Teacher Blogs

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. James Anthony Froude

Teaching high school is hard, not so much the preparation but the performance. The teacher must present to an audience, sometime reluctant, sometime hostile, five days a week, four to seven times a day. These presentations would be analogous in the corporate world to hostile board meetings or sales calls to reluctant buyers. The audience of students is tired, diverse in skill and interest, surly at times, and understands that if they misbehave the teacher’s choices are limited to taking the time to correct the offense in the middle of the lesson, ignore the slight and go on, or remove the offending party. After removing the student, the teacher must fill out paperwork, stay after school to monitor detention, justify their actions to administration and parents, and take time from their planning or personal time to again teach the material the student missed because the student chose not to cooperate. However, and this is why teachers teach, in every class there are wonderful minds to be shaped, eager to learn, sponges waiting to absorb learning so they can grow to their full potential. The teacher must also reach these students while controlling the small number of reluctant learners.

To manage both ends of the learning spectrum, creative tools that allow a teacher to reach a broad audience in an informative, entertaining manner are critically important and continually need to be developed. It is also helpful if the tool is time and location flexible. Technology is an important, evolving asset that can assist the teacher and the student by expanding time, access, and information for each group. A teaching blog is technology that is easy, effective, and potentially fun for both teachers and students. The blog expands class time by providing a resource for students to use in or outside of class. It reinforces learning, allows students to examine material covered in the class period, to access additional information related to the lesson but not covered in class, and provides a forum to connect with the teacher and other students. It is effective because it accommodates different learning styles and differentiation. A visual learner will be aided by viewing the material rather than hearing it, and a kinesthetic learner can interact with the material by selecting links. Finally, a blog can be fun because of the expansive and creative nature of the medium.