Journal 3

The Five Don'ts of classroom blogging.
Julie Sturgeon

The basic idea of this article is self explanatory. Mrs. Strugeon does a great job mentioning the not only the con's of classroom blogs, but she also mentions the benefits and the rewards of a well thought out, successful blogging resource. Students must be encouraged to promote proper behavior while using the internet. The classroom rules apply over the world wide web as well.

First question; What happens when a student bends or pushes the line but does not break it? In the first don't Julie tells us not to "dive in" with a class blog. That makes obvious sense. She also tells us to have the students sign a code of conduct agreement before they start blogging. If the student misbehaves that student loses their internet privaleges. As a long term sub, I have many students who try their absolute hardest to bend the rules without breaking them. What they say, what they do. Kids are smart and they find all kinds of ways to test the teacher. I think a class blog would be a great idea, but I still see kids making fun of each other in a language that the teacher does not even understand.


How would having a class blog help me teach effectively?
I was speaking with my madre about the performance of one of my classes on the last test I gave. The students did not do very well and my mother's advice was to try more repetition. Sometimes it is hard finding the time to get as much repetition in, as I would like because there is so much content to cover. I wonder if this blog might give me an extra couple chances to repeat some valuable information to the students? If the students had access to computers and I made it an assignment to check the blog, that could be another way to get the much needed repetition to the students.


Would some students get jealous or angry if they saw the teacher's comments were more favorable to some students?
I was wondering, if the teacher comments on the students who do well in the blog, could that cause some striff between some of the other students? Some students are very cruel to other students and if they see something in print, something that can be viewed several times, they may see that and makefun of another student while at school or something. The intelligence is so widespread among my students, that it would cause widespread comments from me as well. Not sure if this would be an issue, but just something that might come up.