Blog Post 2 - UEN Resources

I am from Wyoming, so I had never heard about UEN. It is a great resource, there is so much stuff on it. For INST 4010, I found my complete lesson plan from UEN, complete with extensions and all. It is on health & nutrition, so the lesson plan also had links to nutrition website and worksheets. It will be super helpful as a teacher (granted that I stay to teach in Utah). One of the cool features I liked, not related to my lesson plan, was the online guest speakers. As a teacher, you wouldn't have to have them in the classroom, as long as the guest has a computer and web cam one is set. Just invite the guest speaker into your UEN classroom and off you go. I also think it is just a good organizational tool for teacher. They can keep all their lesson plans and UEN's all in one place. This will also save trees, Go Green! I am glad we learned about UEN, so when I am a teacher, I will have lots of support, right on my computer. Thanks UEN

Blog Post 1 - Blogging in the classroom

The very first reason I think I would use blogging in the classroom would be to keep parents & the community informed. I could post upcoming events that parents can volunteer for, daily classroom activities, etc. I would make the class blog private, so only parents could view it and respond, this would be to protect my students. Another good idea to put on the class blog would be educational links. If we were learning about Bumble Bee's, I could post some safe secure educational websites and the students could do these activities in their spare time, but only if they wanted to. I saw one 5th grade teacher that had math games posted, he also had posted missing assignments. For instance, if you were missing math worksheet 5.3, he would have it posted and all you have to do is download it and print it. This is also useful if a child misses a day of school, all their work is on the class blog. Blogging is also a really great place for students to publish their work. If Billy wrote a really good story, he could post it on the blog for the parents and other classmates to read. Along with posting Billy's story, Billy could get feedback. What was liked about his story, what could be better, etc. I looked at a lot of teacher's classroom blogs and there is an endless amount of possibilities. But I think the best reason for having a class blog is to teach on the level of your students. Kids are really into technology & computers right now, why not teach them through their interests.

Hello

I am just starting to blog for the first time today! I just hope this works.