#70Days Student Blogging - getting ready!

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A letter to my students ... introducing student blogging!

Dear Students,

This year you will have the opportunity to blog about your journey in math.  I’m hoping that as we get into blogging we’ll find other high school students who will enjoy reading and commenting on your posts.

Blogging about learning is inherently reflective thinking.  It provides a structure for connecting new learning to prior experiences.  It offers the opportunity to explore conceptual understanding. And last it helps you to solidify your own learning strategies.

The expectations are simple – I expect you to submit one blog post per week and to respond to other classmates’ blogs as often as possible – at least 1 per week.  I, in turn, will read and respond as often as I can to as many blogs as I can with the goal of responding to everyone’s at least once in a six weeks’ marking period.  In the first six weeks I don’t plan to “grade” your blog.  We’ll talk about assessment as the second six weeks marking period gets started.

I’ll prepare the blogging platform for you since we all need to use the same one.  I expect our blogging to begin by the middle of September.

I have a few generic blog prompts for you.  In class I may post specific ideas based on our unit of study.  Your post simply must be math related (from the news, your reading, our classwork, or your imagination!)

1. Create a graph on Desmos, pasted it in your blog and describe the graph.
2. Create a problem for the class to explore.  Write about the problem in your blog post but withhold the solution.  Put your thoughts about the solution in a Google doc.
3. Explain in detail something that you understand about a concept, lesson, or unit.
4. Explain something new you have learned recently about math.
5. Go to Explore Math!  There are more than a dozen fascinating sites about math.  Choose one, explore, write, enjoy!
6. Make a list of 5 things related to our unit (or math in general).  Why did you choose these five?
7. What learning or studying strategies are working well for you?
8. What new math words have you learned?  Explain the etymology of the words.
9. Write about a complex task by breaking it down, explaining it carefully as if for a younger student.
10. Write creatively about math – use the vocabulary words in a song, story or poem.

Last, I know you don’t need for me to mention etiquette but just in case, remember, live and blog “above the line!”  And if you need to ask if something is “above the line” then just don’t do it :)

By the way, I model what I am asking you to do.  I blog about my work as your math teacher.  You are more than welcome to follow along!  Find me at Algebra’s Friend!

Enthusiastically,

Mrs. Ferguson