IX Forum Nova Friburgo / Duque de Caxias

IX FORUM NOVA FRIBURGO / DUQUE DE CAXIAS

I'd like to thank the teachers who attended my session on 10th October 2008 in Nova Friburgo:

Poliana (Cultura Inglesa Campos)
Renata and Rosana (Cultura Inglesa Nova Friburgo)
Rodrigo, Tony and Alexandre (Cultura Inglesa Juiz de Fora)

I do hope my session was of some help for you all. If you need any support, just let me know...

Come on!!! Let's start blogging...

10 Ways to a Killer Blog

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tips cartoons)

Keeping students interested

Many teachers who start to use blogs find the novelty factor is enough to create student interest in starting to use them. However, blogs work best when learners get into the habit of using them. If learners are not encouraged to post to their blogs frequently, then they can quickly be abandoned. A failed experiment. Here, the teacher in the role of facilitator is vital for maintaining student interest.

Here are some ideas to how this can be done:
• Respond to student posts quickly, writing a short comment related to the content. Ask questions about what the learner writes to create stimulus for writing.

• Students should be actively encouraged to read and respond (through the commenting feature of the blog) to their classmates.

• Writing to the blog could be required, and it may form part of the class assessment. Students should be encouraged to post their writing homework on the blog instead of only giving it to the teacher.

Tips for managing learner blog settings

• Use the 'Settings' in Blogger to add yourself (under Members) as Administrator of the learner blog. This is invaluable if students later forget usernames or passwords, and can also help if inappropriate posts are published

• Make sure you change the setting and turn the 'Comments' feature on. This will allow the others to respond to things the students write on their learner blogs.

• Also in 'Settings', you will find an option to receive an email whenever a student publishes their blog. This will save you time regularly checking learner blogs to see if any of your students have posted. Another way of being informed of this is to use the 'Site Feed' function(discussed further below).

Testimonials

"I used to have a group of teenagers aged 13-14 years old at the end of the pre-intermediate level. Apart from being a bit weak, they used to be "I couldn't care less" type of learner. We decided to experiment with blogs in order to motivate them to produce. In this sense, it was very effective. It was definitely worthwhile!"
Elizangela, teacher

"Bom, eu acho que esse blog é uma vantagem para nós alunos. Desde que a nossa professora criou esse blog nós temos uma oportunidade de estudar mais pelo computador. Como nossa aula é só segunda e quarta, fica mais facil saber mais. A Karla coloca varios listenings e tem varias coisas legais para a gente fazer. Nós aprendemos brincando e isso é o melhor". Joao Pedro, 9

"Ter blog é muito legal!" Natalia, 11

"...fico feliz e animado colocando coisas novas no blog como musicas, desenhos, fotos..." Guilherme, 10

"Ficou mais divertido aprender. Podemos aprender em casa, é só acessar na internet." Rafael, 11

"Também estimula para aprender escrever as palavras em ingles sem erros, já que digitamos textos em inglês para postar no blog. Adoro o blog." Gabriel, 11

" Eu acho que o blog é muito bom, pois ele é um meio de divulgar nosssos trabalhos e também de aprender mais." Vinicius, 11

" Acho que vale a pena criar um blog pois é uma forma de exposiçao e comunicaçao do que a gente aprende em sala de aula" Joao Victor, 11

" ...empolga todos os alunos já que nos dias de hoje a maior parte utiliza a internet em suas horas livres..." Isadora, 12

How to start blogging

Why should we blog with our students?

There are many reasons why you may choose to use blogs with students. One of the best reasons is to provide a real audience for student writing. Usually, the teacher is the only person who reads student writing, and the focus of this reading is usually on form, not content. With weblogs, students can find themselves writing for a real audience that, apart from the teacher, may include their peers, students from other classes, or even other countries, their parents, and potentially anyone with access to the Internet.

Here are some other reasons for using blogs:
* our students are digital natives of technology
* to provide extra reading practice
* sense of progress and achievement
* to increase the sense of community in the classroom
* to encourage a process-writing approch
* to foster learners' autonomy and independence
* it's interactive
* it caters for multi-learner types
* ...

* it's great fun!!!

What's a blog?

"A blog (short for weblog) is a frequently updated website that often resembles an online journal. It's so easy to create and update a blog - it requires only basic access to the Internet, and a minimum of technical know-how. Because of this, it is one of the easiest ways to publish student writing on the WWW. It's almost as easy as sending an email.

Nowadays, blogs can also display photos and some people are using them with audio and even video, (...), showing how a simple text-based blog can be used to great effect with your English language learners."

Graham Stanley, 2005