Finally Starting to Blog with This Class

I had hoped that I would have started the blog right away in the school year. But with all the procedures, curriculum, and other obstacles, I am just now starting. However, looking back, I think this is the right time. We are halfway through the year, students are starting to get restless and TAKS is approaching. This is something "new" something to get them excited again. We are taking things that we have written and posting them on the blog. When reading their first posts, I am reminded of the same issues I had last year. (Capital letters, punctuation, etc.) Now that I have had a year behind me, I am much calmer and know we will fix those issues as well.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful year! -Heather

Back to School

Yikes, it is hard to believe that it is almost time for the beginning of the year. As summer comes to an end I am starting to think about how I am going to introduce the blog to my parents. At first, I thought I would change my blog to the FISD one, but am thinking I will keep the one that I have. I think having the past history will show the parents and the students how we use it for educational purposes. Plus, before they write on it, the students can read through what my students did last year. So many great ideas are popping into my head about things I want to do this year. I love at the beginning of the year I have all these great plans, but once school starts I start getting blogged down. Luckily, I feel that the blog is something I am familiar with and it won't be any problem to begin with a new group of kiddos.

Podcasting is a Success

So, this past week I had most of my students record their poetry and we posted it on the blog. They were SO excited. They had so much fun with it and I think they did a great job. What is exciting is that I had a student help me with the process. This was student who struggles in my class, but he exelled here. He was one of the first ones that I tried this with and he learned the process. He then helped the others with it.

I am going to try video next, but I am not sure how that will work. That is something I will have to play around with and see. Well, hope everyone enjoys 8 more days!

I am Getting Impatient

The poems are being written and the permission slips are coming in. At the end of the week we will be "podcasting" our poems. I am trying to describe how I am feeling about trying this out in my classroom, but there are no words. There seriously is excitement in the air when we talk about it in class. When we talk about it, I see smiles on their faces and they just get this "glow" about them. How cool is that? Especially with only 12 days or so left in the school year.

I will keep everyone posted on how it works. The ideas are already swimming in my head about everything we can do with this starting from day one.

Podcasting

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Testing Podcast

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Is TAKS really over?

My class has not done much blogging due to the TAKS test and preparing for it. Now that it is done, I can't believe it is over. My mind is so numb from this week, that I am sure this post will be quite random.

We are about to start our unit on Poetry, so I am sure they will have their poems posted soon. I am excited about the thought of them having somewhere else to "publish" their poems.

Some time ago I added the feature of having to approve the comments before they are posted. I must say that I really like this feature. It serves two main functions 1. Keeps me logging in everyday because they want to see their comments posted. and 2. Keep any unwanted comments away. I have been observing another blog that is used for the classroom and while the students are using it, they have also began using it as a social tool. I am not sure I want my students doing that too early.

Last comment for today-the flu. I want my students to blog, but with how careful we are about germs, I am going to have to be extra careful to make sure the keyboards stay sanitized. I guess I will be purchasing some hand sanitizers to keep by keyboards as a reminder.

The next time I post, hopefully I will have some wonderful news about blogging and poetry.