Curriculum connections - blogging

My Ideas:
1. Create a reference guide for the year's curriculum so students can access it at home. It will also open up lines of communication as they can comment back to the teacher on the blog if they need clarification on a topic.
2. Start a blog on class events and class rules.

Given:
Idea #1: Lead your students into areas of ‘big idea’ inquiry with a blog. You can get thoughts rolling, provide research links, and finish up with classroom discussions. Create one for the next school, local, state, or national election.
Idea #2: Start a book discussion blog -- it is a library and language arts favorite. Start one today and then branch out into other topics such as pro/con topics of interest.
Idea #3: Promote campus activities, conduct student surveys, and gather opinions.
Idea #4: A blog is an excellent device for home-school communications. Daily assignments/homework/special school announcements can be posted on your blog and then your students and/or their parents can “subscribe” to your blog.
Idea #5: A blog is an excellent forum for discussion of issues. Create one for the next school, local, state, or national election and discuss the issues of the day.
Idea #6: A book discussion blog is a library and language arts favorite. Start one today and then branch out into other topics such as pro/con topics of interest, student opinion surveys, or campus activity discussions.

Week 2, Thing 3: Blogging - Ideas for Implementation

The third and fourth steps on my online learning journey include this blog. First, I learned how to set up a blog (too easy) and now I am posting on it. I do have experience with blogging in that I set up a website for my musings during my pregnancy almost 2 years ago. Now I've got a cool little page that will show my little one what mommy was thinking as she prepared for his arrival. This blog here was easier to create, though. I can see using blogger to communicate with my students about topics we're learning in class. It would be simple to just create a blog before school starts with all the topics we're going to address that year. It could act as an online reference for them. I could use a blog site rather than a class website, which I've never quite been able to create due to the cost of hosting a website or the confusion of uploading a website into a free server (not to mention the scariness of not being able to choose the ads that go on your page...).

I think I'm going to create a blog this summer that will serve as a class website. It'll include everything from class rules to class news to content-related help by topic. :)

Week 1, Exercises 1-2: Starting the Journey

I've decided to delve into the wonderful world of Internet tools to enhance my classroom teaching for the next year and beyond. Using ctapcl2.blogspot.com, I am embarking on a learning journey which will help me explore myself as a Lifelong Learner and will allow me to evaluate a number of online tools and activities for their usefulness in my classroom. I will be learning to use new sites and apps. It should be exciting! I just had my first taste of online learning with a narrated PowerPoint introducing the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners and via the blog that guides me through this learning process.