Welcome to Blogosphere (Blog#7)

Probably all of you reading this blog know the meaning of blogging, however, not all educators believe in the benefits of implementing blogs in their classroom.  I was once in that situation where I would see blogging like a social tool and that is it. Unfortunately, many in my campus had a million of excuses of why not using blogs.  Blogs are a crucial component of the Web 2.0 technologies and they exist for several important reasons.  Digital natives need to:




#1 - Practice their communication skills.   Students are given a voice and it's a way of expressing their ideas.


#2 - Practice their reading skills.


#3 - Use technology to share knowledge. Using blogs will permit cooperative learning.


#4 - Be motivated.   When students feel a sense of ownership they are motivated to create more.


#5 - Collaborate.  Presently, collaboration skills are one of the most demanding skills in our workforce.


#6 - Be engage.  Blogs are interacting, students discuss with each other permitting them to be engage in the lesson.


#7 - Participate. Blogs give learners an audience, a purpose to participate.


#8 - Be creative. When they are blogging no one will tell them what to do so they need to apply creativity.


#9 - Apply critical thinking. Participating in blogs or creating a blog will require  reflection to what they will do.  Blogging is a process!


#10 - Become culturally aware.


How many more reasons do you need? Blogs give students a learning environment which is open 24/7.  All these are skills needed for their digital future!  The following video gives you some statistics to why blogs are needed tool in education.

If your school district does not count with a web-based publishing system, here are some free web-based publishing and hosting sites that will help you incorporate blogs in your class:

• Blogger http://www.blogger.com
• Edublogs http://edublogs.org/
• LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/

You are minutes away to set up your blog.  Let me know your experiences with blogs in your classroom.

See you later, virtually!

-Becky

Reference:

Youtube(2009).  Blogs in Education.  Retrieved from http://youtu.be/rJ1JVGdUxkc.

Motivation is the key to learning! Blog #6

Many of us, if not all, have confronted reality of students not being motivated to learn.  When students are not motivated they will not participate in the lesson, therefore they will not learn.  Many times I have asked myself, what can I do?  It seems nothing works, but research shows that if we follow several strategies this negative effect can diminish drastically and help us with our objective- teach!

I have summarize the video's (found below) motivation theory which points out a few strategies we can implement:



#1  Demonstrate high expectations.
Never tell a student that they cannot learn or that they will not change because by doing so we are destroying their self-concept.  Students will start to believe that they can't, so always expect the best from them and let them about your expectation.  Expectations should clear, positive, and high.

#2  Help students set and monitor goals.
Students need to be taught that they need a roadmap to follow to achieve success.  If they don't have goals, they have nothing to follow and no force to drive them forward.    When they set goals they will try hard to achieve their highest potential.

#3  Model excitement for learning.
Many times, teachers try to find an excuse to why their class is boring and so you they will tell students something like, "I know this topic is boring, but it is important!".  Students then won't be expecting any excitement so will have no interest in learning.  These teachers are already telling students the lesson is boring, so what should teachers expect?  As we all know, all subjects have a purpose and so lets just demonstrate excitement.  Tone of voice and energy play a crucial role to modeling excitement.

#4  Challenge students.
Teachers should get a child to think for themselves, to evaluate higher order thinking instruction, and have them create/construct, not only answer yes or no questions.  Students should be innovative and creative.


#5  Create a safe environment
Promote team work.  Students want and deserve a pleasant learning environment where they feel secure and are happy to be there. We need to place a great emphasis against bullying!


#6  Engage
Technology is one the tools that will help educators engage students.  For example, using educational games to reinforce concept will capture student's attention and keep them engage.

#7  Make learning relevant to them.
Students need the reason to why they need to achieve a learning outcome. They need to see how content is going to help them or how they can apply it to their lives.  Don't we all want to learn things that we believe it has a purpose?  There has to be a motive behind learning.

There are also many other factors that will impact learning, however, applying motivational strategies in advance will help enhance learning.    Classroom management goes hand in hand with motivation.  What other strategies work for you?

See you later, virtually!
-Becky

Reference:

Youtube (2008).  Motivating Students in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtIMpLbOxAA