Thing #4

SP-817 Math Blog
This blog was very interesting because it was an ingenious way to keep absent students aware of what was going on in class. The blog was written from a student's perspective which made it easy for their peers to understand. It was not written in academic language, which is often how teachers present the information. Instead it was written in social language which would help even those students who are learning English. Students learn topics much better when one of their peers explains it. It could be a student-generated study tool for tests and exams that would help them much more than a non-interactive worksheet review ever could. This site was very useful for the teacher to also see what misconceptions students may have had during class and have an opportunity to reteach them.

CoolCatTeacher
This blog was both informative and scary. It is every teacher's nightmare that one of our disgruntled students will secretly film us and get us fired. This blog was written for information purposes and it performed that purpose very well. The teacher writing this blog however was not concerned with making sure she was 100% grammatically correct and in blogging society,it seems acceptable since it is not seen as a literary work. It is acceptable because even though it is supposed to have valid information, it is still someone's thoughts and opinions, almost like a virtual diary that other people can read and comment on. The blog is however similar to other types of writing because it has an introduction, body and conclusion, yet different because the format is very loose in structure.

Teaching 2.0 Teaching Brevity
This blog was very interesting because it was a well-thought out persuasive for teachers to consider emphasizing brevity in the classroom. This is very similar to other persuasive writings I have seen before, but different because since it was a blog, it had hyperlinks that made it much more interesting. It was also interesting to note that this particular blogger chose to include a short biography and a picture like most authors include on the back cover of their books. This blog was structured more like an editorial in a newspaper and captured my interest because of it. I also noticed that the author charged those who would respond to use the very concept he was writing about, which I enjoyed. Of course some of the responses followed and others did not, but it was wonderful to see that some agreed, others disagreed and some wanted more information. One commenter even gave the blogger another thought to blog about which is great because that person obviously enjoyed the blog and planned to read others by that author.

Weblogg-ed
This blog was completely different from the other 3 blogs in that it was 2 quotes from articles. The writer simply wrote a brief comment on the quotes, then asked for comments. This was much more interactive because the blogger was less concerned with showing off his writing skills and more concerned with other people's opinions and what could be done about the situation. This blog was by far my favorite because the focus was on the comments as opposed to one person's view on a subject. This type of blog could be a very easy way to get the student's opinion on topics discussed in class. I would enjoy having this type of blog the most because it is a way of having a debate or discussion outside of the classroom.