Reflection #3- Blogging

    Stepping out of the classroom eight years ago to become a principal widened my responsibilities and classroom walls, but it also gave me an opportunity to marvel at the numerous ways the teachers instruct, engage, and facilitate learning in their classrooms. I love being welcomed into the classrooms when the teachers are showcasing their student’s work or watching a particular project being unveiled.  Interestingly enough, there has been a lot of blogging going on! Putting the three D’s to life is happening here at Immanuel Christian School.

DISTRIBUTION:  Our Academic Counselor (College Prep Instructor) devised a College Readiness Blog for her students and parents.  The sole purpose of the blog is to distribute articles on college research based assessment and readiness for the college bound senior.  Many of her links, articles, and journals have to do with forecasting and predicting student learning outcomes and how they match up with particular colleges.  The students are also given an opportunity to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, through an uploaded assessment test called Strength Finder.com.  I visited with two parents with seniors this year and they mentioned how helpful the blog has been in preparing them for the future. 

DISCUSSION:  Two blogs with the purpose of two way communication are trending at the school.  First, our 4^th grade history teacher set up a blog for a unit in Texas History.  She utilized the website Weebly to engage her students in the Texas State Notebook she does yearly in her classroom.  Weekly questions are posted concerning the facts and events surrounding the history of our great state.  The students are encouraged to answer the questions through written discussion as well as respond to others comments.  The students receive grades for their reflections and answers, all the while, learning about the 21^st century and all of the digital resources available.  Secondly, our technology teacher devised a blog this semester having to do with the digital revolution and how it has changed cultural engagement in society.  Through “then and now” articles of technology trends in social media, she engages them in Q &A involving the changing times. Both of these are examples of discussion blogs that I would implement in my classroom if I were teaching.

DEMONSTRATION:  An excellent example of blogging for the purpose of demonstrating student work is found in our Algebra II and Calculus class.  Mrs. Martinez has a “flipped classroom” this school year.  She uploads teaching videos of herself in which the students are to view, take notes, and be prepared to implement what they learned the night before.  Her daily classroom time is spent helping the students grasp concepts while they work out the problems and methods that have been taught the night before.  Twice a week, she has students show their own method of working on a math problem.  They must formulate a two to three minute video to present to their classmates about how they obtained a particular answer to a math problem.  The results in her test outcomes have improved and the students are learning from one another.  In last week’s reflection, I wrote about the students knowing more about the digital age than their teachers do, now, I have actually seen it in action.

            In conclusion, if I stepped back into the classroom, I would want to be just like the teachers I have mentioned above.  Being able to navigate through learning and utilizing the resources available can be overwhelming on its own; however, taking it one step further in the student learning arena is another obstacle to overcome.  My hat is off to every educator who steps into the unknown and makes something special out of it to make a difference in the lives of their students.