Saturday, October 17, 2009

Blogs Revisted

Hey, welcome back! I have been slacking on my posts during the football season. Since this is the last week of the season for my team, I am going to sneak in a quick post.

When I last talked to you, the topic was blogs in the classroom and how we could use them in our quest to improve student reading and writing. Since then, a couple of staff members have created their own classroom blogs. Let's hear it for Bob Toole and Lance Roark. Lance has actually created three separate blogs. One for each class he teaches. Students and parents can visit them to get their assignments or updates on what their students are working on.

Remember that blogs are short for "Web logs." They are an online journal of sorts that is updated periodically. Here is an example of my sister's blog. She lives in Denver and uses it to keep in touch with the rest of our family here in Michigan. The beauty of a blog is that you can combine text, links, photos, and video in a blog post.

For staff members interested in creating their own blog, watch the video below to get a review on how to sign up and create a blog, make a post, and add a picture. Blogger makes it easy!




There have been questions in the past few weeks on how to add video or embed You Tube videos into a blog. I have added a great video below that takes you through the process. Check out the mock rock video Bob added to his blog.




Another big question from staff members has been, "Can we blog from our own network without using something like Blogger? The answer is yes! Welcome to Sparta's "Learn Sites." You can visit my classroom wiki and blog from my Learn Site. WARNING: While both of these items can be extremely useful in your classroom, they are not as easy as a blog on Blogger or a wiki on Wikispaces. As my schedule opens up after football, I will be developing some "How To" videos to use each of them. To get set up with a Learn Site, contact David Marker.

Here is my hope for Sparta. Check out the number of staff blogs at Fruitport High School.

That is all for this time, I am off to football practice. Email me with any questions!

Thanks.

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