A California middle school teacher, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, maintains a blog with helpful tips for middle school teachers and a website for her students. Her blog isTweenTeacher.com and expresses her enthusiasm for teaching at this level and offers insightful professional development ideas. Her website for her students is available at:
http://web.me.com/bulldogradio/JeffersonRadio/Welcome.html
http://web.me.com/bulldogradio/JeffersonRadio/Welcome.html
On her website for students, you will find links for her 7th grade students and another for her 8th graders, as well as a link to a page where she archives students' podcasts, under the title of Bulldog Radio. Check both her blog for teachers and her website for her students. Let us know what you think.
Image is the logo Heather Wolpert-Gawron uses on TweenTeacher.com
5 comments:
I really am looking forward to learning more about developing and maintaining a blog and/or website for my mathematics students. As I read this article and as I have listened to ideas in class, I think having a personal blog that my students can access for help, advice and reference could be a very valuable tool.
I really enjoyed clicking through this teacher's website. I love how she had a picture of her classroom, so that parents can see what type of environment their children are learning in. I also think its a great idea to have a site in general (although most schools require it these days) to post homework updates, and what happened in class. This is a great tool for students who missed the class, or were confused about an assignment.
This is so interesting to see how blogging can become a part of the learning environment. In fact, I think it has to be an integral part of a curriculum if we want to catch our students' interest. For the first time, I have to have a website at the school where I teach now and I am glad I have this opportunity.
I think that it is a great idea to have blogs and websites to use with students. I find these very helpful for students to have an extra resource where they can find homework updates and class notes. This would help those students who struggle in certain subjects and can refer back to class notes to clarify confusions with concepts. It is also great for parents to find out what their children are learning.
I really enjoyed viewing this teacher's "Tweenteacher Blog" and her school website for her students. I enjoyed viewing her blog for teachers more then the website for students because it was much more detailed and elaborate. It was interesting to see how easily a blog could work to connect teachers together to share opinions and strategies. I thought her survey on the "Essential Skills" students need was a great idea to get an idea of what teachers expectations are across the country. I also loved the sense of humor she was able to intertwine through her blog. She was able to make real-life connections to popculture and really made it feel as you were having a conversation with her. I would much prefer reading her blog and specific posts about instructional strategies then a "dry" teaching book. Her post on how to use stories to model ideas for students was hilarious and very informative at the same time! There was so much information offered through her blog, but it was done in such an organized way that it was not overwhelming. I think the "Coming Soon" additions of webinars for teacher support (based on what teachers request) and webinars for parents will be great resources as well.
I felt as if the student site could have included more resources for the students. The website was clear and easy to navigate, with its main purpose being to indicate the class agenda and assignments for the week. The availability of access to this information from home is always helpful to ensure the communication is clear between students, teachers and parents.
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