BLOGGING

Blogging is a wonderful option to integrate in the classrooms. As the world moves more and more towards a technological means of communication, it is important to make sure that the students are updated as well. I vision myself using blogging in my classroom. I would like to teach high school chemistry. As a Chemistry teacher I would introduce an experiment to the class. I will go through with the class the Scientific Method: Ask a question, Do back ground research, Construct a Hypothesis, Test your Hypothesis by doing an experiment, Analyze your data and draw a conclusion, Communicate your results. Blogging will be integrated when I ask the students to blog about the first four steps. I would ask the students to write about their expectations for the experiment that we would doing in the near future. Basically, the students will be using their blogs as a journal.

I would also use blogging as a means of the students having easy and unlimited access to me as well as their class mates. This session would be call, "open mike." If the students have any suggestions, concerns, or general comments pertaining to the class, they would have the opportunity to write about it on their blogs. I've always embraced the idea of having each class as a controlled family environment, where everyone can be free to give any ideas they might have that can enrich their education progress.

The benefits of blogging in the classroom is that it allows students to be comfortable to participate. Often times I find that most shy students who do not participate in the class room discussion is because they are afraid of the consequences of their class mates looking at them as they speak, or even laughing at their ideas. Although blogging does not eliminate publicity, it enhances comfort in freely sharing ideas and participation.