Learning Thing #3

The world is depending more and more upon technology, so it only makes sense for school districts and classrooms to do the same thing. There are so many ways in which a blog could be used in the classroom setting. A blog could be used to communicate to parents homework assignments are going on or to communicate important events that are happening in the classroom. A blog could be use as a discussion forum when you are reading a book as a class and you can have the students respond to questions, like we are doing for this assignment. If you are not reading a book as a class, you could post short quotes or stories, and have studnets react and reflect on your response. You could have studnets create and produce their own blogs, this helps the student work on their technology skills, writing skills, as well as communication skills. A blog could also be used to set up a modern day "pen pal" system in the classroom, students could communicate with students from anywhere in the world. Blogs can be used to discuss assignments, to do individual assignements, to do group assignments. Blogs can also be used in the school to discuss things that are going on around the entire campus, like when big events come up, or when the students have an opinon they want to share. The uses of a blog or endless, I would love to use it in my classroom, as I am certain my sixth graders would love doing it, I just have to figure out which method of blogging fits best into my classroom.

Learning Thing #2

Well I decided to keep the name of the blog and the address of my blog the same, so that they are easy to remember. I came up with the name "Mandy's Mailbag". Mandy was my childhood nickname and I thought that "mailbag" would be a good play on words, since posting a blog is kind of like sending a letter out to all of your friends at the same time. Settin up the blog was pretty easy for me, I wanted to create my own profile using html code, but it was taken to long and I was getting tired, so I just decided to use on already in exsistence --- maybe I will change it one day. Creating the blog was actually very simple for me, as it is not the first one I have done, I think that they are fun to write and to read. You can find and learn interesting things just by reading words that someone else has typed. The funny thing about the Avatar is that I already had one created from something else I was working on, only thing is I had to change the background and clothing to match the season, didn't really think that a wool jack and scarf would do well in the heat! I think that my avatar is a pretty close representation of myself, though I just recently chopped my hair off and highlighted it, so the hair is a little off. I chose to do one that looked like me, because I think it is fun to try to create a character that looks like you and defines you. I chose the flashy background, not to be flashy, but to have some fun with the avatar. Didn't one of the habits say to have fun?! I am really enjoying this class I look forward to doing and completing "more things"!