Thing #3

I think blogs are useful throughout college and your teaching career.  Blogging is a good way to get your ideas out there and document what you think in a public way.  I think having a blog can be very useful in the education field once you become a teacher.  Having a blog that the students in your classroom can view can be a great way to communicate with your students.  In most classrooms there are shy children who don't like to participate in classroom disucssion not because they have nothing to say but because they are shy and nervous about talking in front of a classroom full of people.  I should know I use to be one of these students.  A good idea for teachers who want to engage their children without forcing them to talk in class when they are not comfortable with that idea yet is to use a blog.  A teacher can post a disscussion question on the blog and tell the students they must make a comment on it and carry out a discussion that way.  This will help a normally shy person get involved in a way that will make their ideas heard.  With positive reinforcement by commenting "good job" or "you make a good point"  you will bring confidence to that child and encourage them to participate in the classroom discussion as well.  Other teachers may disagree but I believe technology is going to become one of the biggest parts of the classroom in the near future and if we use it right we will be able to help in a child's education in ways we never imagined possible in decades past.