Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay. Teaching Strategies thinkstock By Shelley Wright As an English teacher, I’ve had numerous conversations with college professors who lament the writing skills of their first year students. But not all writing. Most students are capable of solid expository writing. I spend three years teaching my high school students how to write a persuasive essay. Part of the problem is that our current school systems — and not just in Canada — aren’t great at producing independent thinkers. I love writing essays. So for three years, I write for them, and with them. The truth is lately I’ve come to question the point of much of this. While traditional essay writing may not help alleviate this situation, I think blogging can.
For one, the paragraphing is different. Instead, blog paragraphs tend to be shorter. Sometimes a paragraph is one simple sentence, used for emphasis. Another thing is the thesis statement. Blogging also requires a different voice. Truth is, I love writing essays. The solution? Related. Teaching Vlogging, Podcasting, and More! How do you use blogs with your students? - brainstorming and voting | tricider. Create your free Blog. 10 Reasons Why I Blog 9/10. 10 Reasons Why I Blog 1. I blog as a way to making meaning.
Blogging helps me think about and process information. I find it therapeutic to take in, reflect on, and then express my feelings and thoughts through my writing. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Do you blog? Do you think it is important for educational leaders to blog? If you have any suggestions for me with regard tbalmy blog, I would love to hear them. Like this: Like Loading... About T. There are many things that define who I am as a person.
Top 10 Technology Blogs for Education. Editor's note: This is a cross post from College Online where "The Innovative Educator" is named in the top ten ed tech blogs list. I'm thrilled to be mentioned with all these other wonderful bloggers. I know and follow most of them and look forward to getting to know better those I don't. Education, as with all aspects of culture, is greatly impacted by the forward progress of technology. Several blogs are maintained by well-known individuals in the field of education. These top 10 technology blogs address technological developments as these innovations relate to education. Many of the top 10 blogs are maintained by those who specialize in integrating technology with education. Most bloggers on the list are renown in the educational field and all offer great ideas and insights for teachers and others interested in using technology to enhance traditional educational methods.
Check out our picks here: 1. Who let the blogs out? So...You Wanna Be A Blogger. So this is a blog. Yep. It really is, or at least I want it to be. This is a space for me to reflect, share, learn and grow with anyone who stops by. It has been a wonderful experience for me and I really do enjoy working on this. Besides the professional growth, blogs can be a wonderful addition to any classroom too.
So you are thinking? Fear not kind reader! First, you are going to need a space. Blogger-This is my platform of choice. And there are apps for all these so you can blog on the go. Still confused with all the options and how to get the most of of what you choose? Ok. So you have your space all set up and you have a working knowledge of how things work. Maybe you are thinking about staying away from the personal reflection stuff (although I really, really encourage it) and you want to do just a Class Blog or have your students blogging.
So how about some more resources? This is just a handful of everything I have collected about blogs and blogging. What Do You Mean Evernote Could Get Better? Last time I wrote about the way I organize myself completely changed for the better with Evernote. Really, I can't talk enough about this program and the endless possibilities there are for it. (Just look at the comments from that post.) In that post I gave a few resources for learning about Evernote and even fewer with how to use it in the classroom. Well, lots of people have sent me lots of great resources and I wanted to follow-up and post some more. Get Productive Fast With Evernote- Mark Stout contacted me about this great eBook he created about getting started with Evernote and then some of the more advanced features like integrating IFTTT.com. 10 Tips For Using Evernote Effectively- This recent article from ReadWriteWeb was a great addition to my Evernote resources.
The Secret Weapon- A few weeks ago I was pining on Twitter about my overflowing inbox and how I wish I could funnel everything through Evernote. Do you have any more resources to share? So What Has Changed Since I Started Blogging and Tweeting? The first PHSprincipalBlog (changed to Director 4/1/2009) post was on 9/18/2007. (332 posts overall)I have been on Twitter for 4 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 27 minutes, 23 seconds (Nov. 29, 2007) according to My activity on my blog as well as on Twitter have diminished as of late.
I still find an incredible amount of value/entertainment by engaging in the online discussions, I just find it harder to make time to write and send out 140 character tidbits. My participation in these discussions has ebbed and flowed over the past four years and I am sure I will get more bursts of blogging energy. As I contemplate these little facts, I am really surprised that I have been at it so long. Time is passing at what seems like an ever increasing rate. I would swear that every year I live gets shorter! “So what?” So what has changed at PCHS? A Wordpress Widget Perfect For Building Your PLN. If you’re an education blogger using WordPress, Dell has a pretty sweet new tool for you. It’s a widget that displays a curated list of your favorite education blogs and websites. <shameless plug> We at Edudemic are honored to be featured in the widget.
</shameless plug> Here’s how it works. You go to this Dell website and / or search for a ‘dell edu’ plugin in the plugin search area of your WordPress site. It’s free and a great way to show off the work of the bloggers and writers in your PLN. 1. 2. . - The ability to add any blog to your own wordpress widget installation. - New feature that will auto import your blog roll to the widget. A look at the option screen for the widget. 3. 4. 5. 2011 20 Best Blogs in Instruc'l Tech. As I mentioned in my previous post, I intend to use my iPad to do as much of my work as possible and that includes setting up and producing this blog. I am using Blogspot for the blog as (a) its free and (b) I use Google Docs a lot so it made sense to stick with a Google service so I needed to find an app that would work with Blogspot.
Step forward Blogpress, £1.79 from the app store, 2 minutes to set up and we're off! Having set up a Blogspot account, chosen my blog name and layout (all done on the iPad), it was now time to make a graphic for my header. Firstly, I searched the Internet for the images I wanted to use in my header, these where saved to my Photos folder.
Then I used the superb iDraw app to draw my text and combine it with the IOS device pictures to make my header graphic. This was then sent to my Photos. Next, I used Photopad to crop the header to the size I wanted and again it was saved to photos. So there we go, my first piece of blogging done completely on an iPad. Technology in the Classroom Blogs. Blog. 21st Century Learning Socratic Seminar and The Backchannel Humanities teacher, Shannon Hancock, at Graded, the American School of São Paulo, read and worked through The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo with her 8th grade students. Not only did they read the text, learn about literary elements, but also learned to articulate and discuss in a professional manner the text … Visible Thinking in Math- Part 1 The conversation about visible thinking in Math started with one of our teachers at Graded, The American School of São Paulo, Adam Hancock, wanting to know how he could incorporate having students’ use their blogfolios in Math class.
It seemed natural to have students write for Humanities (Language Arts and … Redefining My Learning The Digital Learning Farm in Action Student Tutorials- MineCraft, How to Ride a Horse, iMovie and more It is no secret, that I am a big fan of Alan November‘s Digital Learning Farm concept. 3 Need-Scenarios to Engage Students with Authentic Tasks Global Education iPads. Top 10 Technology Blogs for Education.