Teachers Using Blogs for Professional Development

Blogs are great tools that teachers can use for their own professional development. When it comes to new teaching techniques, blogs are a great way to read about a technique and how it worked out in other teacher’s classes. Let’s say that a teacher just learned about a wiki and wants to find out how well it works in a classroom. Before teachers use it in their own room, they can go to different blogs and read about other teacher’s experiences using a wiki. So, blogs can be used as resources when it comes to debating whether or not to try something new in a classroom. Blogs are a great way for teachers to glean new ideas to use in their classrooms.
Teachers can also use blogs for support. A teacher is able to write about their feeling, frustrations, and joys that come with teaching. When blogs are used for this reason, many people can read about a teacher’s personal experience and respond to it. There are other teachers, professionals, or people who can give suggestions or just relate to that teacher.
Lastly, teachers can use blogs as a journal of what they are doing in the classroom. This can be a tool that they use for professional development because other people can respond to what they have written. They are able to get feedback and suggestions about teaching.
In conclusion, these are only three ways that blogs can be used for a teacher’s professional development. There are endless ways that teachers can use blogs. If anyone has any other ideas, I would love to hear them. One of the blogs that I read and find to be helpful is The Fischbowl and can be accessed at http://www.thefischbowl.blogspot.com/. Make sure to check it out. It is a great blog and I find many of the posts interesting.

Technology as a Teaching Tool

There are many great ways to teach students today, and many of the ways incorporate technology. So, here are some ideas of how to incorporate technology into the learning environment.
First of all, power point and word are the most widely used. Power points are great tools that students can use at the end of a lesson or unit to present the information they have learned. Also, students can learn how to create a movie by using clip art, photos, or videos. They can use the movie they have made to show their parents or friends what they have been learning in class.
Blogs are one of the most common and easiest ways for people to put their ideas, feelings, or knowledge on the Internet to share with the world. When it comes to a teaching tool, blogs can be used for the same reasons. Students can keep an online journal for the class, which can be a nice change from using paper and pencil. Also, students can take turns posting updates on the activities they are doing in class. It is a great way for students to feel connected to people outside of the classroom.
Along with blogs, pod casting and gabcasts (verbal blogs) can be used to for the same reasons. It is good to use gabcasts in the classroom for students who might be better at verbalizing their ideas compared to writing them.
When teaching students about plagiarism, it is important to give them resources that they can use and teach them how to cite their information. Creative commons is an excellent site for students where they can get audio clips, photos, and much more. Also, it is clearly stated how the students need to cite the items they use. So, students can use the items on this website to create power points, videos, or pod casts.
A scavenger hunt is also a great tool that helps students work on their computer skills, learn information, and have fun at the same time. Scavenger hunts are where students look up information about a certain topic, that is chosen by the teacher before hand, and they have to go to certain websites to find the information.
These are only a few pieces of technology that can be used in the classroom to help enhance learning. Also, when using technology as a teaching tool, more than one learning style is usually used which in return is very beneficial to all students.