Endless possibilities!

Let me be extremely honest and tell you that when I first began this assignment - I wasn't exactly sure how a blog could be incorporated into a classroom. However, after viewing several examples of different blogs, I have found that blogs can be very useful in a classroom. There is an endless amount of possibility with blogging and many advantages in utilizing them in education.

I viewed blogs that displayed everything from rules and procedures to a song that was taught in class that day. The blog that I chose to take a closer look at was called A Duck with a Blog. I found this to be particularly fascinating because the creator of this blog took advantage of an extraordinary situation that happened on their playground to engage the members of their school community. The blog is about a duck that decided to build its nest on the playground of their K-8 school. The information contained in my blog is based on the information found within the duck diaries and you can view it at http://duckdiaries.edublogs.org/.

This blog does an excellent job of incorporating a natural occurrence in the environment and bringing into the classroom. This blog promotes the NETS Standards for Teaching in that it facilitates and inspires student learning and creativity. The blog contains information on the duck's condition as well as how they incorporated the duck's arrival into their curriculum. In 1a. of the ISTE's Educational Technology Standards for Teachers it states that teachers should "promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness." It displays children's artwork, songs and writing activities that were about Mrs. Daisy the mallard as well as reports on the current status of the duck. This model of creativity, won an award and because it was such a success the school now has a trout blog attracting some attention. This blog involves the entire school community at Marin by "modeling and facilitating effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate and use information resources to support research and learning." This education tool was used to promote learning inside the classroom as well as inspire learning beyond the classroom. I believe that is the job of every teacher to inspire or spark interest that expands beyond the classroom. This blog encouraged students to think about what would happen next, research general information about different types of ducks and promoted other concepts being taught such as life cycles, etc.
Not only was this particular blog inspiring to the students, parents and staff at the school, but I found it to be an excellent example and plan on incorporating it into power hour at the Boys and Girls Club. Providing that we would have access to a computer lab, each club member would be able to blog after they finished their homework. The possibilities seem endless. This is only my second blogging experience and I have learned so much already! I still have so much more to learn, but wouldn't my tech-savy teens be impressed!