have written a book. . . "if I'd only had a blog." I always wanted to write a book and doing it in a blog would be so cool--much better than pen and paper or typewriter!
So here's your mission for this blog post. Please comment and list as many creative ways you can use a blog. Also, if you were to create your own blog today, what exactly would be its purpose? And, I want you to start communicating with each other, not just teacher-student and student-teacher . . . let's start communicating student to student as well.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
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5 comments:
If i was going to create a blog today it would be to communite with other people and get to know them. But there are also other ways you might way to create a blog like...maybe teenagers putting their thoughts and ramblins online, hobbyists giving updates about their intrestes and passions, and people staying updated with friends overseas.
**Megan**
Some creative ways to use a blog; to involve people and take advantage of your knowledge. You could use it as a resource. In a blog you can tell your opinion. Maybe you could use a blog as a support system. For example, my dad has cancer, I know that he talks to people on blog sites that also have cancer. They kind of support each other and keep each other going. They give each other advice on what to do with all kinds of things. They send each other jokes to brighten each others day. I think he talks to other people who have cancer that knows how to help him, because they know what hes going through. People who have cancer in remission can talk to him because they know what helped keep them going and what advice to give.I don't get to see alot of my friends during the day so I would love to have a blog just for us to stay in touch and know whats going on with each other.
As the creative writing teacher here, I do a version of something we used to do in some of our classes to pass time (Don't get any ideas for doing this in class!)-- one person writes one sentence or so of a story, then the next person writes a little more, and so on. It's a group story. This would probably transfer well to a blog.
Mrs. Finn
Thanks, Mrs. Finn. Here's another variation of your idea which can be used when teaching email concepts. One person starts the email with the first line of a limerick then sends to the next person. Each person adds the next line of the limerick, using the "Forward" feature of their email program until the limerick is complete. The person who receives the final limerick gets to read it aloud, then start the next one. Yet another mix of technology and writing skills!
Thanks for joining in our conversations. Looking forward to hearing from you again!
Mrs. Spear
You can obviously use a blog for just about anything. Keeping track of things, a diary, discussions, opinions, surveys, anything and using a blog is effective and helps writing and many other types of basic skills. If I had my own blog I would use it just to keep track of everything I do. I think it would be amazing to look at what you did last year. I don't remember any specific days last year and being able to do that would be really cool!!
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