This year our first grade team decided to post homework on a website offered by Scholastic, instead of printing homework packets. Then, we went a bit further and began posting weekly messages and pictures. This was an enormous success. Although is it almost the end of the year, I am anxious to take this to another level and introduce blogging. I would like my blog to be both a showcase for class pictures and work, announcements, and include an area for comments on a weekly topic given by me.
My first thought is to introduce this simply through posting a picture and having the students use adjectives to describe what they see. Our end of the year writing prompt has students describing an object using their five senses. This would be a wonderful way to allow students to both give and receive ideas that they may otherwise not have shared. It allows for the, "Ah-ha! I didn't think of that word." moments. Because my first graders would be participating with an adult at home, it may bring forth more discussion of the picture itself and therefore, more vocabulary. It could possibly also serve to enhance discussions at home that relate to our classroom topics. In order for this to be a successful experience, I would introduce this during my center time in small groups. Utilizing my parent helpers, I would have the students complete one blog while with the parent, incase any problems arise. After the students felt comfortable and the expectations were set, they would then be allowed to blog from home. Of course, safety guidelines would be established prior to beginning. For example, the students would only use initials on their postings and content would be monitored by me.
Another idea I have is to relate the blog to our literature story for the week and focus on one of the skills from our text. Perhaps one week the blog would be to describe the plot of the story or a favorite character. Perhaps the next week would be to describe the main idea. As we got further along, children may want to post links to books with similar themes. There are days at school where we just don't have the time to carry a discussion any further-blogging would allow for that.
Due to the fact that first graders are so young, it will be extremely important to communicate with parents about the safety rules and expectations for the blog. However, I believe it will be very well received because it truly has the capability to enhance learning.
Wow! It is great to see that blogging can even take place at such an early age. More and more students are coming into the classroom with so much more knowledge of the use of technology than ever! I really like you idea about starting them with a simple step of responding to a picture using adjectives. I also think it is a great tool for you to bring in her parent helpers, not only for them to help the students, but for them to learn to blog as well. (Especially if parents will be working with their child at home.) I think it is so very important to have an open communication from school to home. Parents need to be aware of what their child is doing in the classroom and I feel that this is a very good way of doing that. My one question for you is "what if there is not Internet access at home? Will you give you students time to complete the assignment in class while there are parent helpers?"
ReplyDeleteWow.. you really have some fabulous ideas! This is great. Just make sure that when you post the pictures that they are lower resolution or else it will take you a long time to upload them. That is certainly a great idea. And, also make sure that the photos are not copyright protected. I like t use photos with students and I carry my camera around with me all the time. When the photos are my own, I don't have to worry about copyright issues.
ReplyDeleteVery good!
Dr. L.
I think, as we've recently discovered, a drawback for many schools using blogs will be access to the blogsite. Our school uses such tight security on our server that we are not able to access blogspot or many other blogs. A way to overcome that would be to see if our tech guy can open up that website for our use, but as we know, that is easier than it sounds. Blogging does work on my website at school which means that it is possible from certain sites. Maybe someday, when we become pros, we can open up a school website and link all our blogs to it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all of the great insight! I do have a few students that don't have internet access at home. Those students would be the first to blog in class with the parent helper. Since we also have time in our school computer lab, students could blog then too.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using the photos with my students. Photography is a hobby of mine, so that should be fun.
I'm in the process of having our one tech unblock the website, if possible. It may be easier to use that site you use. It sounds user friendly!
Amy,
ReplyDeleteWe have a number of teachers who have already set up blog sites for classroom use in the middle school setting. I have always wondered how this would work for students without computer/internet use at home. I like the idea of allowing them to blog before they go home. In my classes, at least half of my students do not have internet access. Do you have any suggestions?
My only ideas for students with no computer or internet access is to allow them to do it in class or if you have a computer lab at school, they could utilize that during open times. I know that's hard because you don't want to leave anyone out. Perhaps, if students live close to one another, they could be "study buddies" and blog at the student's house that has internet access.
ReplyDeleteI too have a younger grade and am going to be teaching an even younger one next year. I like your idea of using a picture and then asking them to use adjectives to describe it.My camera is never far from my hands and so I have a full folder of pictures downloaded to my computer that I can access and that I give access to students.
ReplyDeleteOn the point of how we make blogging accessible to all students I have found having a rotation system in the classroom works really well. I have four computers attached to one cpu by and xtenda box (ecellent gadget!). These computers are in thesame area and in front of a whiteboard. I post instructions, rotations of students, assignments and websites on the whiteboard and then students have all the information they need to use the computers each day. In this way every student has access and use of a computer at least once a day.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI loved your ideas. Like you, I also teach first grade. It took me a while to think of some ideas for first graders to be able to accomplish (especially at the beginning of the school year). I like your idea of introducing the idea of blogging at a center with a parent helper. I will have to put that in my future plans! Thanks for the great ideas!
Jen