Our elementary school was considered an “overflow” school for Pre-K through 5th grade students in H.I.S.D (Houston Independent School District
What we have learned in our Web 2.0 classrooms are the ease and practical uses of blogs in an educational setting. My idea for a lesson would be use blogs as a communication tool between my kindergarten classroom and others in the school district. The objective would be to record ourselves as a classroom and report on the day’s activities complete with weather report, day of week, etc. I would then upload our video to our classroom blog. As a teacher, I would partner with another kindergarten teacher located the farthest away from our school at a different elementary school in the district. We’d log on to their website to see their own weather report, and activities.
I would have students answer questions after watching the other classroom’s blogs. We could compare the difference in weather and activities. From these types of observations several other extensions can be created such as graphing, compare/contrast tables. We can draw the number of students in their classroom versus ours. The idea is to have my students understand that we are communicating with a school that is geographically “far” away from our campus and not next door.
I would also invite my students’ parents to post comments or ideas, and suggestions to the blog. I would want parents to be open to using technology and not be ‘weary’ of having students being on video. I think that it would also be important to change this assignment and properly coordinate with the other teachers in the district to make certain it becomes a success. I think if students get the suppport in the classroom and at home, it would build for great future lessons that would integrate technology.
I like the idea of inviting parents to post comments and ideas. It can sometimes be difficult to get the parental involvement we need for our students success. For many parents, this may be the perfect avenue to keep up with their students' needs if jobs and other circumsatnces may not allow them the opportunity to otherwise do so.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of having students share with another school! What a great idea! As a 5th grade teacher, it is hard for me to think of ideas of how to use blogging with kinders, but I think your idea is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteYou have a great idea presented to us. It's almost like having a classroom for a pen pal. It teaches the kids at a young age about blogging and the interaction that can occur. Hopefully you use this idea because you will actually find it fun!!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of students from different locations sharing information on blogs.
ReplyDeleteRecording the classroom and making a report on the day’s activities is great. The kids would enjoy that activity along with the weather report on the day of week. Have you used the Gimp weather technology maybe making a class 1 day weather video would be good. Posting parent comments would have a large turn out on the blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the ideas!
ReplyDeleteThat's a really neat idea! as small as the students might seem at that age they still have many capabilities beyond what's expected. Some are used to using face-time on there families Ipod. I'm pretty sure they would truly enjoy being able to make friends outside their school but around their community.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, blogs will give the opportunity to collaborate not only with your students, but with other people, no matter where they are located as long as they have an internet conection they get access to your blogs and they all can share ideas and provide feedback, I like the way you visualize blog utilization. great post!!!
ReplyDeleteDiana I liked your ideas! Especially blogging what the class did at the end of the day. This is a great way to reflect and let parents know what you are doing - at the same time they learn about the importance and meaning of reading, writing, publishing and technology like blogs. Super.
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea about using blogs with kinder class from another school. Sometimes we think that because students are young it's harder to integrate technology but I think you have given a great example of how to use it with younger students.
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