Educational Blogging

 Educational blogging can be used in a variety of ways whether that is to inform parents, enhance a student's understanding, or to spread knowledge to other educators. For many, a blog gives parents and students the ability to stay updated on certain topics pertaining to the classroom. Creating a classroom blog can ensure that communication given out to all students and parents so that everyone is up to date on any important information.

An image of a school desk with a test on it

Additionally, reading other educator's blogs as a teacher can be helpful when understanding current topics that are important within the field. For instance, a very popular topic of standardized testing is discussed and debated among many educators. After reading some of my peer's blogs pertaining to standardized testing, I have gathered several points as to why it is harmful to students. In Saylor Johnson's blog post Standardized Testing, she points out that one of the most negative takeaways from this practice is the various test taking skills among students. Every student is different when it comes to how they take a test. For some, they can be the brightest and most knowledgeable on a subject, but when it comes time to take an exam they do not perform well. Additionally, there is an issue with expecting one test to determine an entire semester/year worth of material in one day. Haylie Daugherty explains this further in her blog post titled Negatives of Standardized Testing. Many students can wake up on the day of the exam and have a rough start to their morning. This may cause them to be off the entire day and bring down their normal performance. Lastly, as a future English/ESL teacher myself, ensuring that non-native English speakers receive the modifications they need in order to be successful within the classroom is extremely important to me. Audrey Blackburn does an excellent job of bringing in the other side to this issue as a future Spanish educator in the blog Standardized Testing and Non-native English Speakers. Expecting students whose second language is English, take a standardized test is that language is an issue within itself. Outside of the other issues previously mentioned, not allowing the student the full opportunity to show their knowledge is unfair and in ways unethical. Overall, it is helpful to read other future educators posts about certain hot topics within the field of education. 

Personally, I find blogging to be extremely helpful when it comes to sharing ideas to other educators and informing parents/students. I enjoy having information easily assessable, so ensuring that I have any important updates available in one place is important to me. By having a classroom blog, I can allow my students and parents to stay updated on any changes within our classroom or special projects we have been working on. Additionally, the idea of allowing my students to create their own blog is fun to me. This can allow students to enhance their knowledge on certain topics and express their ideas in a different way. 

Home Environment

A Drawing of a Family

A student's home environment is critical to how they will function within the outside world. A child receives most of their knowledge from within their home. They model their parents/guardians and carry that behavior with them into other areas of their lives. Most of the time, a teacher is one of the people in a student's life to evaluate their home environment.  

For every teacher, understanding a child's home environment is critical to grasping their behavior, success, intellectual abilities, and social skills within the classroom. Most of the time, a child with a positive home environment will be a bubbly and bright child that fits within the average norm of their peers. Their parents are typically more involved with what goes on in the classroom and wants to be informed on how they can help while at home. On the other hand, those that tend to steer from the average norm on certain levels, typically have a dysfunctional home environment. Now, this does not mean it is a set one or the other; in other words, just because a child is a bright student and social around their peers, does not mean they have an amazing home life. This is not always the case and it should be notable that every child does not fit within the norm of these statistics. The main way to gain more insight into a child's home environment aside from observation, is by using an informal assessment to gather data. For example, some teachers may use journals as a way to gather data about what may be going on at home. Giving a child the creative freedom to write about whatever it is they are interested in or passionate about, may allow them to open up about themselves. Additionally, reaching out to every child's parent on a regular basis is another great way to determining what their life is like outside of the classroom. Setting up one on one parent meetings will allow for a teacher and parent connection to form so that the student can feel supported in more than one area of life.