USA teachers use blogs in classrooms

http://www.missfrandsensclass.blogspot.com/
Ms. Sara Frandsen has a class blog in Carol Stream, Illinois. The page is very entertaining. She has links to educational websites for her children to explore, and posts animated slideshows of activities they have done in class. The slideshows are highly structured and have music and plenty of graphics. The wording she uses to introduce a blog is on a very elementary level, which gave me the impression that the blog is incorporated into her daily lesson plans. She has "listen now" buttons at every blog so that if a word was too difficult for her second-graders, they could have the blog read to them so that they can understand. The blog also seems to serve as a connection for parents. By keeping parents informed of the day-to-day happenings, Ms. Frandsen is allowing for parents to be a part of the educational process. Ms. Frandsen also helps children learn about and appreciate technology by having them record themselves for a blog assignment. The children have been reading non-fictional books about various animals and Ms. Frandsen collected pictures of each group's animal and put together slideshows for each group. Every picture in the slideshow also features a child reading facts about the animal. The class blog also has “friends” which include other teachers at the school who also blog to enhance their lesson plans. I would have never thought that blogs could be so useful in an elementary classroom setting!

http://www.mrsheatonsclass1.blogspot.com/
Mrs. Heaton’s blog was my favorite. She teaches science, math, and writing at Mossy Oaks Elementary School in Beaufort, South Carolina. Her blog style seems to be very similar to Ms. Frandsen’s in that she too creates slideshows of classroom activities. One of my favorite things that she does is the “picture stories.” As an assignment, the children put together a storybook about worms. They drew pictures illustrating the story and voiced the background. Some students added music. The picture stories were very fascinating. It seems as though the children do many picture story assignments. There were seven or eight blog posts each with a picture of a different community. Children were instructed to draw a picture of a community that could help combat pollution. The children then gave a summary about their solution underneath the pictures in the blog. Her blog is very popular with her students (outside the classroom assignments) and their parents. The parents even commented on some of her blog posts about how much they appreciate her going the “extra mile” to put together such a blog with slideshows so that they feel as if they were there.