Introduction To Blogging

Hey everyone! My name is Madison Mitchell and I am a Junior at Northern Kentucky University studying Elementary Education. I am from Cincinnati Ohio and I come from an incredible family of 4. My Dad, Mom and 18 year old sister have been my greatest support system during my years as a college student. In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my sorority sisters, hanging out with my family, and babysitting. I chose teaching as my profession because all of my life I have surrounded myself around children and have enjoyed every minute of it. I want to make a difference in children's lives and I feel that teaching gives me that opportunity.

I see blogs fitting into my classroom in many beneficial ways. One way being that as a teacher writing the blog, it creates a social interaction between the teacher and student, which makes the students feel more comfortable in the learning environment. The teacher can also post important websites on their blogs to help the students understand the assignment or topic better. When a teacher has a her own blog, he/she is able to express their ideas without being discriminated for it. Having a blog allows a teacher to share their ideas, good or bad, and get great advice on those ideas, or receive even better ideas from other teachers blogs. It also provides teachers with being able to read about other teachers experiences in their classrooms, which most of the time can relieve teachers in not feeling so down about how their students are acting. Parents can also have access to the teachers blogs, making the parents feel involved in what their student is learning. If a parent or student has a question about the homework on the blog they can post a question about it. It can also be helpful for a student to write a blog. When students use blogs for their writing assignments, it allows them to have their classmates view their comments and become the audience. That being said, when a student has an audience, it helps that student create better writing skills and encourages the student to collaborate about the topic they are blogging about. Blogging as a student also allows them to share their voice on the topic. It is very important in the world where each student should be able to voice their opinion and when students blog, it gives them the power to speak their stance and opinion.

I am now going to talk about a resource that I have found very helpful when it comes to teaching and students learning. This site is called Super Kids, which is an educational site for teachers to create worksheets for students from grades K-12. This website includes worksheet creators for the subjects of math and language arts. Under the math worksheet creator, teachers are able to choose from a variety of subjects in math that they would like to teach their students. These subjects include addition and subtraction, (which can be used in K-3) Multiplication and Dividing, (which can be used in 4-8) Pre-Algebra, (which can be used 9-12) and many more challenging math subjects. Under the Language Arts worksheet creator, teachers are able to choose from a variety of subjects in English that they would like to teach to their students. These subjects include PSAT and SAT Vocabulary Flashcards and Matching Game, Hidden words puzzles, Hangman (which allows students to study vocabulary) and Word Scramblers (which is great for using vocabulary, spelling and reading). 

Photo from Flickr user Erica Hargreave /Creative Commons License