Blogging in Schools

Reposted from EduDemic

Four reasons for teachers and students to blog, and five tips on how to do it.

Why Teachers and Students Should Blog

By Hanna Shekhter on May 30, 2015

Blogs have the potential expand student creativity, not to mention their writing skills. Language Arts and Reading specialists will love that, right? But how do I convince them that their students are thirsty for the knowledge they want to share but not the same way that they themselves obtained it? These kids are 21st century students and are adapting to a digital world that they are eager to learn from.

Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Students will be able to pick up how to use blogging platforms with minimal technical assistance and teachers will enjoy the ease in the initial setup. Unlike many traditional Web sites, blogs are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students and teachers will find them convenient and accessible via any computer or mobile device.

Why Blogging is Great for Students

1. Blogs Allow for Multi-Faceted Learning

Educators need to teach important materials in several ways because each one of our students learns differently. What’s more, we also need to provide students with multiple ways to engage with assignments, based on their individual talents. Blogging is one technique for doing so, as it can allow a quieter student, for example, to feel heard online. Those shy and quiet students feel less pressure when they need to “speak” in their blog or when giving peer feedback, as they are discussing the text on their own terms. Additionally, this journaling format works great with read-and-write learners as well as visual learners.

2. Blogs Promote Literacy and Sharpen Writing Skills

Blogging gives students an opportunity to become published authors and showcase their writing skills. In addition, blogs give students the ability to improve communication and collaboration through the commenting feature. Peer review and feedback become an invaluable part of the writing process. Students from other parts of the world can also comment and provide a new cultural perspective to our own students’ thoughts and opinions. Students’ writing skills are vastly improved through the blogging process, since they have to work harder to hold the readers’ attention. To do that, every word, phrase, sentence, and even punctuation mark must add something to the posting.

3. Blogs Are Accessible and Engaging

With the availability of blog apps, blogging has become very simple and accessible to our students. They can blog from anywhere about anything whenever they are in the mood to reflect. They are not tied down to a desk and feel more free using this writing media. Also, in the age where every person has a camera in their pocket, we have become a society that journals through photography and video. Along with other multimedia artifacts, blogs become more engaging and almost interactive for the readers.

4. Blogs Can Serve as a Classroom Management Tool

When used as an in-class assignment, blogs can keep your students on task and focused. The more blogs students post, the more opportunities they have for others to comment on their blog. It’s an exciting feeling for students to see proof of someone reading their published work, taking time to reflect on it, and posting their opinion or question. Creating a classroom blog instead of individual blogs fosters an online community for your students to extend the classroom beyond the 4 walls. The learning continues wherever they go and their thoughts and conversations keep going. Blogging is a great tool to create student portfolios, as it can be used both as a “learning portfolio” and a “showcase portfolio”.

5 Tips That Will Make Blogging a Breeze

1. Use a simple blog application

Look for popular classroom blogging apps that have been tested in classrooms and made simple even for early elementary students. Blogger is a Google app and is completely free. It is easy and simple to use if you have a Google account you can set up your blog in minutes from

Demand for certifications

Data Driven: The Growing Demand for Certificates Posted: 28 May 2015 09:13 AM PDT By 2018, the U.S. will need at least 4.7 million new workers with postsecondary certificates.[i] This month’s entry in our blog series on data and research as tools for CTE advocacy highlights the mounting importance of certificates. The above data point estimates the number of new workers with a postsecondary certificate as their highest credential who will be needed by 2018 in order for the United States to meet talent demand. This statistic refers only to new positions in the workforce, on top of the many certificate holders already contributing to the economy.  As you know, CTE programs provide stackable credentials, including postsecondary certificates, to help students meet their educational and professional goals.  When sharing this statistic with policymakers, media or the public, follow it up with information on certificate earnings in high-wage, high-demand fields and describe CTE’s role in preparing students for those careers. See more at ACTE Fact Sheets. [i] Carnevale et al., Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2010

Girls Math Virtual Participation

http://www.girlsmathidentity.org/virtual

Participate Virtually

Tuesday, June 9, 2015 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM (EDT)

We invite you to participate virtually in this unique convening that will bring together a select group of researchers and practitioners in a dynamic working group to define common research goals and priorities around girls’ math identity. The convening will be streamed live online and as a virtual participant, you will also be able to

Art and Math Integration in Arlington

By the Washington Post's By Moriah Balingit May 17 at 3:43 PM

U.S. Department of Education

Lauren Puttock loves math, but it was in art class where the concept of exponents really sunk in.

She and other Kenmore Middle School students listened as teacher Jeff Wilson and math coach Corinne Magee mixed equations with lessons on surrealist Man Ray, who is famous for integrating math into his work. The students then translated what they learned into multi-tiered hanger sculptures, each successive tier featuring an increasing number of hangers based on escalating exponents — numbers multiplied by themselves.

“I think more graphically,” said Lauren, who is sixth grade at the Arlington school. “Art can really help me learn.”

A miniature version of the sculpture was featured last week at the U.S. Department of Education, where educators and museum directors gathered to highlight how museums can help schools integrate art into their classrooms. Lauren, another Arlington student and a high schooler from Staten Island who participates in a weekend arts program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art were on hand for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting to open the exhibit.

The idea of the partnerships is not just to introduce students to art through one-time field trips but to integrate art into lessons beyond art class. And in the past decade, arts education has transcended its longtime status as a stand-alone subject where students learn to draw or paint.