Ok, confession time…I
have always wanted to be a “blogger.” In fact, as I was logging into Blogger to
create this very blog, I found abandoned remnants of blogs past: a wedding blog
I created to track my wedding planning, a blog I created as a camp director, a
personal blog of my time spent living in Minnesota, and still others. I start
them with every attempt to keep them up, and then forget all about them, or
probably more accurately, get too busy. So, honestly, having the excuse to
create a blog was exciting for me. I was happy to have (yet another) excuse to
create a blog (with every intention of writing in it!)
Now, with all of my
extensive blog “creating” experience, I never actually got far enough into
blogging to create RSS feeds or really follow anyone else’s. It was something I
had heard about, but did not fully appreciate…I can just look up whatever website
I want to check in on, right?... That misguided opinion changed after creating
one. I love it! It was so much easier, and is so much more convenient of a way
to follow information. It is like my facebook wall, but with actual
information! I’m hooked. (if it is anything like facebook, I will now check in several times a day!)
While creating my blog
and RSS feed, I was thinking about The Cone of Experience. I think that blogs
fit into the top 5 bands. Depending on what information is being supplied, of
course, but blogs allow teachers to showcase verbal symbals (words), visual
symbols (pictures), recordings (audio), motion pictures (video) and educational
television (youtube clips, etc).
In terms of imaginative ways
to use blogs and RSS feeds in the classroom, I would love to create a blog of
my students reading their writers workshop stories aloud, with scanned drawings
to accompany their audio. What a great way to “publish” their work. The
ultimate writer’s workshop sharing celebration! RSS feeds takes a little more
thinking about, but I love the idea of creating a page where parents can follow
each other’s blogs and share parenting strategies and help them to develop a
community of parents that supports their students. So much of kindergarten is focused
on creating a community of learners, why not support parents in doing the same
thing?
There are so many ways I
can envision using blogs and RSS feeds as communication with colleagues and
parents. If I worked with older students, I would use them as ways to communicate
with my students as well. (While I’m a proponent of technology in the classroom….5
might be a little young for creating a social media footprint.) I use A LOT of
photographs in my newsletters to parents. I love documenting my students’ work
(and progress!) through photography. In kindergarten, so much growth happens
during the year I have them as students, and it is exciting for parents to
share in their child’s school day. Creating those newsletters, however, is time
consuming and because of the number of photos I include, they sometimes have
difficulty sending through email. I love the idea of creating a classroom blog
to showcase student work. It also allows for using audio and video components
that my publisher newsletter does not allow. If Postman asked, I would tell him
that blogs and RSS feeds solve the problem of delivering big newsletter files
to the parents of my students, and allows for an even better means of
communicating with them on a regular basis.
My brain keeps spinning with new ways to utilize this technology! I feel so inspired to
keep blogging…maybe this time I really will keep this up! J
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