Making the Classroom Easier to Manage

Whether or not you have a blog making the classroom easier to manage is a topic we're all interested in. The smoother things run, the more time in the day we have to work with our students on math, reading, writing, sports, the yearbook, or even just listening to them tell us about their weekend. That's why most of us became teachers I think.

Chasing down missing assignments, getting materials to students who were absent, leaving handouts at the office for students who are absent, answering questions about when something was due, or how it was to be done are tasks that almost always require more time than it would seem we have. Wouldn't it be nice to have one answer for all of these?

Student: "I need (fill in blank with your most common request of your time here).

You: "Did you check the blog?"

Student: "No"

You: "Everything you need is there." (smile)


Doesn't that sound nice? Once you become more and more capable at posting you will soon find more and more uses for your blog. It's like having an electronic secretary that has all of your information available world wide, twenty four hours of every day (if you want it to be...if not just delete it).

If you have handouts, post them to the blog. There are many ways to do this without retyping them in a new post. Try esnips for a start, but there are many other free file storage services. Or, save it to your web page on the division server, copy the link into your blog. If this sounds good but you're not sure how to do either of these, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

When you give an assignment, summarize the expectations (page number and questions for example) in a new post. Give a due date.

Have some lesson notes you'd like to have posted. Invite a student to be an author, or have them type the notes using Word. Copy and paste the notes into a new post.

Going away for a session for a day and need to leave a lesson plan. Post your plans for the day to the blog for each class.

Perhaps you'd like students to express an oppinion on a news item for a History class, a solution to a math problem, or creatively write based on an image you have selected.

Post a link to the news item (or embed a video clip of the broadcast) and have the students leave their responses as a comment. This has great potential since each would be able to read the previous oppinions and a discussion might develop.

The math solution could be scanned and posted as an image, or typed (mathtype works well for this-leave a comment if you have difficulties) and have the students submit an answer on paper, or in the comment box. If you're creative, post an incorrect solution to a math problem and have them try to identify the error.

Post the image for the creative writing assignment and have the students leave their response in the comment box. Or have students create their own blogs and respond there. It could work like a portfolio. If you're worried about how you might manage 30 or more blogs look into RSS feeds and bloglines-it works like an electronic 'in-box'. I can help with this too.

The potential for blogging in the classroom is limitless since a blog works a lot like a notebook. Anything you might use a notebook for, you can use a blog for too.