3 Pictures!

So my biggest passion right now in life, besides teaching, is music... listening and going to concerts to be more specific!
This is a band member from my all time favorite band Breathe Carolina!!

Have you ever been to the Gateway?! Most awesome place ever! Great Place to shop... oh and go on dates! This is my "special little friend" and I in front of the water fountians.

Okay it might be my childhood attitude but I love to get my hands messy! One great way to get that mucky feeling is throwing clay on the wheel! Good thing its fun to do because my projects don't really turn out to well.

Safe Blogging

In my first post about blogging and teaching I mentioned how scary I thought children posting online was. Now I would like to offer three safe blogging tips I have learned that.

1. Screen what your children plan to post beforehand. This can go for parents and teachers, together if everyone is screening they know that information will not be leaked out that can be potentially dangerous. Even tiny information such as a mascot of the school or a picture of the town could easily let someone know where the author of the post is from.

2. Ask yourself or your children if they are comfortable showing the content they posted to a stranger. If there is any doubt in your mind or hesitation do not post it!

3. Obviously do not post very personal or detailed information about yourself, or even friends for that matter.

If we are protecting our identity then we should be aware and out to protect our friends as well. Be aware of what you are posting, be cautious, and know that whatever you post on the internet stays there.

Sites I found information from:

http://www.isafe.org/imgs/pdf/education/Blogging.pdf
http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/blogging.aspx

Blogging and Teaching

My feelings towards using blogs in the classroom is a toss up! My original thoughts were centered on that using blogs was a neat way to incorporate technology in the classroom. Then I started doing some research on classroom blogs and my feelings skewered from that. Just how safe is using a classroom blog, where the students are able to post comments, and the teacher allowed to post pictures of the children and their work? Maybe it was my overly per-cautious parental instincts that made me irk by these thoughts. I became nervous that someone random could easily find and access a classroom and pick out a child, notice their posts and see pictures of them. How easy for someone to find information.. yuck! http://mrsatwood.livejournal.com/  Here is a first grade classroom blog. I clicked on a students post about the rain, I read her post and then the teacher's post following with other comments by friends, however the scary thing was that I (a random stranger) could also comment to this child's post!  I am sure that before using a classroom blog the parents have to sign a permission note, and be informed of what kinds of things will be posted. I just hope that the children are notified of "stranger danger" aspects of using the internet and that someone reads over their posts before they are posted to the world wide web.

           http://www.covenanteyes.com/2008/08/07/stranger-danger

Okay Okay so my picture is a tad bit extreme but that is just how nervous I feel!

On the flip side blogging in the classroom does have some advantages. Like I mentioned above that using a blog with the students does provide them with experience of using internet and communicating tools. In the educational second grader classroom blog http://mrsd.tblog.com/  

Mrs. D, the teacher, asked the class to post about their summer vacation what kind of things they were doing or any books they were reading. This provides the students with the opportunity to post what they are doing and have a way to stay connected with the teacher. Also on this blog were links to the class website, as well as links to monster exchange, fun brain, and brain pop which are online educational games.

Another first grade blog is http://classblogmeister.com/blog. This blog I thought was very informative to the parents, which is a bonus to keep parents involved and informed in the classroom. Posted on this blog were things that were going on in the classroom, such as the childrens' claymation movies, and their dinosaur stories.

So there you have it... some bonuses to classroom blogs, however my feelings are still tossed up. Not sure if I will use one in my future classroom, if I do there will be a privacy block!