When I think about students and how they use the Internet I immediately think of facebook, myspace, websites where you can download music, youtube.
If those are the sites that kids are visiting then I need to figure out a way to get them to pull useful information from these sites and link them to what is happening around them and in the classroom.
Aesthetic learning is something that I hope to incorporate into my teaching and something that I believe all teachers should be thinking about when they design a lesson.
Aesthetic learning is a "critical reflection on art, culture and nature" and I believe that viewing learning through an aesthetic lens is crucial to helping students become well rounded and inquisitive inside the classroom and out.
Providing a blog space where there is access to the sites that students are visiting as well as sites that I feel are important for them visit keeps them in the same place. They don’t need to leave my blog to search for a friend or post a question about class or put up a homework assignment.
I am not currently teaching but this would be a great start to a website that could become more my students than my own. Giving them daily links to visit that talk about upcoming shows, or new art, artists things that went on in class or a continuation of a discussion is what will hopefully keep them coming back.
Once the blog environment was established with the students, I could start to interact with them on a deeper level by asking questions in response to their posts and figuring out their interests, hopefully expanding upon what they are writing by providing sites for them to explore and ideas to think about.
So basically to sum this all up, I believe that blogs in my classroom woudl be useful for
1. Keeping my students connected with the latest "happenings in the art world and beyond"
2. Allowing them to talk to one another about what they read and see and listen to
3. Allow then easy access to classroom material and a place to ask questions and post assignments
I do agree with you, the most important thing to do is make the students come back. So to give them something interesting and that is the lastest can make your connection with the students so much more meaningful. Love your ideas.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of classroom blogs too. The only set back I see is in lower income districts where not every student has a computer in their home. However I would say as long as the school has a computer lab it is something that should be able to be worked out.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog (once I found out how to access it!). It is so well laid out and easy to read. I will have to touch base with you about how you did certain things....I am struggling to get mine the way I want it!!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog! So easy to read and navigate. I would love to touch base with you and get some advice. I am still struggling to figure out certain things and I see you have figured out a lot of what to know!
ReplyDeleteJenevieve,
ReplyDeleteYou have some very good ideas for using a blog. You could also put links in your site bar to virtual tours of various sites or galleries. I'm sure there are many available.
Dr. Burgos