Blogs to Blog About

For this week's entry, we have to take a look at three different blogs and answer four different questions on each of them.  Here are those three blogs...


Blog 1:  http://learningismessy.com/blog/
"Brian Crosby is the author of this blog and a teacher who specializes in “at risk” students. He shares his ideas for learning in a personal style and encourages other teachers to understand that sometimes learning isn’t linear."
Question 1.  Brian tends to write about the important issues that we face everyday as teachers such as having to deal with difficult issues with administrators and trying to help our students to learn in the best way possible.  I think the general audience of this blog is meant to be anybody who is in the field of education.  He wants us to feel comfortable to know that we are not alone as teachers and that anything we can do is possible because there is always a "mess" that needs cleaning. 

Question 2.  I think that this is an important blog, not simply for those of us in this course, but any of us who plan to be teachers.  We can learn a lot from his insight as an educator and from the issues he discusses with his readers.  I would definitely consider adding this to my reader to continue to see what types of things he discusses with his readers. 

Question 3.  http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=1240 
This particularly post caught my eye for a few different reasons.  One, it was a good reflection on Brian's academci experience with his students this year and secondly, because it included Grace Corrigan, Christa McAullife's mother.  Years ago, when I was in elementary school, I got to see Grace speak at my school since my art teacher had helped build a space shuttle classroom out of a school bus. 

Blog 2:
 http://blog.chegg.com/

This blog is attached to the Chegg website; a student services site for planning and study help. The blog gives advice about finding inexpensive textbooks, study habits, and scholarships. Be sure to check out the post, What Does Your Major Say About You?

 

Question 1.  The authors are varied, so it is hard to determine exactly what their agenda is.  However, in the description of what the blog it states that it is meant to be an overall helpful tool for students.  Perhaps the authors want students and teachers to feel comfortable knowing that they can get information from this blog. 

Question 2.  I think that this blog will actually be helpful not so much for me, but it will be helpful for my future students.  I want my students to be able to feel like that if I am not able to provide the help that they need that I can point them in the direction of support on other sites. 

Question 3.  This was probably one of my favorite posts: http://blog.chegg.com/2012/10/16/biden-v-ryan-anything-goes/.  I think the reason why I enjoyed this post is because it simplifies the information about the recent Vice-Presidential debate and makes it more palatable than having to dive in head first if you didn't see the debate itself.  Students are going to want to read ideas that are not going to overwhelm their minds. 

Okay, seriously, how can we not be interested in a blog with this name? 

Blog 3:  http://funnymonkey.com/blog 

Funny Monkey blog is highlights all the news and information related to Funny Monkey, a business dedicated to making educational materials free. In addition to news, the blog also covers major educational issues, technology, and classroom solutions.

Question 1.  The author like Chegg's seems to be varied.  However, they are very interested in presenting important ideas to the academic community, primarily for those of us who plan to be teachers or administrators.  The blog audience is mostly those who are interested in the "Op-Ed" aspect of education.  This is an important blog for educators to read because it will keep us to date on what the current issues are for teachers.   

Question 2.  Again, this is not a blog that may be beneficial to this class, but it is more beneficial to the overall educator.  I want to be able to keep myself informed and not constantly feel like I am being left in the dark about what is important and what issues teachers are facing these days.  Students should read this blog to gain an understanding of what the current ideas are about education are that floating about. 

Question 3.  http://funnymonkey.com/if-we-outsource-curriculum-standards-assessment-whats-left  This is a very important post, it was the most recent one from earlier this week.  We need to start thinking about what values we place on standardized tests.  Is Common Core going to affect this? Are we going prevent our students from being independent thinkers?  What is going to happen?  What is Pearson's role in this?