Blogs in Class

Kind of like “Pigs in Space,” only with fewer puppets.

Jeff asked me to share how I use my blog in the classroom. Here are a few ideas.

I post weekly calendars on my blog for students who are absent (or just disorganized and forgetful) as well as for interested parents. This is also very useful in the Literacy Lab (small group tutoring in reading and writing) at the high school.

http://kitsis.blogspot.com

The blog is a simple tool for creating webquests , such as the one my American literature classes completed last week in our study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

http://kitsis-webquest.blogspot.com/2006/11/contemporary-crucibles_01.html

Students can use the blog to collaborate on writing in progress. Here's an assignment:

http://kitsis-ap.blogspot.com/2006/11/identifying-topics.html

Students then posted topics to a communal “bulletin board,” several of which became full-fledged papers:

http://kitsis-ap.blogspot.com/2006/11/period-four-bulletin-board.html

Or the blog can actually be the finished writing, with a much broader audience. Here the assignment was to help each other brainstorm ideas for an upcoming research paper:

http://kitsis-ap.blogspot.com/2007/05/period-g7-film-blog.html

"Anonymous" posting can be especially enlightening, and may allow more self-conscious students to really express themselves. Students were required to share their account information with me, and were asked to use these accounts for class only.

http://kitsis-war-talk.blogspot.com/2005/12/watching-television-for-homework.html

I first became interested in using blogs in the high school classroom after visiting "Learn to Question," Ms. Freeman’s Facing History class at the Boston Latin School (of course, this puts me completely to shame).

http://www.learntoquestion.com/class/

Information packet provided to parents and students:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd8m9rq8_13dh777m

Random PowerPoint presentation fun:

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=dd8m9rq8_19dh2gnx&skipauth=true