One way I would like to use a blog in my classroom is to post about and discuss current events in science. Classroom time is mostly spent doing lab investigations and it can be hard to find time to tie in connections to what's happening right now in the world of science. A blog would be a perfect venue for students to locate, research, and post about topics. Students can then respond to these posts with questions, comments, or connections to the classroom.
How this could work: A different student in each class period is in charge of posting about a current event in science each week. I teach six class periods, so this would mean there would be six new postings each week. Every student would be required to comment on one post each week, so the 170 resulting comments would be spread out across the six posts.
What do you think? Could this work? Have you tried anything similar?
I have not used blogs inside my classroom before, or at all, for that matter! But I think incorporating Real-World science topics is a wonderful idea! The students would come to class asking questions, which would start a great conversation for discussion. Maybe they could incorporate these thoughts and ideas into their lab work. Do they work in pairs in their lab work? Maybe the pairs could post the blogs together?
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, I think anything is possible when it comes to trying anything new! Best of luck to you and your classroom blog!
I really like the idea of a student being in charge of posting a current event. I think this holds them accountable for their learning (something that some of my students struggle to understand). I think they'll also find articles that are interesting to them, which will also most likely be interesting to the rest of the students. My only question is, will the students be given time to comment, or does this need to be done on their own time?
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