C4T#3 Summary Post

I was assigned to comment on the blog of Greta Sandler, About A Teacher. You can follow her on Twitter @gret.

The first post I commented on was, Blended Instruction With Blogs and Wikis for Young Learners. This post gave a link to a recording of a presentation she and Shelly Terrell. They talked of how they use blogs and wikis in their classroom. The presentation takes about an hour and a half to listen to, but there is a lot of great information. I commented on how they keep parents involved in the class through these avenues. I feel that with blogs and wikis we will be able to show off the good work that our students accomplish. Don't y'all remember how great it felt when your parents put your good grades on the refrigerator for everyone that came over to see? Imagine that being available for everyone to see and anyone in the world can comment on your accomplishments. They both said that their students absolutely love it when someone from another area of the world says something about their work. This makes me really excited about what we do for our C4K assignments, and even more determined to use blogs and wikis in my future classroom.

The second post I commented on was, rscon11 Creating Safe Learning Environments. This post direct you to another of Greta's recorded presentations. She talks of how to create a safe learning environment for her class. The point that interested me the most was her talk of making the classroom "our" class as opposed to "the" class. I am a very I am a very competitive person which is why I play sports, but I don’t think the classroom is a great place for competition. When students help each other like they’re a team the kids that understand the material can help the others that don’t quite get it just yet by telling them what helps them understand it. Sometime we as teachers may not be able to get our point across to every student, but another student may be able to get it across to them.

I really suggest you subscribe to her rss feed. You will not be disappointed.