I teach kindergarten at Varnell elementary in Dalton, Georgia. I have been in kindergarten for four years as a parapro and now as the classroom teacher. I love kindergarten, but want to teach American History in high school one day.
One way I think I may utilize blogging in my classroom would be with my parents. After making sure my parents had my blog site, I would post homework, our daily routines and activities, lunch menus, and upcoming events.
For example, for homework, I would post that parents allow their child to help them sort laundry and silverware for sorting practice.
I would post the lunch menu weekly so that parents could plan their child's lunch.
I would also post our activities weekly so that parents could better understand what the studnets are responsible for learning.
About Me
- amorea
- I am married, and we have been blessed with 2 wonderful children. Tallon is 15 and Esther-Cheryl is 12. I love going to thier activities. I grew up in Chattanooga, TN. I love living in the South. I love my choir at my church. I teach kindergarten right now, and love it!
I was excited to read your blog because I, too, teach kindergarten! I agree that for our grade level, using a blogs to keep parents informed is a great idea. However, if your district is anything like the one where I teach, not all of my parents have computers, so they would be left out of the "technological advantage". Instead, you could send your activities, homework, and routines in a printed newsletter to those that need it. Also, I think your students would enjoy being a part of your blog. You could scan their work and post it for families to see or allow students to type a story or sentence, depending on their ability, to share on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog and Brookes response as well. I agree with her a printed newsletter to accompany the blog might also be a good idea. I also think your students could take a part in the blogging process as well. Students could dictate their thoughts to be typed for them on the blog, just as we handwrite their dictated story next to their their invented writing as they "read" their story to us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your ideas. I already do utilize a newsletter.
ReplyDeleteWould I post my students' work on the same blog? Or, would I create a separate blog for each student?
I think that posting on the same blog would work best for you as the manager of that blog.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about your district's internet policy about publishing, but ours is clear about not publishing a child's photo with their name. We use initials or some classes assign numbers to their students according to their last name(Johnny A is #1 while Susie Y. is #17, etc.)
I see blogs as a way to develop a community feeling between parents, too. It seems that the only time parents know others is if the children have been in the same class with each other or live in the same neighborhood. A class blog would encourage communication between parents as well as between school and parents.
I would agree that using the same blog would be better. It certainly would save you a lot of time since they're too young to manage their own blog! Also, I liked carwren88's comment about assigning a number to each student to protect their privacy. I think a lot of parents would prefer that their child's name not be published.
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