Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Blogs in My Classroom?

In the course I'm taking, I've been asked to write about how I might incorporate a blog in my classroom. I teach high school math so the first thing that comes to mind is to use my blog as a place to post homework assignments, reminders of upcoming tests and quizzes and links to sights that students can use for review, extra practice or homework help. Also, now that I'm using a Promethean Interactiv Board perhaps there's a way to post the notes and examples that I gave in class that day on the blog for students that were absent or asleep.
Rarely does a day go by that some student doesn't whine, "Why do we have to learn this? The only reason you need to know this stuff is if you want to be a math teacher." One idea I have for my blog is to ask people to comment on how they use the math they learned in school in their personal lives and at work. Hopefully we could get responses from people from all walks of life or students could solicit responses from people in a certain profession that interests them. I do realize that this could end up backfiring on me. Is it worth the risk?

3 comments:

  1. Math is everywhere! This is a good idea. It would be interesting for the students to see how math is used int eh real world. How are you going to get the students to visit your blog? Are you going to make it a homework assignment and require them to visit it? Will they also be required to post or are you hoping other people visiting your blog will grab their attention and inspire them to blog?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think posting homework assignments or daily work for students who were absent is a great way to use your blogs, especially as the beginning process. This would encourage all students to check the site on a regular basis and to interact with each other as part of their homework assignment. My only concern with including outside people to contribute to your students' blogs would be to make sure other people's comments are always appropriate. I wonder if you could have all outside blogs emailed to you before you allow them to be posted on the class site. That way, you could be the filter or monitor for your students and their education. Good luck and I hope it all works out for you and your students.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm pretty sure there's a way to approve comments before they actually get posted to your blog. This would take care of the appropriateness issues. I might have to recruit people in different professions to comment on the math courses they had to take in college and what kind of math they now actually use in their work. I could make this a long term assignment and divide students into groups. Each group has to participate during a certain time period. I could also post links, that I happen to come across, on the blog for students to follow to get information on how math is used in different professions. Students could also be required to post on how they use math right now in their daily lives.

    ReplyDelete