How I Would Use Blogs In My Classroom

I am the JAG (Jobs for America’s Graduates) Specialist at my school, and it is my job to prepare my students for the world after High School.  I have previously identified the career goals of each student and I am currently working on having each student research their selected career.

Since taking this course, and since reading the book, Richardson’s (2010) book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I now understand the importance of introducing my students to Blogging.  Although I have focused on teaching my students office skills such as typing, excel, and PowerPoint I now know that it is extremely important to prepare my students for jobs that have not yet been created.

My idea for using Blogs in my classroom is to have each student create a blog of her own to use in order to reach out to professionals in the field that interests them.  On each blog the student would be required to include her expectations of this career, her goals, reasons for choosing the chosen field, and a few questions for the professionals in that career.  Once the blog is complete, each student will be required to write a list of questions to people who actually work in that field.  I would, of course, get permission from my supervisor before executing this plan, but I believe that the students would get some very insightful feedback from others in their chosen careers whether positive or negative.   I believe that these students will be able to see into the real world of employment by using blogs and by opening those blogs to the public, and seeing the various responses. 

As stated in the readings, this assignment could be used to ask to reflect and build on previous ideas about their career choices, incorporate feedback from readers regarding their experiences in that field, synthesize readings from a number of different sources, and advance new ideas or interpretations of each career and from each person.

 

Some of the Blog sites that I found most interesting are Edmodo, and http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration, LifeAfterCollege, and  MakeItHappen.  These educational blogs would be perfect for what I need to expose my students to. 

References

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.