International Classrooms That Use Blogs

The first International classroom blog that I found was powered by Miss Wyatt of Tasmania, Australia. She did not release the exact name of her school, but on the blog, she referred to it as a district school. Ms. Wyatt teaches a 6th and 7th grade class at the school. Her blogs included assignments, links to the students blogs, and several articles telling about what the class was involved in that week. What made this class interesting to me, was what you see in the picture. The class in the picture is Ms. Wyatt's class, and the boy you see on the screen is from Canada. The two classes are friends that exchange information through the blogs. In this particular picture, they used Skype Chat to communicate with each other. So for about an hour that day Australia and Canada were in the same classroom. Pretty neat stuff. If you would like to see more of Ms. Wyatt's classroom blog then CLICK HERE.



The second International school I found that used classroom blogs was the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India. Gary Coyle is the teacher in charge of the blog. He teaches 8th Grade Humanities. Most of his blogs usually include the major points they covered in class, a reflection of the assignment, and links that give examples of the material. His blog isn't the best I've seen, but he did just recently complete a Master's Degree in Educational Technology at San Diego State University. If you would like to see Mr. Coyle's 8th Grade Humanities classroom blog just CLICK HERE.

American Schools That Use Blogs In The Classroom

The first school I found that used blogs in the classroom was William E. Norris Elementary, which is located in Southampton, Massachusetts. Mr. Kevin Hodgson is over the sixth grade at the school and incorporates the use of blogs in their daily classroom routine. Mr. Hodgson posts reading, writing, math, English, and homework assignments directly to the blog to allow his students to know what it due and when. He also posts test dates, links that may help the students understand the material better, and interactive games that make learning more appealing. Recently, he has added videos of puppet shows that his students performed for younger classes. His purpose is to " allow students to share their work" and to "allow students to view assignments". If you would like to view Mr. Hodgson's classroom blog CLICK HERE


The second school I found that had a classroom that used blogs was Julien G. Hathaway Elementary School in Oxnard, California. The person that is in control of the blog is a first grade teacher named Sarah Puglisi. She has named her classes' blog "How Beautiful You Are" because of her love for children. Her blog is used to display pictures of events that have happened in her class, and it is used to display the work of her students. She has pictures of them performing an earthquake drill. She also has pictures of their pet hermit crabs. Most recently, her posts have discussed how she has taught the children about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. If you would like to view Mrs. Puglisi's class blog then CLICK HERE

Did You Know?

The movie showed me tons of things that I either did not know or did not realize. The one point that really cleared it up for me was that it took "radio" 38 years to reach a market audience of 50 million while it only took the "computer/Internet" 4 years to reach that number. The number of college graduates also shocked me. I had assumed that, prior to the video, the U.S. produced more college graduates than any other country in the world. I was wrong. I am almost 21 years old, and I have grown up with every great technological advancement known to man.


Before the video, I knew that technology played a big part in my life, but I guess I never thought of it being that big in the lives of everyone else. I do play video games and watch TV . I have a MySpace account and visit YouTube often. Heck, I've even bought and sold items on eBay. And I text message most of my friends everyday. The Internet is a great tool. It has answered questions, helped find people, helped people find spouses, helped book flights and hotel rooms, helped book tickets to concerts and sporting events, and it has helped me throughout school with various papers and projects. And now I wonder how life would be without it all? That, I cannot imagine.

ACCESS Program

ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide. Governor Bob Riley and State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joesph B. Morton initiated ACCESS in 2006. The mission and goal are very simple and similar. It was designed to provide all students will and equal opportunity education and to make sure that everyone received the best quality education possible. ACCESS offers advanced diploma course, dual enrollment courses, remediation courses, advanced placement courses, and additional courses that that students school may not offer themselves. ACCESS incorporates and utilizes distance learning. Distance learning means that teachers and students can be in two different places and can communicate through the Internet.



In my opinion, ACCESS sounds like a great idea. As technology had advanced so has education and ACCESS uses technology to provide students and teachers more ways to communicate and learn. I think that all schools with this system can benefit, but I especially believe that lower income schools and inner city schools will benefit the most. In the case of these schools, ACCESS can offer the same education that is received at all schools. ACCESS should offer students a stepping stone for the future, preparing them better for college, and offering the chance of completing dual enrollment for early college credits. ACCESS will make a great stride for the future of education.

ALEX-Alabama Learning Exchange

Today I researched information about ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange). ALEX is a website that acts as a community for teachers. Teachers can log in to ALEX and post and create lesson plans which other teachers can use in their classrooms. ALEX contains lesson plans from traditional classes, such as, Math, English, and Science. Yet it also includes the lesson plans for modern classes that range from Driver and Traffic Safety to Career/Technical Education. Alex also covers all grades, K-12. Each lesson plan includes the State of Alabama Quality of Teaching Standard the lesson satisfies. Most of the lesson plans even include the time the lesson will take. Another great feature is that you can use a search engine within the site to help you find exactly what you are looking for. It also is very helpful by including valuable educational web links.

As a new teacher, this website would be extremely helpful. I never knew such a site existed, and i was even more impressed by all of the help it contained. Having a website that contains lessons plans for a variety of subjects would make my job a lot easier. The greatest relief is knowing that it is all state approved. Also, my favorite part is that it contains other educational web links. I think ALEX is a great tool for any teacher.

About Me

Hello everyone! My name is Matthew Quimby. I'm from Atmore, Alabama, which is only about an hour away from Mobile. I'm attending South to get my Physical Education degree. I'm currently the Junior Varsity and Varsity Boy's Assistant Basketball Coach at Escambia Academy, which is where I graduated from in 2006. I have a great family, along with some of the best friends a guy could ask for. I also have a wonderful girlfriend named Lonni, and we have been going out for over two years now. Other than that, I love sports, funny movies, and anything that involves having fun. So thanks.

Welcome!

Hey everyone! This is my first blog, and I hope you enjoy my blogs in the near future.