International Teacher's Blogs

The first international class blog that I found was for The Livewires a year 3 and 4 class in New Zealand. They use their blog to stay connected to each other during the school year and the holiday's. There really isn't much on this blog currently because they just came back from their summer break. However, they did post about their school's annual triathlon which they just took part in.

The second international class blog that I found was for Mrs. Lowe's Area 11 student's. Mrs. Lowe and her class are located in western Australia. They are using their blog as an experiment to get to know the technology of the blog medium. They are also using their blog to post their writings about their class activities.

Blogs in K-12 Classrooms

The first blog I found was Miss Lee's Classroom Blog. Ms. Lee is a 4th grade teacher and uses her blog to connect herself and her students to their families. She posts what they do in class along with the homework that is due the next day on her daily blog posts. She has made her blog fun by posting a few of her favorite websites including ones for Mad Libs, and Learn to Speak Chinese. She also has links to her classroom website and her Advanced Math Blog.

The second blog I found was for Mr. Craig's 11th Grade British Literature Blog. Mr. Craig is a teacher at Missisquoi Valley Union High School. He uses his blog not only to update his class on whats going on but also uses it as homework assignments. He not only assigns his students work on the blog but also on Facebook. Another interesting thing is that he recommends using Wikipedia most teachers wouldn't touch Wikipedia with a 10-foot pole! Overall Mr. Craig's blog is very educational for his students. He is helping them to navigate the web in a very efficent way and I only wish my high school teachers would have done that for me!

ACCESS

ACCESS is an Alabama state-wide program built to help high schools offer more to their students. Some Alabama schools are unable to offer either the remedial course levels and/or the advanced and AP course levels. ACCESS is designed to remedy this problem by giving these high schools and their students access to these classes. ACCESS allows for high school students with out access to classes that they need to connect with other schools that have these classes. It helps them to be able to complete their high school graduation programs.
ACCESS works by connecting teachers and students in different areas. They may be connected at the same time or at different times. There are also many ways of being connected. They can be connected through video-conferencing or web-based modes of delivery. Video-conferencing is usually synchronous, streaming, and has specific office hours. It is a virtual face-to-face. The web-based modes are normally asynchronous, accessed by a web portal, have multi-media content, and also hold office hours. This method is the similar to going to a web site. ACCESS also can blend these modes to create a more balanced feel to the program.