Add Test Review to Your Class Blog...Amazing Ideas!

Wow, I love a couple of these ideas! Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers blog had a guest blogger, Dan Klumper, a 6th grade social studies teacher, post some wonderful ideas. I wish I taught high school science again and could do a couple reviews like his "Silent Video Review". At our middle school, I could see tons of courses/teachers take advantage of it. You don't have to have a class blog to do the idea, but it would be helpful as you could just embed the video to your blog. The 2nd idea is one that I have thought about doing for my counseling/life skills class sometime. Have a designated date/time for online chat/forum in the evening. Parents, students, whoever could join. I also think the Wallwisher idea (Especially since WallWisher has now been updated and many of the bugs from the past year or two fixed) would be super for any class/class review. Either way, please click on Richard Byrne's blog entry and click on the ideas, especially the first one. These are definitely ideas we could use and the students would really benefit from. (If you have an IPad....the first idea is even easier as you can video and upload in a matter of minutes!)

Ideas on how to Use Your Blog for Review Purposes by Richard Byrne (written by guest blogger Dan Klumper)

A Classroom Blog with Over 100,000 Visitors?!

Yes, it is true. Some classroom blogs actually get over 100,000 visitors! Well, at least one blog does: Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog. She just went over the 100,000 visitor mark and that is pretty amazing! Take a quick look at her blog and maybe you could get some ideas for your own blog. Things I notice and would like to try:

student bloggers on my blog
Video blogs
Reading assignments
Guest bloggers
and "Quad Blogging" (where you team up with 3 other schools/classes very different than yours and blog your answers to questions each week like what are lunches like? what is a typical school day?, etc.)

Congrats Mrs. Yollis!

Click here to go to her classroom blog

The Power of Blogging....Worldwide!

Catching up on my blog reading, I found a story about the 2011 Edublog Award Winners and the blog that won "Best Group Blog" caught my eye. Why? Because it was by students just like our 8th graders and several other students are doing in our district AND it was by students in 6 different countries. And the 6 classes in the 6 countries blog each week about a different topic or idea about their culture or their school day. We talk a lot about cultures and how different and interesting they are and yet how similar they are. Reading through these great blog entries really drives this idea home. Fascinating to read about life in these 6 countries! Give it a read!

Best Group Blog: Click here!