Summary of C4T #2

For my second Comments-4-Teachers assignment, I was given Mrs. Goerend's Blog: Live the Conversation. I like Mrs. Goerend's style of blogging because she uses italic and bold tools in her writing. When I'm reading, I can tell that wherever it is bold or italicized, this is something she thinks is important, and I should definitely pay attention.

In the first post I commented on, Mrs. Goerend was talking about different levels of abilities in the classroom and how the children are separated according to these levels. Mrs. Goerend expressed sadness at hearing a child say, "The red group is the kids that are bad at math, isn't it?" after discovering that the children were grouped into red, white, and blue (the school's colors). Mrs. Goerend expressed that the red group was not composed of the children with low abilities in math. She believes that children are able to notice who is better at some things and who is not, and this can be a factor in confidence and morale. She expressed that these students just need to be taught differently, and that didn't necessarily make them poor students.

I agreed with Mrs. Goerend in that some students should understand that they just require a different style and/or pace, as well as additional practice. It is so important that students feel confident in themselves as learners. Each child needs to know that they have the potential to be great. This goes back to expressing positive expectations for every student.

For Mrs. Goerend's second post, she wrote about a discussion she had with her class concerning the subject "Why Blog?" The students said that blogging is good for sharing, peer editing, making grading easier for the teacher, and getting feedback, opinions, and ideas from other people. Basically, it's about making connections.

For my comment on this second post, I let Mrs. Goerend know that I think it's great she's encouraging her students to think about the importance and advantages of blogging. I also wrote that I thought peer editing and the feedback from this activity are extremely helpful in improving a student's classwork. Also, I think sharing is a great way to further one's education. If you find out something that's really interesting, why not share it with someone!