Teacher Blogs

http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/


There are many different styles of teaching blogs, but I really liked the way Ms. Cassidy set up her blog about her classroom. The students became individuals on her blog, and each on of her students had their own personal page. On these individual students' pages their work would be displayed. I thought this was a great way to let parents see what was going on in the classroom, and also document the progress made throughout the year. Parents can look back at all the work and see where their child started and where they finished at the end of the year.

I also really liked the main thread of her blog. It consisted of major topics or exciting days covered in class. This further got the parents involved and allowed them to see what was going on in the classroom. If I was a parent I would feel very involved in my child's education because of a blog like this, and I would be more likely to help in the classroom because the blog promotes a welcoming atmosphere. 

Getting parents involved in education is a wonderful tool that can help enhance the learning of students. I think the blog format of Ms. Cassidy's blog promotes this collaboration with parents and that is why I would be likely to use this format in my own classroom. 

Website Evaluation

This website focuses on reading, letters, and site word. There are also a few games involving Spanish. The games are organized by grade level (K-5).

www.ABCya.com 

This activity helped me learn what elements should be contained in a reliable educational website and showed me how to look for these elements. I learned that looking at the "about website" page on websites gives a lot of information that can be useful in evaluation. I also learned to look for which kind of plug-ins are needed and the importance of these plug-ins when using and navigating sites. It is important to learn about the credentials of the author to verify the reliability of the site.