Friday, January 30, 2015

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Blogs might not be the first thing you think of doing in a math class. But, being a soon-to-be math teacher, I can see a few ways that blogs can be useful in a high school mathematics class. I think that new technologies can really aid students in the fostering of learning. However, those technologies have to be used properly and appropriately.

The first way I can think of to use a blog in my classroom is to use it as a way for students to communicate. We could have a classroom blog where students can reply and discuss questions they have about homework and assignments, as well as getting help to study for quizzes and tests. It could also be a great place for students to communicate when they do group projects in my class. I, as the teacher, could also join in by posting links that students might find useful and entertaining.

A classroom blog could also be useful to have students keep a journal. My plan is to have students keep a journal where they answer daily discussion questions or solve a daily math question. A blog could create an online version of this where students can respond to prompts that I give them. Because it would be an outside of class activity, I would issue a question weekly instead of daily. Students could also discuss what they think, comment on others posts, and compare different skills as well. It would work almost like an online discussion board.

Blogs could also be used to create online study guides. After each week of assignments and different mathematical concepts, students could work in groups to take these different concepts and write blog posts summarizing what it is and how to approach it. They can include helpful links, examples, and possible test questions from each. By the time a unit test approaches, students will have completed a whole study guide full of information that can be accessed by all students.

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