The two school blogs that I am comparing and contrasting are KinderKidsblog by Maria Knee http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=51141 and Mighty Writers by Mark Ahlness http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=41233. Both of these blogs are put together beautifully. They both have links to other blogs and sites. These links to other blogs and sites provide so much information! You could spend hours linking from one site to the next. I can see how easy it can be to get sucked into spending way too much time blogging! :)
KinderKidsblog focuses heavily on math skills and video blogs. Too Cute! You can look at the blog to see what the kids are working on in their classroom and to follow their academic and social progress. This site also allows one to create a weatherpixie that will tell you exactly what the weather is going to be like in your area. As a teacher that sees many kids come to school ill-prepared for the weather, I thought this was a great idea! I saw several videos that the students made, one for father's day. You could tell that the students were really enjoying making their videos! Again, more evidence that the Web helps students get excited about and take ownership in their education.
The Mighty Writers blog is a classroom of third grade students that post all of their writing assignments as well as blog about daily adventures and activities they participate in. This classroom blog site clearly focuses on writing. What is really cool about this site is that you can see the students progress all on one page. I was looking at stories each students had written at the beginning of the school year and comparing them to some of the items they submitted toward the end of the year. What a beautiful way to share with them and their parents their progress! When looking at the two sites, I really felt that this one was put together better. Because of the way that it was organized, it was easier to follow. I think this is a model site to use when showing educators and administrators how useful blogs can be in a classroom.
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I gravitated toward Crosby's blog also due to its userfriendly interface. I was able to more easily locate information I was interested in, follow it, and relocate my original starting point. It seems like it would be so easy to get lost in some of the more complicated sites like Richardson's. Though completely valuable and overflowing with great information, I found myself clicking on a link, then another, and another, and losing my spot!
ReplyDeleteKari, I agree with your assessment of these two blogs. I also found The KinderKids' Classroom Blog more user-friendly than the Mighty Writers blog. Another aspect that I thought was good about the KinderKids' Classroom blog is that it highlighted projects that let students connect with people outside of their school, such as their parents and grandparents. Perhaps this is one way that this blog is reaching out to a wider population than just the classroom.
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