Check Out These Blogs

I've been looking at teacher blogs listed on this web site:
http://theedublogger.com/check-out-these-class-blogs/

Here are 5 that I found interesting:

Visual Arts at Taylor Lakes Primary School  http://tlpsart.edublogs.org/

This blog from a visual arts class in a primary school in Australia has a peaceful blue color scheme.  The plain blue background sets off the children's artwork nicely.  If the background were busy, it would take away our focus from the details in the artwork.  The photos of artwork on this blog are clear.  I appreciate that the teacher who took the photos set her students work with a plain background as a professional artist would.

Teacher text below the collections of artwork also put the kid's art front and center.  It gives the feeling of a gallery web site.

I also like the simplicity of the date on a small tab on the side and the unconfusing menu bars.

My favorite thing on the whole blog though was a special page that linked to art work students made at home.  What a wonderful way to encourage kids to work independently, outside of assignments.  That is the true goal of education to me, that what we teach be used in life!  The students must be so proud to see their independent creations valued this way.

Art from Skyline Middle School http://capitolofcreativity.weebly.com/

I love the fun feel of this blog.  They way the teacher blogs about students" finding their artistic powers" and her tab to the "Art Lair" and even identifying herself as having a secret identity.  On the home page there is a great slide show that shows the students at an art show holding up signs shaped like hearts and arrows in front of their work that say things like  "Artist" or "I love Art."

Having the Artsonia permission form right there for parents makes it really easy and clear about how parents and students allow artwork to be posted.

The detail that the teacher uses to explain her projects can be well appreciated by students families and by other teachers.

Kindergarten From Bahrain 
http://krebs.edublogs.org/

This blog's design is not as beautiful or relaxing as the art class blogs above.  In fact, I find the plain white and black to be pretty sterile.  However, I think this blog does some pretty interesting things.

First, I really like the banner with the teacher and student names all linked together.  It feels good to see the names connected and I bet students and families enjoy seeing their name in the graphic.

I was pretty interested in the Netiquette and Blog Comments Guidelines.  Instructing students in how to comment well on a blog would be a great lesson before having students write on a blog.  Her guidelines are clear and teach students how to critique work of all media.  Also, the tab on how to cite images is great.  I worry about students not understanding the importance of giving credit where credit is due.

I also think the visitor comment section is fun and clear to use.


The Bird Nest, a 3rd Grade Class in Canada
 http://thebirdnest.edublogs.org/

I love the eye catching banner of a collage bird nest.  I got right away that this is a blog about nurturing young readers and writers.

This blog is in a time of transition, so there are not student blogs to look at.  However, I liked the teacher posts and photos.  I also was interested in the resources pages.  These pages had many links made in a grid called "symbaloo".  This looked like a concise and visual way of linking to outside pages of interest.

VA Middle School Math Teachers Sharing Blog
http://mathwithmrwatson.weebly.com/

I was intrigued right away with the idea of a teacher sharing blog.  This blog is not for students, but for the blog writer to share ideas for technology and lessons.  Although I'm not a math teacher and wouldn't use these lessons, it's a great concept for a blog.

One of the best things about the way the posts are created on this blog, is that at the end of the post, in big text is a section titled "Why a teacher might care."  The text after this heading is in bright red and clearly outlines how the post is useful.

I also thought it worked well to have the ability to sort the posts by curriculum standard number.

Lastly, I love the banner text:  "Big Mistakes = Big Learning."

It might be fun if there were ways for other teachers to share lesson ideas on the web site.  Maybe teachers could send the blogger a posting for approval, or other teachers could join the site.