To be honest, I'm really a very private person. The idea of blogging kind of freaks me out a little! I'm one of those people that even has my Facebook account completely locked down. That being said, however, I do think that blogging is a good tool for an ESL teacher.
I believe that even if our students are comfortable with us and comfortable in the classroom, there might be things that they still will not verbalize, even if they have the ability. I can see blogs being a place where students have the ability to express themselves on whatever issue they want to talk about. It could be anything from sports or a family event to frustration with some aspect of American life or homesickness. I think that giving the students that specific space to let certain ideas and feeling flow will allow me as a teacher to get a better insight into my students. It will allow me to address any issues that may arise, and it will also allow me to explore topics in class that may be more in line with interests they express in their blogs. As the NYS Standards include the need for students to be able express opinions (for example, see Standard 3, PI1 - Form and address responses to ideas through . . . writing), I think that this is a great use of blogs.
Next, I think blogs are a great place to have students publish their work. When I went to school, we had bulletin boards, and the teacher would staple our work on the bulletin board to display it. Now, we have blogs. A student can publish his or her work on the blog, and can ever receive feedback on it. I can envision assignments like yours, where I require that all students comment on work that other students publish. This would give even more feedback to the students that just my own as the teacher. I think this would help to build a sense of pride in the students, as well as foster a sense of community in the classroom. It would also address NYS Standards, such as Standard 3, PI4 (Evaluate students' own and others' work individually and collaboratively, on the basis of established criteria).
Finally, while the previous two examples have been focused on student blogs, I think there is also a place in education for a teacher's blog. I can envision having a blog where I post links to news items or activities that I think would be of interest to my students. Perhaps we could even track events in students' home countries. I would need to cater my blogging more to the content of the class and the particular students that I would have, but again I think that using blogs in this way would help the students for a bond, in particular a bond with me. They would know that I'm not rolling out the same curriculum I used last year, but I am paying specific attention to them. This, I believe, will again make them feel more comfortable in my classroom. It would also fall under many of the categories associated with Standard 5 - Students will demonstrate cross-cultural understanding.
If I had to align these activities with NYS Standards, I'm sure that I could. The standards and performance indicators are so broad that I believe you can always find something that will work. The biggest benefits I see, however, are that students will be excited about this, and that they will feel more comfortable with the other students and with me. When you are asking students to engage in something as potentially uncomfortable as speaking, reading, writing, and listening in a language they are not proficient in, that comfort level is crucial. (At least in my opinion!)
6 comments:
I like your emphasis on making students feel comfortable in their new environment. That is such an important part of any classroom.
Regarding student sharing on a class blog or individual blogs, you need to have them remember how much privacy is or is not built into the blogs that you have set up. Will the world see their blogs; will other students, etc. One site for setting up student blogs is edublogger. When you do start to use blogs with your students you may want to check out which blog site offers you the best features: Blogger, Edublogger, Wordpress or others.
Your idea of having blog posts on what is happening in students' home countries sound like a great motivator!
You have really great ideas using bolgs in classroom. Specially I like your idea using blogs to make students feel comfortable. There can be some students who need time to be familiar with the class, and as you said, you can halp such students using blog!
For the last part you mentioned about blog posts regarding students' home countries. What a great idea! I think students can expand their understaning each other through these blogs.
Thank you for sharing your great ideas! *^^*
I honestly didn't give much thought to the idea of students who may be too shy in the classroom to speak their minds/opinions being able to open up through the concept of blogs. Maybe discussing with your students how you are also shy when it comes to writing online would help those who are also apprehensive about blogging. Also although I am going to school for ESL, I teach German and think as a foreign language teacher. It didn't even occur to me that blogs could help students battle their homesickness. Good job!
Great post. You mention a few things here that I never would have considered, including the fact that it helps students form a bond with you, the teacher. It's a popular viewpoint that technology separates us-but in this respect, it shows you care about your students, want to keep them informed, and want to talk about what they're working on. Communication like that will certainly form a stronger teacher-student bond.
I like how you talked about your experiences with blogging and how that has affected your perception of the blog world. Yet, even with your initial reservations, you embrace this new realm by focusing on the positive side of blogging, which is expressing yourself in a new community setting! Great job!
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