I found the two articles a good reminder and a nice check list to present to students and adults, for that matter on how to communicate using this technology.  I find myself being understood, quit often on email messages, to the point where I schedule a time to talk face-to-face, rather than on the computer.

I understand the benefits of communicating through blogs, but find it very difficult to leave comments if I am not familiar with the content or  am interested.  Ready other posts are interesting, but I don’t always feel the need to comment to further the discussion.  I find myself most often agreeing with the comments but have nothing more to add.  I guess this is due to the fact that many of these tools are new to me and I don’t have personal experience with them.

I can imagine how this tool could be used to communicate with a class of students.  For instance, while reading a book, comments could be made and than added upon by readers of the blog.  I am supervising  a teacher who is in the process of getting her students to become bloggers.  I am most anxious to see how the students respond to this technology.  I feel it will be well received.  If anyone out there has examples of using blogs with groups of students and is willing to share, I would appreciate your thoughts.

I did have a google account prior to completing “Thing #4″.  As a matter of fact, a colleague of mine, presented the use of Google docs and Google Maps after completing this course!    All of the staff that I work was presented with this resource, but it has not caught on as of yet.  I am still searching for a way to use Google docs to communicate and get feedback on our programing at school.  This review gets me thinking again of more ways to use Google docs.  I would ask anyone to give me examples of how you have used this.  Google Maps is great fun, not sure how to use this for my purposes.

This “Thing” took me a while to figure out! I had to default to asking my teenage children to help me add a link to my post. It was also good practice to be required to add five links to the blogroll – maybe I won’t forget. I have found that it is a fun and worthwhile task to complete.

A friend of mine recommended the following website called Thinkfinity for lesson plan ideas.  This website has been very helpful in my job of continually finding resources for the teaching staff I support. I found the site very easy to use and is loaded with valuable and pertinent information.  I especially like the feature to search by topic area within a content.  Not only does the site provide a variety of lesson plans, it also references the GLCE’s for the course being taught and also gives cross curricular connections.

I wonder if I can still do this trick?

I wish I could snowboard, I think!  My son and daughter spend a significant amount of time at the Ski Bowl in Grand Haven during the winter months. How refreshing it is to see them enjoy the cold outdoors of Michigan winters instead of hybernating on the couch watching useless TV.   So, basically, I live out my desire of snowboarding by watching and listening and looking at film of teenagers that actually have the priviledge of enjoying this awesome sport!

I enjoyed viewing the following blog.  “What’s happening in Room ” as I thought it was very pleasant to look at and informative to the reader.  As a parent of a student in this classroom, I would feel like I was a part of the classroom.

I also enjoyed “Mrs. Buboltz’s Blog” as she was has a very organized presentation of her classroom.  The blog was easy to navigate and made sense to me as the reader.  I also felt she assigned worthwhile tasks for her students.  It is important the students read and then review books.

These blogs gave me ways to effectively communicate to parents and the teaching staff information and happenings in the school.  I would also like to incorporate after school programming information and student success stories for the week.

What a great way to get feedback from your students.  So often a teacher has to deal with the paper shuffle or the difficulty a child may have communicating using paper and pencil that our ability to assess a student is hindered.  While the art of formally writing can not be dismissed, blogs allows for the much needed communication that needs to occur between the student and teacher.  I appreciated the comment and have experienced first hand learning while teaching a concept as well.  I also value the idea that blogging allows the students to have a voice.  The students who still want or need to be heard in a classroom will still continue while those who are more comfortable communicating via blogging will be added.  I am hoping this generation of children begin to realize how powerful they can be, by recording, sharing, and reflecting on their own thoughts.