Teachers Utilize Blogs as Educational Tools

 

 

 

From International Relations to Biology, it seems like every teacher at SKHS has a blog. Many believe blogs are great teaching tools to help students learn cultural aspects of a foreign country, or knowing that helpful notes are always on a class blog.

  According to The New York Times, it is estimated the popular blogging site LiveJournal gains one thousand new bloggers daily. The New York Times also reports twenty-two million internet users read and/or blog.

Blogs have increased rapidly ever since last year when the first blog as SKHS crept up slowly towards an unsuspecting Western Civilization class.

Social studies teachers Mrs. Foley and Mr. Kimball created the “Kingdom of Heaven” blog. This blog was designed to draw student comment on a prompt set by Mrs. Foley. The blog was successful and soon other teachers started their own blog.

Later in the year Biology teacher, Mr. Johnson, attended a teacher workshop that introduced blogging. Johnson soon set up his own blog for biology classes.

His first blog, aptly named Mr. Johnson’s Blog, has biology and biotechnology stories, short stories, recipes and poetry.

“I also have posted quizzes on the blog; it’s easier for me to find it saved to the blog instead of hunting through my computer. It’s not a bad idea.”

 

Johnson posts readings on his blog instead of printing them out. “Students often lose papers,” Johnson began, “But when assignments are on the blog, it will always be there.”

He uses the blog almost daily to show students current biology and biotechnology issues that passed by the mainstream press. Johnson also posts pictures of animals in their natural habitat.

Johnson tries to find stories that are not well known. “I introduce stories that are not in major newspapers for a reason. It increases the students’ worldly view on science-related topics”.

After updating Mr. Johnson’s Blog nearly three hundred and thirty times from July 2007 to November 2007, Johnson switched to a new blog, The Cavendish. This blog is strictly science-related.

When a blog is published, there is a timestamp at the bottom of the post. On Mr. Johnson’s Blog, many of the blogs were published between 2:30 am and 4:00 am.

Italian teacher Ms. Magliari heard about the blogs and created two. One is for Italian Four/AP classes and the other for Italian Two classes.

“My blog helps improve communication in Italian, and when students comment to each other on the blog they basically free write to each other.” Magliari said.

When students post comments on the blog, it is for a homework grade. Each student is assessed on grammar and comprehension.

Magliari added, “The blog helps students consistently find new words in Italian,”

The blogosphere that has overrun SKHS has spilled into other subjects, such as International Relations.

SKHS social studies teacher Mr. Buxton has set up multiple blogs for debates and class assignments.

“I use the blog to put up lectures on current events at local universities, such as Salve Regina. I also put up information about Model U.N conferences”, said Buxton.

“The two blogs are used for debates, In International Relations one student represents one country,” Buxton added. “Students are assigned to a country as a spokesperson. On the blog, they post statements regarding the state of their country to each other.”

One such debate that is recent Mumbai, India bombings. Students post comments describing the specific policy of their country.

Buxton usually updates the blog after a class or debate. Presently four to five debates have been presented on the blog.

International Relations teacher Mr. Matteson also uses the blog for his I.R classes.

“I use the blog to post readings for the International Relations class instead of printing ten page papers. I like to save a tree,” Matteson said.

At the end of the school year, Matteson hopes to get feedback from the students about the blog and see what he can improve upon.

“I like using the blog in class,” Matteson explained, “It helps students condense the information instead of going to so many different websites.”