Reflecting on My Blog: Mid Point

At the beginning of this assignment I was extremely skeptical. I have never been good with technology and my use of technology only goes as far as creating a Power Point and adding posts on Facebook. I think another reason why I didn’t like the idea of creating a blog was that when you googled our names anyone could read your whole life story which is uncomfortable and safe. Obviously as I progressed I learned that there are ways to block it from the public and so on. The first day that I sat down to start this assignment I was overwhelmed and wanted to give up. As I read and watched some tutorials I learned how to create a blogger account and how to design my layout and chose the templates. I selected the one that seemed to best fit my personality, and picked a pink background to make it more fun! I learned how to add the posts which were fairly simple, and then added my “about me” section. I had no idea that adding a post was different then adding a page. Then when you added a page it didn’t automatically add a tab. You had to insert that yourself. After reaching out to a few classmates and reading the helpful emails from the professor I began to make progress with my posts. I had no trouble relating the textbook to the material that I wished to add on my blog. That is one thing that I enjoyed about this textbook. It is an easy read and I was able to relate my college career and times that I have spent in the classroom. School is clearly working! Then came the day that I attempted to tackle the gadget… I had a very difficult time just understanding the difference between a gadget/widget/wizard, etc. It is still something that I find a bit confusing. Anyways, I read the emails, the posts, watched some videos and I still did not get it. After speaking with some co-workers at the restaurant I work out, I found out that one man is in the process of becoming an online teacher, and knew all about blogs! He was able to successfully answer all my questions and help me clean up my mess that I began with. From that point on creating my blog was not as hard as I made it seem, such as many other things in my life. This assignment once again proved that I can do a lot more than I give myself credit for; and although I may not like what I am doing, I can accomplish it if I keep an open mind! All in all it has actually been a fun journey learning how to create a blog, and it was even more fun to see how creative some of my classmates were! As of right now I have 5 pages titled “home, Goodreads, picture books, annotated bib, and author study,” and I have added 4 actual posts to the main page. This includes read aloud, my future classroom library, about myself, quotes, and books that I have read so far this summer. I also believe that I have successfully added 5 gadgets! Like others in our class I have added a Good reads gadget, a calendar, a “share it” gadget, the YouTube video bar, and a list of books. I also learned how to put pictures on a few pages. It was cool to kind of see the whole semester of what we have been working hard on accumulated onto one website with our name and picture on it. I like to think of it as an online portfolio. Well, at least that’s what I like to call mine. I can definitely see how these blog sites can be helpful to teachers. It can be used as a way for them to communicate with parents, faculty, and even to let anyone know what is going on in their classroom. Teachers could use these blogs as a monthly newsletter, to show off their students projects, to keep parents informed of different units or standards, and to show the principle how much they have been learning! I will definitely keep an open mind to technology in my classroom and blogs in general. It is a great way to share information with friends, colleagues, and with strangers if that is necessary. I am honestly thankful to be given this opportunity to work with this blog and will continue to see what I can do with it.