Blogging About Bloggers: Totally Meta (Or Week 3 Part 1 cause I am a little behind schedule)

For this week, I was assigned to read over some blogs and then reflect on three of them. While doing that, I discovered something: there are a lot of very boring educational blogs out there. I am not judging...much....because I am sure mine is guilty of the same thing. I did manage to make it through a few, enough to do this assignment, and some of them were not difficult. I occasionally would yell out, "Ooooh! I like this one!" At that point, I would know I had found a keeper! The below video pretty much sums up my reaction when I found each one....

But enough snobby reactions to other peoples' hard work! I chose three blogs to review and reflect on and I will just jump right in to it! The first blog I read was by Google Certified teacher Alice Barr. I read her post from March 19, 2014. I had to go so far back because most of her posts are just Diigo links, but I will get back to that later. This posting was about a personal development day that her school had.

"Take off your teacher hat and put on your learner beret. This is an opportunity to cross pollinate across learning areas and grade levels."

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The whole point of it was for teacher to spend time together and find cooperative and creative ways to solve simple problems. I loved how passionate Alice was about the whole thing, and I absolutely adored the above scripted phrase. It was just so endearing that is stuck out to me. Which was a stark contrast from the rest of the blog. As I mentioned, the majority of the blog was lists of useful links. Which, in all honesty, many of the links were very interesting and informative. But, it did not make for a very interesting reading experience. I did not feel like it let me know her personality well when it had no real input from her. But it did show me how blogs could be utilized as a way to just put useful information out for everyone to easily access, especially since not everyone uses Diigo!

The next blog I read was by Richard Byrne. I read quite a few posts by him, but I am going to talk about his posting from June 17, 2014. Richard wrote about Zaption, which is this fantastic program that allows you to create video quizzes for students to take: and it doesn't have to cost you as the educator a thing! Which is great! I really liked that he writes about how the technology can be applied specifically in the classroom. He does this in every blog post. Overall I found his blog very informative and easy to read. Not only that, but he does so in a way that shows his personality while still being professional. It is a perfect balance. This blog introduces me to great new ideas for integrating technology in the classroom and one easy, well-thought-out blog.

The last blog I read was actually not on the list, but it is the blogger who I am planning on reaching out to for my field hours, so, I figured I would address his blog! Nicholas Provenzano, a.k.a the Nerdy Teacher, is an pretty incredible. Read his blog, maybe read it twice if you have the time. I read basically every posting he had, but, I am going to specifically talk about his posting from April 21, 2014. He talks about moving away from bubble testing and other evaluations in favor of project-based assessments. As a wannabe Social Studies teacher, this whole concept screams "AWESOME" to me. Students can build their own assignment, and use any sort of outlet. And I can help them by introducing them to things to help them accomplish that project. I have never been a huge fan of tests as a for of assessment, so, this is fantastic! 

Overall, I read tons of useful information about different technologies I can use in my own future classroom. I also learned some aspects of blogging that I want to use in my own blog. I also discovered how I want to demonstrate myself in my blog. I had been concerned about introducing too much of myself in my blog: making it too personal. But, I am seeing now that is just makes me more presentable and engaging.

P.S.- This is fantastic, and I know what I am doing on my first day of school! SoulPancake is the absolute best!